SAAM Stories

The Civil War was anything but civil, as Harvard president and noted historian Drew Gilpin Faust reminded us the other evening when she spoke at American Art in conjunction with the current exhibition, The Civil War and American Art.

Eye Level had a chance to speak with Leslie Umberger, curator of folk and self-taught art, about the museum's recent acquisition of the Mingering Mike collection, comprised of well over one hundred pieces of musical ephemera made between 1965 and 1979 by a self-taught Washington, D.C. artist who has consistently chosen to conceal his true identity.

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.

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.

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.

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."

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.

This one does because it's going outside!

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.

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?”

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.

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.

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.

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.

This Sunday, local actor Wyckham Avery will share excerpts from her latest solo project, Just Sing Me a Song, as part of the museum's ongoing series presented with CulturalDC. We recently asked Avery a few questions about the play, its inspiration, and the theater scene in D.C.

Debrah Dunner, curatorial assistant at our Renwick Gallery, interviewed Laurel Roth, a featured artist in the 40 Under 40: Craft Futures exhibition, now on view at the Renwick Gallery through February 3, 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.

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.