SAAM Stories
02/19/2013
Alli Jessing, Joint Programs Coordinator for the Smithsonian American Art Museum and National Portrait Gallery, fills us in on our next cinematic screening, The Artist, Wednesday, February 20, 2013 at 7:00 p.m. in museum's Kogod Courtyard. Admission is free.
SAAM Staff
Blog Editor
Image Not Available
02/14/2013
Jazz musician Mike "Bags" Davis will be performing a tribute to composer Kenny Durham at Take 5! on February 21st from 5-7 p.m. in the Kogod Courtyard. Public Programs Coordinator, Laurel Fehrenbach, interviewed him recently to find out more about Durham's impact on the jazz world.
SAAM Staff
Blog Editor
02/12/2013
Remember PaikBot? He's the robot artwork who tweets from American Art's Nam June Paik: Global Visionary exhibition. He's been enjoying his time in the galleries: seeing visitors experience and enjoy Paik's innovative works. One visitor described the exhibition as "the most amazing atmosphere" they had ever walked through. Another said it was "like walking into Alice's digital, virtual wonderland."
Georgina
02/06/2013
We sat down with Martha Conboy, the writer and producer who spearheaded the documentary 40 Under 40 for the Smithsonian Channel. Martha and her team spent almost 6 weeks filming the installation of the exhibition at the Renwick Gallery this past summer.
SAAM Staff
Blog Editor
Image Not Available
02/04/2013
Eyes: they've been called windows to the soul and are often one of the first things we notice when meeting someone new. They can betray our emotions and give us away when we're not being truthful or when we want to hide the truth.
Bridget Callahan
Luce Program Coordinator
02/01/2013
The E-waste Project was inspired by discarded electronic equipment at an e-waste recycling center. Although this piece was assembled by hand, it was designed in a computer-aided drafting program and all the pieces were laser cut. The concept is to create a link between manufactured products and manufactured art. It poses the question, “Does the art lose value if it is made by a machine?”
Georgina
01/29/2013
This blog post is part of a monthly Eye Level feature on our exhibition The Civil War and American Art. Curator Eleanor Harvey talks about many of the important intersections between American art and the Civil War. The exhibition runs through April 28, 2013.
SAAM Staff
Blog Editor
01/25/2013
This is the tenth in a series of personal observations about how people experience and explore museums. Take a look at Howard's other blog posts on the subject.
Howard Kaplan
Writer
01/22/2013
Now that winter has descended on DC after a two year hiatus, it's time to come inside. Tomorrow evening's Handi-hour at our Renwick Gallery features 40 under 40 artist Stacey Lee Webber who joins our team of "craft-tenders"! We'll be making jewelry and other accessories using one of Webber's preferred mediums: pennies. She has pounded and punched hundreds of pennies for this event, and we can't wait to see what you create with them.
SAAM Staff
Blog Editor
Image Not Available
01/16/2013
Nam June Paik was more than a guy who made sculptural work with televisions. He was a thoughtful, prescient artist who turned ideas about communication on its head in the middle of the twentieth century.
Howard Kaplan
Writer
01/04/2013
This blog post is part of a series of pieces about our film and media arts initiatives here at American Art. Michael Mansfield, associate curator of film and media art, fills us in on our exhibition Nam June Paik: Global Visionary, which runs through August 11, 2013.
SAAM Staff
Blog Editor
Image Not Available
12/26/2012
It was love at first sight when I saw American Art's museum staff erect the quirky mix of armature, doilies, and glitter, which artist Nick Cave calls a soundsuit. I am now a Nick Cave junkie.
Tierney
Image Not Available
12/20/2012
This is the ninth in a series of personal observations about how people experience and explore museums. Take a look at Howard's other blog posts on the subject.
Howard Kaplan
Writer
12/13/2012
Curator E. Carmen Ramos and curatorial assistant Florencia Bazzano-Nelson discuss Sophie Rivera's untitled photographic portraits that will be included in our upcoming exhibition Our America: The Latino Presence in American Art, opening October 25, 2013.
Georgina
E. Carmen Ramos
Former Curator of Latinx Art