Traveling Exhibitions

The Smithsonian American Art Museum’s traveling exhibition program has circulated hundreds of exhibitions since it was established in 1951. Below are our more recent offerings.

On The Road

• No Spectators: The Art of Burning Man

  

  No Spectators: The Art of Burning Man brings the large-scale work from this annual desert gathering to the nation’s capital for the first time.

  National Tour

  Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum

  in Washington, DC

  (March 30, 2018 – January 21, 2019)

  Cincinnati Art Museum

  in Cincinnati, Ohio

  (April 26, 2019 – September 2, 2019)

  Oakland Museum of California

  in Oakland, California

  (October 12, 2019 – February 16, 2020)

• African American Art in the 20th Century

  

  The Smithsonian American Art Museum is home to one of the most significant collections of African American art in the world. In 2019, SAAM organized the exhibition African American Art in the 20th Century that is traveling to several cities across the United States.

  National Tour

  Dubuque Museum of Art

  in Dubuque, Iowa

  (January 19, 2019 – April 21, 2019)

  Cornell Fine Arts Museum

  in Winter Park, Florida

  (September 20, 2019 – December 29, 2019)

• Modern American Realism: Highlights from the Sara Roby Foundation Collection

  

  This exhibition presents some of the most treasured paintings and sculpture from SAAM’s permanent collection, including artworks by Will Barnet, Isabel Bishop, Paul Cadmus, Edward Hopper, Yasuo Kuniyoshi, Jacob Lawrence, George Tooker, among others.

  National Tour

  Portland Art Museum

  in Portland, Oregon

  (October 20, 2018 – April 28, 2019)

  Nantucket Historical Association

  in Nantucket, Massachusetts

  (May 23, 2019 – October 14, 2019)

Will be on Tour

• Kara Walker: Harper’s Pictorial History of the Civil War (Annotated)

  

  October 13, 2017 — March 11, 2018

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

  This exhibition of prints from SAAM’s collection features the artist’s provocative take on the Civil War.

  National Tour

  Smithsonian American Art Museum

  in Washington, DC

  (October 13, 2017 – March 11, 2018)

  The Rockwell Museum

  in Corning, New York

  (May 15, 2020 – September 7, 2020)

• Artists Respond: American Art and the Vietnam War, 1965-1975

  

  March 15, 2019 — August 18, 2019

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

  Artists Respond: American Art and the Vietnam War, 1965-1975 makes vivid an era in which artists endeavored to respond to the turbulent times and openly questioned issues central to American civic life.

  National Tour

  Smithsonian American Art Museum

  in Washington, DC

  (March 15, 2019 – August 18, 2019)

  Minneapolis Institute of Art

  in Minneapolis, Minnesota

  (September 28, 2019 – January 5, 2020)

Are you a museum looking for available exhibitions? See what we are offering currently through our traveling exhibition program.