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Picture This: October Breezes

t's fall in Washington, D.C. The days are cooler, the nights cold, and the wind picks up and deposits leaves to the ground. This painting by Albert P. Lucas reminds me of the weeks that lie ahead for me.

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SAAM's African American Art on Google

SAAM got the opportunity to showcase some of its best art from African American artists when the Google Art Project asked us to participate in its online project.

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Picture This: A 360 Degree Wonder

After a two year renovation, the opening of the Renwick Gallery and its inaugural exhibition, WONDER, have been a major success. The building has been updated to a 21st century elegance allowing the art within to shine.

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Craft and Decorative Arts

Technology

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Picture This: Time-lapse of Yuri's Office

As summer approaches, we know you're making plans for your summer getaway. If your destination is DC, we’d like to invite you to the Smithsonian American Art Museum as part of your visit. Our museum, its building, and most importantly, its art conveys the story of our country. But, just in case your children or grandchildren are reading this, it's also a fun place to visit.

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Picture This: Renwick Renovation Update

The Renwick Gallery, built in 1859, has been under renovation for the last two years and will reopen to the public on Friday, November. 13, 2015.

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Picture This: An Iconic Artwork by Alfredo Jaar

A few days ago, The Washington Post published an article about an iconic artwork by Alfredo Jaar: Life Magazine April 19, 1968. Jaar took a photograph of Martin Luther King's funeral from an issue of Life magazine and graphically depicted African Americans walking in the crowd behind King's coffin. You can see Jaar's artwork at the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

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Picture This: Wood Turning a Tree From Our Kogod Courtyard

American Artist, Phil Brown, turns our museum's trees into beautiful art.

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Craft and Decorative Arts

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Picture This: The Installation of James Prosek's Mural

American Art's latest exhibition, The Singing and the Silence: Birds in Contemporary Art, opens this Friday, October 31. Here's a behind-the-scenes time lapse of the installation of James Prosek's mural.

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Throwback Thursday: Picture This: Trees in our Kogod Courtyard

It's Throwback Thursday and today, we feature a photo I took in September 2007 as the last tree was lowered into our about-to-be opened Kogod Courtyard. The seventh anniversary of our covered courtyard is coming this November 18.

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From Public Library to Public Gallery, Marvin Beerbohm's Automotive Industry Mural is Reinstalled

The polished machinery featured in Marvin Beerbohm's "Automotive Industry" mural will be shimmering a little brighter now that the mural has been treated by the American Art Museum's conservation department. The mural, which was previously located in Detroit's Public Library, was recently installed in the museum's first floor.

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Conservation

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Picture This: Dowager in a Wheelchair by Philip Evergood

If you haven't seen American Art's exhibition Modern American Realism: The Sara Roby Collection, it's time do come on down to the museum. The show closes this Sunday, August 17.

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Picture This: Spring, Cherry Blossoms, and Family

Spring has arrived (well, I'm not sure it's made up its mind just yet). But the weather was very spring-like this last Saturday when the American Art celebrated D.C.'s famous trees with a Cherry Blossom Family Celebration.

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Picture This: A Nostalgic Handi-Hour

Katie Crooks coordinates the quarterly craft program Handi-hour at the American Art Museum. Coming up: our next Handi-hour on March 6 will be a nostalgic look back at crafts from our youth. Katie demonstrates what's in store.

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Picture This: A Reason to Draw Cupcakes!

Draw but do not touch.

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Picture This: A Study for the Capitol

You currently can see Constantino Brumidi's Study for the Apotheosis of Washington in the Rotunda of the United States Capitol Building on the second floor of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, near the sculpture of George Washington Resigning his Commission by Ferdinand Pettrich. This was the final study that Brumidi completed before beginning work on the interior of the U.S. Capitol dome, and the painting reveals a great deal about the artist's process.

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Behind-the-Scenes

Conservation