Jeff Gates

Lead Producer, New Media Initiatives

Web designer and writer, Jeff Gates retired from the Smithsonian in 2019.

Blog Posts

Black and Latinx Art Activism in Los Angeles, 1968-1984

A closer look at Black and Latinx art spaces and activism in L.A.

Categories

Five Question Interviews
- Read more about Black and Latinx Art Activism in Los Angeles, 1968-1984
Picture This: SAAM Arcade 2017

This past weekend, SAAM celebrated all that is good about video games when it hosted its annual SAAM Arcade. Almost 20,000 attended the two-day event held in the museum's Kogod Courtyard and throughout the museum. This is the third year SAAM has held this event as part of an ongoing initiative to showcase video games as an important part of our visual culture as well as study at the museum.

Categories

SAAM Arcade
- Read more about Picture This: SAAM Arcade 2017
Not in the Fast Lane: Anthony Hernandez's Photographs

SAAM's current photography exhibition Down These Mean Streets: Community and Place in Urban Photography, explores the post-World War II changes taking place in cities across the country through the eyes of ten photographers who documented these transformations.
- Read more about Not in the Fast Lane: Anthony Hernandez's Photographs
Throwback Thursday, Nam June Paik: Because Almost All of the Audience is Uninvited

To celebrate Nam June Paik's birthday today, we're reposting former associate curator of film and media art, Michael Mansfield's post about our 2012 exhibition Nam June Paik: Global Visionary. Tonight, to share in the festivities, Barbara London, Yale University's media arts critic and MoMA's former associate curator in the department of media and performance art, will give a talk, "What's Technology Got to Do With It?" The talk starts at 5:30 p.m. in SAAM's MacMillan Education Center and is free.

Categories

Technology
- Read more about Throwback Thursday, Nam June Paik: Because Almost All of the Audience is Uninvited
Martha Graham and Isamu Noguchi: Cave of the Heart Dance Performance

Over the course of half a century, Noguchi and Graham closely collaborated on numerous set designs for her groundbreaking modern dances. They held each other in the highest regard—Noguchi once said, "I felt that I was an extension of Martha and that she was an extension of me," while Graham described sharing "an unspoken language" with the sculptor.
- Read more about Martha Graham and Isamu Noguchi: Cave of the Heart Dance Performance
Let's Begin Black History Month with Edmonia Lewis' Google Doodle

To celebrate Black History Month, SAAM has just launched an online exhibition of Edmonia Lewis' sculpture on Google Arts & Culture. And to promote the exhibition, Google has made Lewis and her sculpture, The Death of Cleopatra, its Google Doodle for today!
- Read more about Let's Begin Black History Month with Edmonia Lewis' Google Doodle
Stephanie Stebich Appointed New SAAM Director

Stephanie Stebich, executive director of the Tacoma Art Museum in Tacoma, Wash., since 2005, has been named The Margaret and Terry Stent Director of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, effective April 3.
- Read more about Stephanie Stebich Appointed New SAAM Director
Abraham Thomas: New Curator-in-Charge at SAAM's Renwick Gallery

Abraham Thomas recently joined the museum's staff as The Fleur and Charles Bresler Curator-in-Charge at the Renwick Gallery. Thomas writes about the intersection of American craft, the Renwick, and his interests.

Categories

Craft and Decorative Arts
- Read more about Abraham Thomas: New Curator-in-Charge at SAAM's Renwick Gallery
An Appreciation for Artist William Christenberry

SAAM mourns the loss of artist and friend, William Christenberry, who died this past Monday at 80. As a young man, Christenberry often traveled the back roads of the South with his father. He studied painting as a graduate student at the University of Alabama until he discovered James Agee‘s book Let Us Now Praise Famous Men.
- Read more about An Appreciation for Artist William Christenberry
A Thanksgiving Gift from Artist Harry Cimino

Happy Thanksgiving from SAAM! To celebrate this year's holiday we wanted to share a woodcut by Harry Cimino.
- Read more about A Thanksgiving Gift from Artist Harry Cimino
Stepping Up to Gene Davis

To celebrate his philosophy and boldly declare that our new exhibition of his signature stripe paintings is now open, we have striped the museum's entrances.
- Read more about Stepping Up to Gene Davis
Picture This: October Breezes

t's fall in Washington, D.C. The days are cooler, the nights cold, and the wind picks up and deposits leaves to the ground. This painting by Albert P. Lucas reminds me of the weeks that lie ahead for me.

Categories

Picture This
- Read more about Picture This: October Breezes
A Humorous Streak to The Art of Romaine Brooks

Joe Lucchesi, the consulting curator for SAAM's exhibition, The Art of Romaine Brooks, is Associate Professor of Art History and the Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program Coordinator at St. Mary's College of Maryland. Joe gives us a look at the humor and wit of Romaine Brooks. He will be leading a tour of the show on Thursday, September 29 at 6 p.m. The Art of Romaine Brooks is on view until October 2, 2016.

Categories

Talks and Lectures on American Art
- Read more about A Humorous Streak to The Art of Romaine Brooks
Framing The Art of Romaine Brooks

Romaine Brooks was something of an interior decorator as well as an artist. She took a lively interest in the frame designs and finishes for her artworks. Several of the paintings in the exhibition The Art of Romaine Brooks are in frames that she personally designed or that were prepared under her direction.

Categories

Conservation
- Read more about Framing The Art of Romaine Brooks
Throwback Thursday: Wendell Castle's Ghost Clock

It's Throwback Thursday! And we at Eye Level have decided it's a great opportunity to bring back some of our interesting posts from the past. After the incredibly successful run of the Renwick Gallery's WONDER exhibition, we wanted to highlight some of our works from SAAM's permanent collection.
- Read more about Throwback Thursday: Wendell Castle's Ghost Clock
America Now at SAAM

On Saturday, July 9, SAAM presented America Now: America Particpates, an opportunity to incorporate creativity with citizen democracy through art, music, storytelling, and service.
- Read more about America Now at SAAM
SAAM's African American Art on Google

SAAM got the opportunity to showcase some of its best art from African American artists when the Google Art Project asked us to participate in its online project.

Categories

Picture This
- Read more about SAAM's African American Art on Google
On Thornton Dial (1928-2016)

The American artist Thornton Dial died on January 25, 2016, at the age of 87. Leslie Umberger, SAAM's curator of folk and self-taught art writes an appreciation about Mr. Dial and his work.
- Read more about On Thornton Dial (1928-2016)
Throwback Thursday: Our America: The Legacy of a King

It's Throwback Thursday! And we at Eye Level have decided it's a great opportunity to bring back some of our interesting posts from the past. This Monday we will celebrate Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. Curator E. Carmen Ramos discusses the legacy of Martin Luther King on contemporary Latino artists in our traveling exhibition Our America: The Latino Presence in American Art.

Categories

"Our America" Exhibition
- Read more about Throwback Thursday: Our America: The Legacy of a King
Picture This: A 360 Degree Wonder

After a two year renovation, the opening of the Renwick Gallery and its inaugural exhibition, WONDER, have been a major success. The building has been updated to a 21st century elegance allowing the art within to shine.

Categories

Picture This

Craft and Decorative Arts

Technology
- Read more about Picture This: A 360 Degree Wonder