SAAM Staff

External Affairs Chief Jo Ann Gillula recently chatted with Washington Ballet's Artistic Director Septime Webre about the upcoming premiere of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, opening February 18 at the Kennedy Center. American Art will present the Washington Ballet in excerpts from the new Sleepy Hollow with members of the company, as well as many interactive ballet and art activities on January 31 in the Kogod Courtyard of the American Art Museum.

American Artist, Phil Brown, turns our museum's trees into beautiful art.

On Tuesday, January 20 American Art will screen Aves: Magnificent Frigate Bird, Great Flamingo, a film by Nancy Graves, artist and former member of the museum's Commission. The screening is as part of our exhibition The Singing and the Silence: Birds in Contemporary Art. Former public programs assistant, Laurel Fehrenbach, had a chance to speak with Christina Hunter, director of the Nancy Graves Foundation, who will introduce this experimental film. The screening will be held at the museum's McEvoy Auditorium, starting at 6 p.m. Admission is free.

On Tuesday, January 13 American Art will present a gallery talk about the overlap between art and nature as part of our exhibition The Singing and the Silence: Birds in Contemporary Art. Former public programs assistant, Laurel Fehrenbach, had a chance to speak with participants Joanna Marsh, American Art's James Dicke Curator of Contemporary Art and the curator of our show and Pete Marra, head of the Migratory Bird Center at the National Zoological Park.

San Antonio-based artist Mel Casas died on November 30, 2014 after a two-year battle with cancer. The Smithsonian American Art Museum is proud to own paintings by artist, including Humanscape 62, which was featured in our exhibition Our America: The Latino Presence in American Art. In this blog post, Curator for Latino Art E. Carmen Ramos reflects on the importance of Casas' art.

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. Since the holidays signal the start of winter we thought you'd enjoy Howard's post from 2008 on Harry Cimino's The Marchbanks Calendar—December. We here at the Smithsonian American Art Museum wish all of our readers the best for 2015.

Sara Snyder helped organize the #ArtBirds Social Media Scavenger hunt to encourage awareness of how artists use bird imagery as part of our exhibition "The Singing and the Silence: Birds in Contemporary Art." She fills us in on the bird watching activities, both outdoors and in, as part of our show. "The Singing and the Silence" is on view now through February 22, 2015.

In October, Alexander Calder's sculpture Gwenfritz, part of American Art's collection, was reinstalled outside the National Museum of American History. Karen Lemmey, American Art's sculpture curator speaks about another Calder sculpture, Nenuphar, which he gave to the museum at the same time.

Nora Atkinson, the Lloyd Herman Curator of Craft, joined American Art's Renwick Gallery staff earlier this year. She talked with Eye Level about the museum's recent acquisition The Birth of Eve by Judith Schaechter, which joins her 1990 work A Little Torcher also in the museum's permanent collection.

Kaylin Lapan, public programs coordinator at the Smithsonian American Art Museum and a game enthusiast, asks Chris Totten, Chair of the DC chapter of the Independent Game Developers Association (IGDA) and professor at American University's GameLab, about the changing environment of indie gaming, in anticipation of American Art's Indie Arcade on December 7th at 1-7 p.m.

Handi-hour returns on Wednesday, December 3rd, just in time to craft some goodies for the gift giving season. This time our inspiration comes from our newest exhibition The Singing and the Silence: Birds in Contemporary Art. Program coordinator Katie Crooks has whipped up another Handi-hour how to video for our featured craft; check it out above for a preview of what we'll be making at the event.

The Smithsonian American Art Museum is screening James Castle: Portrait of an Artist in conjunction with our installation of James Castles' work, on view at the museum through February 1, 2015.

The Smithsonian American Art Museum is screening a sneak preview of the film Curious Worlds: The Art and Imagination of David Beck, an artist featured in the exhibition, The Singing and the Silence: Birds in Contemporary Art, now on view.

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. Today, we're focusing on our Luce Foundation Center where we have over 3000 objects from our collection in open storage. But one sculpture stands out and its name is Jack. Howard fills us in about Paul Feeley's sculpture.

Today, we celebrate, along with colleagues at the National Museum of American History, the rededication of Gwenfritz, a 40-foot tall abstract sculpture by the esteemed American artist Alexander Calder. The artwork was recently conserved and relocated to the site originally selected by the artist. American History intern Auni Gelles shares five behind-the-scenes pieces of information about on the sculpture's recent restoration.

American Art's Jo Ann Gillula speaks with Artistic Director Christopher Kendall about the upcoming season of the musical group in residence at the museum, 21st Century Consort, which opens their season with Aviary on October 25 in the museum's McEvoy Auditorium from 5 p.m to 8 p.m.

It's Throwback Thursday and today, we feature a photo I took in September 2007 as the last tree was lowered into our about-to-be opened Kogod Courtyard. The seventh anniversary of our covered courtyard is coming this November 18.

On September 24, the Smithsonian American Art Museum will co-host a national conference that examines the importance of preserving WPA-era murals using the work of celebrated American muralist Tom Lea as a case study.

Fermented Soil by Hans Hofmann contains such fresh joy and vigor it is hard to believe it was painted by a man in his mid-eighties. It swings like a jazz sextet.

Handi-hour is finally back on Thursday, September 4. This time we are partnering with the Fantom Comics in Dupont Circle for a Handi-hour with comic book flare! Program coordinator Katie Crooks demonstrates her super power craft making in this round of Handi-hour how to videos; check them out below for a preview of some of the crafts we'll be making at the event.