The final nail art from the three artists—Ameya Okamoto, Santana Walker, and Celeste Hampton—part of the Smithsonian's Nail Art Project. Photos courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution
When Indigenous entrepreneur and aesthetic innovator Santana Walker (Squamish Nation) walked up the red-carpeted stairs in the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s Renwick Gallery, she knew she would find inspiration for her own work, but she was not prepared for how powerful her experience would be. She was struck by artworks that spoke to her, from Janet Echelman’s netted installation 1.8 Renwick to Preston Singletary’s Safe Journey, an illuminated glass sculpture whose formline design spoke to traditional and contemporary Indigenous art. But what had brought her to the museum in the first place?
A few months earlier, three social media experts at the Smithsonian—Erin Blasco, in the Smithsonian’s office of communications and external affairs; Amy Fox at the Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM); and Sai Muddasani at the National Museum of the American Indian—had noticed the recent increase in nail art videos appearing in people’s feeds. While attending a virtual museum conference, they were reflecting on shifts in how people are consuming and creating video content. They were all excited to hear about a museum that collaborated with a makeup artist to connect with new audiences. Muddasani mentioned that she was considering ways to shine a light on the creativity of the nail art community. It turns out Blasco and Fox had similar ideas.
“Smithsonian social media strategy as a whole is really collaborative, and we are always looking for new ways to engage people from around the world with Smithsonian content—and that includes looking to other museums for inspiration,” said Muddasani.
Filming Ameya Okamoto contemplating Firelei Báez's Untitled (Premiere Carte Pour L'Introduction A L'Histoire De Monde).
And so, a shared interest and goal led the Smithsonian to invite three nail art creators—Celeste Hampton, Ameya Okamoto, and Santana Walker—to seek inspiration in its collection objects, artworks, and stories in a collaborative nail art project to draw new audiences, welcoming those who may have never visited before, either in person or online, or those who never had Smithsonian objects or stories appear in their social media feeds. The project was designed to bridge different Smithsonian collections and offer new ways to understand the art, objects, and histories that make the Smithsonian such a special place. While the many organizations within the Smithsonian often work together, this was an opportunity to pilot a multi-museum project centered around the voices of creators from outside the institution in the hopes of making interesting and unexpected connections.
“There’s a gulf between how a lot of museums use social media to connect with people and how creative people use social media to connect with their communities,” said Amy Fox, social media and digital content manager at SAAM. “While museums often aim to inspire audiences on social media to spark their creativity, what does that actually look like in real life?”
Nail art became a way to bridge that gap as it celebrates self-expression and self-care while creating imaginative, often striking works of wearable, ephemeral art. Iconic and groundbreaking Black women, including dancer and entertainer Josephine Baker, singer Diahann Carroll, and track and field athlete Florence “Flo-Jo” Griffith Joyner, were instrumental in bringing bold manicures, and later, nail art, to mainstream culture. The National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) details these histories and more, exploring nail art as expressions of African American culture, style, entrepreneurship, and pride.
Celeste Hampton considers Mickalene Thomas's Portrait of Mnonja.
To introduce Hampton, Okamoto, and Walker to the collections and exhibitions at four Smithsonian museums, staff got to work. They considered the artists’ interests and aesthetics and worked with colleagues across collections and curatorial departments. They scoped out places for filming and considered: will this person like to see contemporary art? Will they want to see historic objects? How much can we cram into one day?
The answer: a lot.
Celeste Hampton
Celeste Hampton and her nail art.
Maryland-based Celeste Hampton, celebrity nail artist, interior designer and business owner, gained national attention as a contestant on Oxygen Network‘s first-ever nail competition, Nail’d It! At the National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC), she was drawn to objects that reminded her of her mother and their shared histories throughout the museum, as well as the stories of Black labor, women’s labor, and the beauty industry in the exhibition Reclaiming My Time. As the museum and the larger Smithsonian community recently celebrated Black History Month and the theme of Black labor, it was potent for Hampton to see the objects associated with the Black beauty industry and the important role women played in caring for one another.
Hampton was captivated by old-fashioned hot combs, a skirt, a certain pair of gold bamboo earrings that it seemed every African American woman of a certain age owns or owned or gifted to someone. These pieces are iconic in the history of Black women’s beauty and care. “Wow, this is from my life,” Hampton said during her tour of NMAAHC, “And it's in the Smithsonian. It's from my community and it's in the Smithsonian.”
In addition to the objects at NMAAHC, Hampton also connected with Kitten Meal, a painting in the collection by Rachelle Baker that celebrates the special world that Black women can create together and explores the theme of rest. “It represented Black women as we are together. This is what we do.”
At SAAM, she was instantly drawn to Mickalene Thomas’s Portrait of Mnonja, an artwork that relishes its materiality: it is made of rhinestones, acrylic, and enamel on wood panel. “When I saw the Portrait of Mnonja,” it stopped me in my tracks because it’s so beautiful," said Hampton. “[Mickalene Thomas] took time to think about the depth and the beautiful complexity of a Black woman and she put it in the painting. We need to see us. There is nothing like coming to a place where you see you and you just don’t see you, but you see yourself in the most beautiful form. That wasn’t me in that picture...but it was me in that picture.”
Reflecting on her time at the Smithsonian and finding inspiration in the collections, Hampton adds, “What I’m doing as a nail tech is making history. To know that the Smithsonian is showing me that I am on the right path. This changed me...to know that I can dream big.”
Ameya Okamoto
Ameya Okamoto and her nail art.
