SAAM Stories

Highlighting the voices of Black people and people of color within our local arts and creative community.

How a recent acquisition addresses themes of race and LGBTQ+ identity

Taking a deeper look at how we talk about gay artists at SAAM

Celebrate Dad with an artful, home-crafted card

On inequality and racial division in the United States

A Conversation about American Art and Anti-Asian Sentiment in the Age of COVID-19

Still looking for the right card? SAAM celebrates all mother figures with artworks from our collection.

Mom always thought you were a little crafty. Surprise her with a hand-made flower...or two.

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

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!

Conservator Ariel O'Connor unearths the mysteries behind Charles Willson Peale’s mastodon.

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.

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.

How a graphic designer at SAAM was inspired to incorporate Humboldt's ideas about nature into the exhibition catalogue

Humboldt’s ideas on art, nature, and philosophy helped to shape American artists, including the influential Hudson River school painters

Looking at climate change and cultural heritage worldwide as we honor the 50th anniversary of Earth Day.

Bring nature indoors in this easy-to-do craft inspired by explorer and naturalist Alexander von Humboldt

Because at SAAM everything eventually comes back to American art, some of us have been inspired to model our sweet, sassy, bored, annoyed, sleepy, amusing pets after favorite artworks in our collection. We offer them as amusement and inspiration, and as evidence of the creativity and sense of humor we appreciate in each other.