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
-
Trevor Paglen: Sites Unseen
Trevor Paglen blurs the lines between art, science, and investigative journalism to construct unfamiliar and at times unsettling ways to see and interpret the world around us.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
Offered for Tour
-
Ginny Ruffner: Reforestation of the Imagination
June 28, 2019–January 5, 2020
Renwick Gallery (Pennsylvania Avenue at 17th Street NW)Ginny Ruffner (b. 1952) is a glass artist best known for her elegant sculptures and mastery of glass techniques. Recently, she has created work that combines traditional glass sculpture with Augmented Reality (AR) technology to create an interactive viewer experience. Visitors to the exhibition "Reforestation of the Imagination" will use a downloadable app that superimposes digital information over seemingly barren sculptures, creating two distinct realities to explore. -
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.
-
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.
-
Down These Mean Streets: Community and Place in Urban Photography
May 11, 2017 — August 5, 2017
Smithsonian American Art Museum (8th and F Streets, NW)America’s urban streets have long inspired documentary photographers. After World War II, populations shifted from the city to the suburbs and newly built highways cut through thriving neighborhoods, leaving isolated pockets within major urban centers.
-
The Art of Romaine Brooks
June 16, 2016 — October 1, 2016
Smithsonian American Art Museum (8th and F Streets, NW)Romaine Brooks (1874–1970) lived most of her life in Paris where she was a leading figure of an artistic counterculture of upper-class Europeans and American expatriates, many of whom were creative, bohemian, and homosexual.