New York-based multidisciplinary artist and licensed nail technician Ameya Okamoto refers to herself proudly as a service worker. “I think service work in the beauty industry is care work, and I feel really honored to be somebody who lives and breathes and is a part of Asian American history,” she said. Okamoto was invited to join the project by the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center (APAC). Any discussion of nail art needed a representative from the Asian American community, because, as Rick H. Lee, APAC’s director of external affairs and strategic partnerships said, “there are so many nail salons that are owned by Vietnamese Americans, and there's a particular kind of history to that—which is part of a larger Asian American experience of entrepreneurship and resilience.” Okamoto’s designs often reflect themes of Asian American identity and cultural heritage. She is a noted creator on TikTok and her nail videos have amassed more than 100 million views.
Social media brought Okamoto to the attention of Lee, who advocated for her inclusion in the project, and acted as her guide through the many collections, galleries, and museums of the Smithsonian. They began their journey at the National Museum of American History, where Sam Vong, curator of Asian Pacific American History, Division of Work and Industry, gave them a behind-the-scenes tour. Okamoto really connected with several objects she was shown from the museum’s collections, including kimonos with their wavy patterns and the historic manicure sets that belonged to Catherine Hann, a Vietnamese refugee. “Those are tools that look exactly like the tools I use today. It gave me that sense of belonging that was very unexpected,” she adds. At SAAM she was captivated by modern and contemporary works, especially Nam June Paik’s Electronic Superhighway: Continental U.S., Alaska, Hawaii, with multiple TV screens and videos that reminded her of the frequent moves she made as a child and how she had to piece together her identity.
At Sightlines, APAC’s exhibition that provides glimpses into the complexity and depth of Asian American connections to Washington, DC, she found inspiration in the drawings for the nearby Friendship Archway by architect Alfred H. Liu—one of the three anchor objects in the exhibition—and created her nail set based on those preliminary drawings and illustrations and the actual arch, which is located just a block north of SAAM’s main building. Liu’s vision was not stereotypical, but a kind of representation of a welcoming portal to Chinatown, which Okamoto felt compelled to reinterpret into her art. “I have a very special place in my heart for the history of American Chinatowns...It’s actually an empowering story of Asian American entrepreneurship,” she added.
“One of the wonderful things about working with an artist like Ameya is how she can be inspired by an object at the Smithsonian but still stay true to her own aesthetic as an artist,” said Lee. “Ameya is one of those great influencer ambassadors that can really engage a younger, media savvy audience that might not yet have the chance to visit us in person but can still connect with us through social media.”
Santana Walker
Santana Walker and her nail art.
With assistance from Sai Muddasani and guidance from Anya Montiel, curator at the National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI), Santana Walker spent much of her time exploring works at the museum’s Cultural Resources Center (CRC).
“The CRC is where the museum stewards the thousands of belongings in our care when they're not on view at our museums in Washington, DC and New York City,” said Muddasani. “For many Indigenous communities, those belongings are ancestors, and our staff ensures that we treat them as such. During community visits we learn a great deal about how objects are used, what they mean, and how we can better care for them. Santana was able to have a private moment in our ceremonial space to pray and spiritually cleanse herself with sage, tobacco, and other medicines, before visiting with belongings made by members of her community.”
As a member of the Squamish Nation, Walker was especially moved to see works from her community in North Vancouver, British Columbia. “Seeing artwork by Squamish Nation members was incredible and makes me feel proud,” she added. Those works included Te Qoitcital the Serpent Slayer and Thunderbird, two formline prints by Floyd Joseph (Tyee); as well as some figural sculptures. She pointed out the use of formline, a traditional Pacific Northwest Coast art form, that has been passed down in her family and which she uses in her own artistic practice. Her history as a descendant of traditional woodcarvers led to a powerfully emotional moment. Through tearful eyes, she took in the massive historic and contemporary totem poles in the museum collection. “Oh, I should have known that pole was Haida. Look at the eyebrows,” she remarked with a sense of familiarity and deep connection. Her reaction underlined the impact of being in the presence of traditions that have been passed down through generations.
At the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s Renwick Gallery, she was immediately drawn to Tlingit artist Preston Singletary’s Safe Journey, based on traditional bentwood storage boxes of Northwest Native communities, sometimes used as burial boxes. “I was in awe,” Walker said. “I’ve seen bentwood boxes all over, throughout my life. That glass Spirit Box was incredible. The formline that is on the box, what the box represents, the lighting within the box...that whole piece is brilliant. I didn’t expect to get emotional with a piece that seemed simple but it’s beautiful.”
“I would 100% recommend people to come to the Smithsonian for inspiration. I’ll have to come back,” she added.
Nail Art 2.0
Nail art may be done on some of the smallest canvases possible, but the impact is huge, and the project has garnered support for turning attention to other forms of expression and bringing other types of creators to the Smithsonian to find inspiration in our collections. This pilot project, supported by the Smithsonian’s Office of Digital Transformation, showed how different teams across the Smithsonian can work together, bring in new audiences, and make interesting and unusual connections.
According to Erin Blasco the connections among different parts of the Smithsonian was key. “This was only possible through the combined knowledge of Smithsonian colleagues, from the loading docks to collections storage, all pulling the same direction to keep tightly packed filming plans on schedule. Everyone across all teams generously shared what they knew and what time they had—deep knowledge of copyright, mysterious wisdom of how the freight elevator works, best time of day to find galleries less populated, and where the heck is the light control panel for the gallery.”
“We had the opportunity to try something new and different at the Smithsonian through this pilot project,” said Blasco. “We’ve proven that we can engage new audiences and now look forward to working with more people and making more connections to the Smithsonian. In fact, my boss just sent an email the other day, and asked ‘What's 2.0 of this? What are you doing next?’”
Watch all nine videos featuring Celeste Hampton, Ameya Okamoto, and Santana Walker, and learn more about the Smithsonian objects that inspired them during their visits.
