SAAM Stories

Media Conservator Dan Finn addresses the challenges of conserving Jenny’s Holzer’s sculpture For SAAM, a 29-foot column that projects animated phrases onto the cylinder using LED lights.

Curator of New Media, Saisha Grayson, introduces artist Saya Woolfalk who will speak at the Nam June Paik birthday event, July 22, 2018.

A closer look at Edward Hopper's iconic painting, Cape Cod morning, in honor of the artist's birthday on July 22.

An interview with ParkSnakes in anticipation of their performance at the Luce Center on July 20, 2018.

SAAM Arcade Content

To celebrate the Fourth of July, here's a parade of artworks.

Congratulations are in order! We’re so excited to announce that we’ve selected fifteen incredible independent games to showcase at this year’s SAAM Arcade!

Installing Trevor Paglen's Prototype for a Nonfunctional Satellite in the exhibition Trevor Paglen: Sites Unseen.

SAAM is honoring the Patent Office's issuing of its 10 millionth patent on June 19, 2018, with a look at patents in our own collection.

"Trevor Paglen: Sites Unseen," is as sanguine as it is surreptitious, inviting viewers to question the very essence of surveillance and to ask themselves whether a surreal sky or landscape can ever be just that.

Summer movies at SAAM include Barry Lyndon; 2001: A Space Odyssey; and Taxi Driver.

“What would the world be like if women were truly safe?” This is the question Marco Cochrane challenges both male and female audiences to consider when viewing his sculpture "Truth is Beauty."

The Smithsonian American Art Museum’s own corps of volunteer docents has an illustrious history of creating eye-opening experiences for visitors, and this year marks their 50th anniversary.

The exterior of the Reynolds Center, home to SAAM and NPG, is being lit red in honor of the Washington Capitals, and the Stanley Cup playoffs.

On the artist Vinnie Ream, one of a handful of successful female sculptors in the 19th century, and her sculpture, Sappho, on view at SAAM.

The Terrence Malick film, Days of Heaven, relies heavily on images inspired by artist Andrew Wyeth.

Do you remember the thrill of putting a quarter in a slot and getting a gumball? Now imagine pulling a lever and getting a piece of art! That’s what you can do in the Luce Foundation Center, at a vending machine called the Art-o-mat.

The other day, my colleague, Libby, and I walked through the museum in search of an artwork we could talk about. And though each artwork has a story to tell, Lava Thomas's "Requiem for Charleston," the artist's response to the church massacre at Mother Emanuel in 2015, spoke the most to us, in a quietly powerful way (if such a thing is possible).