SAAM Stories

Growing up in New York when the Twin Towers were being built makes me think we were raised at about the same time. They became a part of the landscape and my friends and I marveled at their growth, their prominence in the city, and how they helped to make history, especially the following year, when Philippe Petit decided to walk an aerial between the two buildings.

The history of American Art's Renwick Gallery is a rich one. Recently, The Bigger Picture, the blog of the Smithsonian Institution Archives posted a story about the Renwick during the Civil War written by Intern Aly DesRochers. We thought it would be interesting to our readers as well.

Now that the exhibition, To Make a World: George Ault and 1940s America is closing on September 5, we thought we'd share some visitor comments.

I first experienced Albert Pinkham Ryder's work through slides projected onto a dingy classroom wall and tiny images reprinted in my college textbook on nineteenth-century American art. Needless to say, neither of these methods of reproduction did his work justice.

The Luce Foundation Center’s Mary Tait who leads the weekly sketching program, Draw & Discover, recently discovered that one of the regular participants, C. Pamela Palco, is a miniature artist.

Last month, we asked people to submit questions for Chris Melissinos, curator of The Art of Video Games exhibition at the Smithsonian American Art Museum. We received more than 85 great and thoughtful questions, so thank you to everyone that participated! While we would love for Chris to answer all of the questions, he is busy working on the exhibition, so here are his answers to five of our favorites.

Luce Unplugged is an acoustic concert series in the museum's Luce Foundation Center for American Art. The series brings in local talent to perform after an accompanying talk on an artwork chosen by the performing group.

Are you a Stave or are you a Knave? Who do you swear allegiance to? American Art's Pheon reveals a hidden world in our museum, full of spies, secrets, and cell phones. It's Capture the Flag, but in a world where art is the holy grail.

US Highway 1 was acquired by American Art earlier this year. This post is part of an ongoing series spotlighting works that have been recently added to the collection.

This post is part of an ongoing series on Eye Level: The Best of Ask Joan of Art. Begun in 1993, Ask Joan of Art is the longest-running arts-based electronic reference service in the country.

"Watch this. You've got to see what I'm doing," an enthusiastic Nam June Paik would say to John Hanhardt, his longtime friend, curator, and currently curator of new media at American Art. Paik, who died in 2006 at the age of 74, is long considered the father of video art.

"In 2006 I built a boat and was attracted to the process as well as to the form. It required a whole new way of thinking for me--a 180 degree turnaround," said artist Matthias Pliessnig, whose sublime, wood-ribbed works are on view in History in the Making: Renwick Craft Invitational 2011 at the Renwick Gallery through July 31.

Emily Moazami, one of American Art's photograph archivists, needs your help identifying an artist.

Artworks within American Art are meticulously attended to. Humidity and lighting are kept at optimum conditions. But how do you take care of an artwork that adorns the outside entrance to the museum and stands tall during the heat and humidity of the summer as well as the cold of the winter? Also very attentively.

Join John Hanhardt, senior curator for media arts, and artist Jim Campbell Wednesday evening at 6pm in American Art's Watch This! gallery for a celebration in honor of video artist Nam June Paik's birthday. Paik (1932-2006), internationally recognized as the father of video art, was also a composer, performer, and multimedia artist.

Exhibition coordinator Georgina Goodlander and curator Chris Melissinos have been conducting interviews with video game designers, developers, writers, and composers for the upcoming exhibition, The Art of Video Games, which opens March 16, 2012 at the Smithsonian American Art Museum. In this series, Georgina reveals some of the things she learned during these interviews and this month, she takes a look at the unique team behind thatgamecompany and the inspiration for their game, Flower.

E. Carmen Ramos became the Smithsonian American Art Museum's curator of Latino art last fall. Now that she's had a chance to get settled, we caught up with her to ask about her interests and the rich holdings of Latino art in the museum's permanent collection.

"Welcome to the disquieting, and I may say, disturbing world of George Ault," independent historian Stephen May told us at the beginning of his lecture on the painter who is the subject of the exhibition To Make a World: George Ault and 1940s America, currently on view at the museum.