Building Community Through Video Games
Chris Totten reflects on how the gaming community around SAAM Arcade has grown since the first event debuted seven years ago
Eye Level
Eye Level is the blog of the Smithsonian American Art Museum and Renwick Gallery. Publishing behind-the-scenes museum stories since 2005.
Chicanx Graphic Arts in Focus: RIFA, from Méchicano 1977 Calendario
Go in-depth with ¡Printing the Revolution's! iconic image
Podcast Release: Music and Conversation with Bartees Strange
Bartees Strange warns us against creating musical silos and describes how DC’s rich legacy of Black musicianship shaped his goals and his worldview.
Exhibition Showcases How Artists Challenge Mythic Conceptions of the American West
Now on tour! Many Wests: Artists Shape an American Idea, a collaboration among SAAM and four partner museums, offers counterviews of “the West” and showcases modern and contemporary artists who are who are reclaiming the narratives of their region.
SAAM Arcade 2021: What Is a Game Jam?
SAAM Arcade is back with a new virtual program format, the museum’s first-ever Game Jam. Learn more about what a game jam is in this blog post!
Chicanx Graphic Arts in Focus: Between the Leopard and the Jaguar
Artist Melanie Cervantes explores indigeneity, identity, and activism in her printmaking practice
A Brush with History: Good Hair Advice Is Never Out of Style
Three years ago we imagined the letters of nineteenth-century portrait sitters to Jonathan Van Ness, star of the Netflix’s series Queer Eye. With so many of us looking for advice about how to tame our unmanageable pandemic hair, we thought we’d take another look.
Into the Community: A New Exhibition Explores a Changing American Neighborhood
A close exploration of a resilient community through the lens of three women photographers
Raising a Glass to Change
SAAM’s third floor galleries for modern and contemporary art are closed to the public temporarily beginning Monday, July 12 to make way for new artworks and new stories.
Using Science to Uncover Secrets of Alma Thomas
Conservators at SAAM uncover new aspects of the influential artist’s work
Lessons Learned from Alexander von Humboldt
Senior Curator Eleanor Jones Harvey takes readers behind the scenes of an exhibition’s 17-month run
Making the Most: In the Studio with Carolyn Crump
The artist focused on health and happiness, for herself and others, during the pandemic.
Laura Aguilar Photographs in Focus: Latina Lesbians
Claudia Zapata, curatorial assistant for Latinx art, shares their insights on a series of photographs by Laura Aguilar recently acquired by SAAM
Romaine Brooks: Clothes Make the Wo(man)
Romaine Brooks declaring who she is in her 1923 work, Self-Portrait, is ultimately a transgressive act for a LGBTQ+ person.
Chicanx Graphic Arts in Focus: La Curandera
Artist Carmen Lomas Garza’s scenes from everyday life honor borderland culture and create community
Podcast Release: Music and Conversation with Singer, Actor, Painter, and Emcee Wes Felton
Wes Felton reminisces about his father, jazz legend Hilton Felton, and lets us in on how to freestyle like a pro.
Nancy Grossman and the Art of Unlearning
Twisting Column Figure represents the freedom that comes once we commit to unlearning and undoing restrictions, from society and from ourselves.
Father's Day Flashbacks: Creating a Connection through Sports
Take the father figure in your life on an online tour of sports in SAAM’s collection