SAAM Stories

This Saturday, August 23rd, from 1:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m., the Luce Foundation Center's Design Series will host a talk by Tanis Gray, local knitwear designer and publisher of numerous knitting books. Public programs coordinator, Katie Crooks, had a chance to talk with Tanis about her work.

American Art curatorial assistant, Nina Williams writes about the use of plastics in Pop Art printmaking. Our exhibition Pop Art Prints is on display until August 31, 2014.

On August 16th at 2 p.m., the Smithsonian American Art Museum's and National Portrait Gallery's next Cine-Concert series features Andrew Greene, Director of the Peacherine Ragtime Society Orchestra, performing his original score for the Buster Keaton classic College (1927, 66 minutes).

Meg Saligman is an award winning artist at the forefront of the contemporary mural movement in Philadelphia. She is recognized worldwide for her work with light, paint, glass, buildings, and people.

The dog days of summer and the beach beckons but can't get out of town? Well, American Art can help with that.

On the occasion of the exhibition, Ralph Fasanella: Lest We Forget, marking the artist's one-hundredth birth anniversary, Ralph's son Marc shares his thoughts on his father's iconic painting, Family Supper. Ralph Fasanella: Lest We Forget closes this Sunday, August 3, at American Art.

In honor of the Nam June Paik birthday celebration, electronic musician and sound artist Stephen Vitiello will speak in American Art's Lincoln Gallery (3rd floor, East Wing) on August 1 at 5:30 p.m. Eye Level had a chance to check in with him and ask him about art, sound, and his interactions with Nam June Paik.

This July, American Art held its first Instagram Challenge through a partnership with Restless Collective (RC), a New York-based multimedia collective specializing in travel and adventure storytelling. For 30 days in July, we invited everyone to explore and interact with alfresco art anywhere: discovering it locally or traveling on summer vacation.

Getting to know some of our visitors was the inspiration for a new blog series, Visitor's Choice. In this series, we ask our regulars about their favorite artworks and why they like them. Since everyone has a unique relationship with art, some of the posts will be more in-depth than others, some might reflect the artist's intent, and some might have more of a personal meaning.

The American Art Museum will host its second Art-o-mat® swap meet on Saturday, July 26 in collaboration with Artists in Cellophane. Artists will gather in our Luce Foundation Center from all over the country for an afternoon of meet and greets, artist demoes, and artpak making. To appreciate an Art-o-mat®, read Eye Level's blog post from 2011, when the Luce Center received its own Art-o-mat®.

This post is part of an ongoing series on Eye Level: Q and Art, where American Art's Research department brings you interesting questions and answers about art and artists from our archive.

Just in time for the arrival of D.C. heat and humidity, we're bringing you our special Luce Unplugged Community Showcase, live from American Art's Luce Foundation Center this Friday, July 18th.

On July 16th, the American Art Museum welcomes writer and director Michael Maglaras, who will introduce his documentary, The Great Confusion: The 1913 Armory Show.

American Art's curator of folk and self-taught art, Leslie Umberger, talks about the museum's recent acquisition of a major painting by Purvis Young, The Struggle. The artwork can be seen in the museum's east wing gallery on the third floor.

Tomorrow is the 4th of July! And in today’s technological age it has become almost traditional on social media to post holiday specific imagery in celebration of special days. Here at American Art we definitely have no shortage of American imagery that reflects our experiences as a people. Many of the incredible works in the collection are imbued with a sense of American pride and celebrate the American spirit. How can we possibly pick just one to share?

During the month of July 2014, join fellow photographers and the American Art Museum on a quest to find outdoor sculpture. We are partnering with Restless Collective, a multimedia group specializing in travel and adventure storytelling, to raise awareness and appreciation for outdoor sculpture across the nation.

This weekend the Smithsonian American Art Museum will screen two documentary films that focus on artists whose work is featured in the exhibit Modern American Realism: The Sarah Roby Foundation Collection: Jack Levine: Feast of Pure Reason, and Paul Cadmus: Enfant Terrible at 80. The director of these films, David Sutherland, will be in attendance at the screening to introduce both films and lead a Q & A with the audience. These screenings will be on Saturday, June 28th. Jack Levine starts at 2 p.m. followed by a 30-minute intermission; Paul Cadmus begins at 4 p.m. Check out museum’s calendar for more information. Programs Coordinator Alli Jessing had a few advance questions for the filmmaker.

It’s officially summer! And that means the return of Luce Design, a series of talks in the Luce Foundation Center hosting various types of designers and keen eyes throughout the city. We’ve featured local experts in the areas of fashion, jewelry, interior design, landscape architecture, and even letterpress. This year, we continue to mix things up with street artist Alicia DECOY Cosnahan, confectioner Meg Murray, and knitwear designer Tanis Gray.