Current Exhibitions

This Present Moment: Crafting a Better World

May 13, 2022 — April 2, 2023

Renwick Gallery (Pennsylvania Avenue at 17th Street NW)

This Present Moment: Crafting a Better World showcases the dynamic landscape of American craft today. The exhibition highlights the role that artists play in our world to spark essential conversations, stories of resilience, and methods of activism—showing us a more relational and empathetic world. It centers more expansive definitions and acknowledgments of often-overlooked histories and contributions of women, people of color, and other marginalized communities.
Artist to Artist

October 1, 2021 — September 3, 2023

Smithsonian American Art Museum (8th and G Streets, NW)

Artist to Artist features paired artworks, each representing two figures whose trajectories intersected at a creatively crucial moment, whether as student and teacher, professional allies, or friends.
The Automobile and American Art

Ongoing

Smithsonian American Art Museum (8th and G Streets, NW)

Take a road trip through SAAM’s collection to find links between automobiles and American art, inspired by Albert H. Small’s gift of model cars.
Galleries for Folk and Self-Taught Art

Ongoing

Smithsonian American Art Museum (8th and G Streets, NW)

SAAM’s collection of folk and self-taught art represents the powerful vision of America’s untrained and vernacular artists. Represented in the museum’s collection are pieces that draw on tradition—such as quilts—as well as artworks that reveal a more personal vision.
Experience America

Ongoing

Smithsonian American Art Museum (8th and G Streets, NW)

Look into America in the 1930s, a heady time when the country’s artists captured the beauty of the landscape, the industry of America’s working people, and a sense of community shared in towns large and small despite the Great Depression.
Galleries for Modern and Contemporary Art

Temporarily Closed

Smithsonian American Art Museum (8th and G Streets, NW)

Note: Galleries on the museum’s third floor where modern and contemporary artworks are displayed, including the Lincoln Gallery, temporarily closed to the public on July 12, 2021 to make way for new artworks and new stories.