Luce Foundation Center

Smithsonian American Art Museum

Open daily, 11:30 a.m.–7 p.m.

The nation’s first collection of American art, an unparalleled record of the American experience.

Plan your visit

Renwick Gallery Stairwwell

Renwick Gallery

Open daily, 10 a.m.–5:30 p.m.

Located just feet from the White House, a branch of the museum that is home the nation's collection of contemporary craft and decorative art.

Plan your visit

How Do I Research My Art?

Want to learn more about the painting you found while clearing out the attic? For answers, be prepared for a little detective work.

How to Care for Your Collections

Regardless of the monetary value of your artwork, if it is personally meaningful, you should consider having the object conserved.

Recording a Changing Nation

This resource uses images from photographic surveys in 55 communities in 30 states across the United States as source documents to spark sustained inquiry.

Critical Thinking in Action

These 60-to-95-minute units pair thinking patterns with works of art to instill a thinking disposition transferable across classroom curriculum and into the wider world.

Event Venues and Space Rental

Museum Store Online

Detail of brown ceramic jar with writing and the signature "Dave" inscribed around the top.

David “Dave” Drake: Potter and Poet

Craftsman David “Dave” Drake, enslaved for most of his life, produced uncommonly large ceramic jars in 19th-century South Carolina adorned by his poetic verses

Artist Tanya Aguiñiga wearing a suit made of glass elements while standing next to the U.S./Mexico border wall

Exploring Border Stories with Artist Tanya Aguiñiga

Curator Mary Savig details an artist’s journey to create the powerful performance work Metabolizing the Border that explores the physical and psychological experiences migrants face while crossing the borderlands.

Director’s Circle

A national membership group of museum friends who share a love of American art and craft and our commitment to celebrating the extraordinary creativity of our nation’s artists.

A membership group for young professionals who are interested in immersing themselves in the American art experience.

A photograph of a woman.

Katie Hondorf

Public Affairs Specialist

Blog Posts

Ringing in the New Year with Venetian Glass Goblets: “Auld Lang Syne” Edition
Take a closer look at four fabulous glasses to inspire a virtual celebratory toast to 2022
Decorative Arts in Focus: Miniature Diorama of John Gellatly Collection
How John Gellatly’s eclectic collection of fine and decorative arts took over his New York home and six rooms in the Heckscher Building
Raising a Glass to Change
SAAM’s third floor galleries for modern and contemporary art are closed to the public temporarily beginning Monday, July 12 to make way for new artworks and new stories.
Jeopardy! Champion Ken Jennings on Lessons Learned from Alexander von Humboldt
“I’ll take Alexander von Humboldt for $500, Alex.”
Take Me to Church: A Road Trip In Honor of Painter Frederic Edwin Church
Looking back at a remembered road trip to Frederic Church's house, Olana, in celebration of the artist's 194th birthday and the exhibition, Alexander von Humboldt and the United States: Art, Nature, and Culture
Chiura Obata: Artist Interrupted
In our time of social distancing, Obata's handwritten notes have us thinking about how we communicate with one another, and how important a simple note can be.
Designing for Humboldt: Five Questions with Karen Siatras
How a graphic designer at SAAM was inspired to incorporate Humboldt's ideas about nature into the exhibition catalogue
A Brush with Nature: Alexander von Humboldt and Frederic Church
Humboldt’s ideas on art, nature, and philosophy helped to shape American artists, including the influential Hudson River school painters
Before There Was Beyoncé, There Was Humboldt
Meet Alexander von Humboldt, the singular superstar of the 1800s