Luce Foundation Center

Smithsonian American Art Museum

Open daily, 11:30 a.m.–7 p.m.

The nation’s first collection of American art, an unparalleled record of the American experience.

Plan your visit

Renwick Gallery Stairwwell

Renwick Gallery

Open daily, 10 a.m.–5:30 p.m.

Located just feet from the White House, a branch of the museum that is home the nation's collection of contemporary craft and decorative art.

Plan your visit

How Do I Research My Art?

Want to learn more about the painting you found while clearing out the attic? For answers, be prepared for a little detective work.

How to Care for Your Collections

Regardless of the monetary value of your artwork, if it is personally meaningful, you should consider having the object conserved.

Recording a Changing Nation

This resource uses images from photographic surveys in 55 communities in 30 states across the United States as source documents to spark sustained inquiry.

Critical Thinking in Action

These 60-to-95-minute units pair thinking patterns with works of art to instill a thinking disposition transferable across classroom curriculum and into the wider world.

Event Venues and Space Rental

Museum Store Online

Detail of brown ceramic jar with writing and the signature "Dave" inscribed around the top.

David “Dave” Drake: Potter and Poet

Craftsman David “Dave” Drake, enslaved for most of his life, produced uncommonly large ceramic jars in 19th-century South Carolina adorned by his poetic verses

Artist Tanya Aguiñiga wearing a suit made of glass elements while standing next to the U.S./Mexico border wall

Exploring Border Stories with Artist Tanya Aguiñiga

Curator Mary Savig details an artist’s journey to create the powerful performance work Metabolizing the Border that explores the physical and psychological experiences migrants face while crossing the borderlands.

Director’s Circle

A national membership group of museum friends who share a love of American art and craft and our commitment to celebrating the extraordinary creativity of our nation’s artists.

A membership group for young professionals who are interested in immersing themselves in the American art experience.

STSS‑1 and Two Unidentified Spacecraft over Carson City (Space Tracking and Surveillance System, USA 205)

Media - 2012.24.1 - SAAM-2012.24.1_1-000001 - 82537

Copied Trevor Paglen, STSS-1 and Two Unidentified Spacecraft over Carson City (Space Tracking and Surveillance System, USA 205), 2010, chromogenic print, 48 x 48 in. (121.9 x 121.9 cm), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Mike Wilkins and Sheila Duignan, 2012.24.1, © 2010, Trevor Paglen

Artwork Details

Title: STSS‑1 and Two Unidentified Spacecraft over Carson City (Space Tracking and Surveillance System, USA 205)
Artist: Trevor Paglen
Date: 2010
Location: Not on view
Dimensions: 48 x 48 in. (121.9 x 121.9 cm)
Copyright: © 2010, Trevor Paglen
Credit Line: Gift of Mike Wilkins and Sheila Duignan
Mediums Description: chromogenic print
Classifications: Photography
Photoprint
Highlights: Photography
Keywords: Landscape — sky
Architecture — vehicle — spacecraft
Object Number: 2012.24.1
Linked Open Data: https://edan.si.edu/saam/id/object/2012.24.1

Exhibitions

Media - 2012.24.1 - SAAM-2012.24.1_1-000001 - 82537

Trevor Paglen: Sites Unseen

June 21, 2018–January 6, 2019

Smithsonian American Art Museum

Trevor Paglen blurs the lines between art, science, and investigative journalism to construct unfamiliar and at times unsettling ways to see and interpret the world around us.