SAAM Arcade: Focus on Women in the Video Games Industry
Five Questions with Renee Bates, visual development artist and professor at Ringling College of Art & Design
Eye Level
Eye Level is the blog of the Smithsonian American Art Museum and Renwick Gallery. Publishing behind-the-scenes museum stories since 2005.
SAAM Arcade: Game Changers
Celebrating the ratification of the 19th Amendment by highlighting women’s narratives and contributions to the video games industry
Getting Crafty: Make an Alexander Calder-inspired Mobile
An Alexander Calder mobile in time for the artist's 122nd birthday.
Additional Reflections on Arthur Jafa’s Love is the Message, The Message is Death
Additional Reflections on Arthur Jafa’s Love is the Message, The Message is Death
Highlighting the voices of Black people and people of color within our local arts and creative community.
Reflections on Arthur Jafa’s Love is the Message, The Message is Death
Reflections on Arthur Jafa’s Love is the Message, The Message is Death
Highlighting the voices of Black people and people of color within our local arts and creative community.
Seeing the Rainbow in SAAM’s Collection
Taking a deeper look at how we talk about gay artists at SAAM
Statement from Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie G. Bunch
On inequality and racial division in the United States
Hey Mom, I Made You This Card
Still looking for the right card? SAAM celebrates all mother figures with artworks from our collection.
Mother's Day Crafting
Mom always thought you were a little crafty. Surprise her with a hand-made flower...or two.
Take Me to Church: A Road Trip In Honor of Painter Frederic Edwin Church
Looking back at a remembered road trip to Frederic Church's house, Olana, in celebration of the artist's 194th birthday and the exhibition, Alexander von Humboldt and the United States: Art, Nature, and Culture
A Sonnet for the Tiger King
Think of this as a mash up between the eloquent Patrick Stewart who is reading Shakespeare sonnet's online and the over-the-top Tiger King, the Netflix documentary that has become the talk of Zoom happy hours everywhere. Cheers!
Mysteries of the First Mastodon
Conservator Ariel O'Connor unearths the mysteries behind Charles Willson Peale’s mastodon.
Chiura Obata: Artist Interrupted
In our time of social distancing, Obata's handwritten notes have us thinking about how we communicate with one another, and how important a simple note can be.
Hips Don't Lie: The American Incognitum
What's a mastodon doing at SAAM? Dr. Advait Mahesh Jukar, a Deep Time Fellow and Paleontologist at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, answers our questions.
Designing for Humboldt: Five Questions with Karen Siatras
How a graphic designer at SAAM was inspired to incorporate Humboldt's ideas about nature into the exhibition catalogue
A Brush with Nature: Alexander von Humboldt and Frederic Church
Humboldt's ideas on art, nature, and philosophy helped to shape American artists, including the influential Hudson River school painters