Current Exhibitions

Museum

Smithsonian American Art Museum

Renwick Gallery

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• We Are Made of Stories: Self-Taught Artists in the Robson Family Collection

  

  July 1, 2022 — March 26, 2023

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

  We Are Made of Stories: Self-Taught Artists in the Robson Family Collection traces the rise of self-taught artists in the twentieth century and examines how, despite wide-ranging societal, racial, and gender-based obstacles, their creativity and bold self-definition became major forces in American art. The exhibition features recent gifts to the museum from two generations of collectors, Margaret Z. Robson and Douglas O. Robson.

• 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.

• Janet Echelman’s 1.8 Renwick

  

  Ongoing

  Renwick Gallery (Pennsylvania Avenue at 17th Street NW)

  Janet Echelman's colorful fiber and lighting installation, suspended from the ceiling of the Renwick Gallery's Grand Salon, examines the complex interconnections between human beings and our physical world, and reveals the artist's fascination with the measurement of time. 

• Galleries for Folk and Self-Taught Art

  

  Temporarily Closed

  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

  

  Temporarily Closed

  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)

  The Smithsonian American Art Museum's galleries for modern and contemporary art display selections from the permanent collection from the 1940s to the present.