Traveling Exhibitions

For more than 70 years, SAAM has been dedicated to making its permanent collection and special exhibitions available across the United States through our Traveling Exhibition Program. This program is designed to offer institutions ready access to showcase new scholarship and collaborate with SAAM’s expert team. In turn, these traveling exhibitions allow us to expand our audience and to ensure that more Americans enjoy the most significant and inclusive collection of American art in the world.

Museum professionals are encouraged to sign up for our traveling exhibitions email newsletter. Be the first to know about what exhibitions are available for booking and learn more about ways to bring SAAM artworks to your institution.

On The Road

A vivid illustration of a person with butterfly wings. On the person's body are the words "I exist/yo existo." The wings have messages of love, family, and migration.
Radical Histories: Chicanx Prints from the Smithsonian American Art Museum
Since the 1960s, Chicanx artists have used the graphic medium to disseminate declarations of political advocacy, cross-cultural solidarity, and historical reflections to rethink the past.
Tour Dates
  • 1
    Colby College Museum of Art
    Waterville, ME
    February 6, 2025June 8, 2025
  • 2
    The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens
    San Marino, CA
    November 16, 2025March 2, 2026
Alma Thomas, The Eclipse, 1970, acrylic on canvas
Composing Color: Paintings by Alma Thomas
September 15, 2023August 4, 2024
The exhibition Composing Color: Paintings by Alma Thomas provides an intimate view of Alma Thomas’ evolving artistic practices during her most prolific period from 1959 to her death in 1978.
Tour Dates
  • 1
    Denver Art Museum
    Denver, CO
    September 8, 2024January 12, 2025
  • 2
    Memorial Art Gallery
    Rochester, NY
    February 8, 2025May 25, 2025
Media - 1967.59.1146 - SAAM-1967.59.1146_2 - 141130
Fighters for Freedom: William H. Johnson Picturing Justice
March 8, 2024September 10, 2024
William H. Johnson's Fighters for Freedom series from the mid-1940s is a tribute to African American activists, scientists, teachers, and performers as well as international leaders working to bring peace to the world.
Tour Dates
  • 1
    Florence County Museum
    Florence, SC
    February 4, 2025August 10, 2025
  • 2
    Patricia and Phillip Frost Art Museum
    Miami, FL
    October 12, 2024January 5, 2025
This is an image of a flower coming out of a tree trunk
Ginny Ruffner: Reforestation of the Imagination
June 28, 2019 – January 52020
Ginny Ruffner (b. 1952) is a glass artist best known for her elegant sculptures and mastery of glass techniques.
Tour Dates
  • 1
    Asheville Art Museum
    Asheville, NC
    September 13, 2024January 20, 2025
Media - 2012.53.1 - SAAM-2012.53.1_1 - 82036
¡Printing the Revolution! The Rise and Impact of Chicano Graphics, 1965 to Now
November 20 — November 22, 2020 and May 14, 2021 — August 82021
In the 1960s, activist Chicano artists forged a remarkable history of printmaking that remains vital today.
Tour Dates
  • 1
    Rollins Museum of Art
    Winter Park, FL
    January 18, 2025April 6, 2025