SAAM Staff

The 2012 American Picture series will begin on Saturday, March 24, with Maira Kalman, who will discuss Diane Arbus's photograph Untitled (8) (1970-71). Untitled (8) is a strange and haunting photograph of five adults in Halloween costumes. Kalman is a renowned illustrator and contributor to The New Yorker, and The New York Times.

Victoria Lichtendorf joined American Art in 2009 as the Clarice Smith Education Manager. Working with Clarice Smith Education team member, Adrienne Gayoso, she has the great pleasure of collaborating with an outstanding group of teachers from across the United States during summer institutes and throughout the school year. Victoria tells us about teacher Steve Rayburn who is using American art to teach in his English class.

GameFest continues this evening and all day tomorrow, from 11:30 a.m. to 7 p.m.

The Triforce Quartet plays well-known music from various video games.

While GameFest is taking place in both our Kogod Courtyard and McEvoy Auditorium, people are also taking in The Art of Video Games exhibition.

GameFest attendee dressed as Chun Li from the video game Street Fighter II.

After Hideo Kojima's appearance he posed with fans dressed in Metal Gear Solid costumes.

Video game fans are legendary. The audience shows its excitement at hearing Hideo Kojima speak.

The Art of Video Games opened yesterday and as part of our opening festivities GameFest is well underway this weekend. We will be posting images throughout the day.

We're gearing up for the opening of The Art of Video Games this Friday. I know, I know, it's hard to wait; but while you are take a look at our trailer for the show.

Alli Jessing, Joint Programs Coordinator for the Smithsonian American Art Museum and National Portrait Gallery, gives us a peek at our upcoming screening of Seth Gordon's documentary The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters.

Dance, stamp, roll, press, and print! Join us for a Mardi Gras themed Take 5! jazz concert and printmaking workshop in the Kogod Courtyard, Thursday, February 16th from 5-7 p.m.

Washington National Opera Principal Coach for the Domingo-Cafritz Young Artists Ken Weiss provides some insider information on how he selected the artists and repertoire for the upcoming January 22 performance in the Renwick Gallery's Grand Salon, in a discussion with Jo Ann Gillula, Chief of External Affairs at the museum.

Sarah Gowen, American Art's Paintings Conservation Intern, gives us a behind the scenes look at how we solved a painting mystery.

Sandra Y. Johnson and her jazz group will be performing at Take 5! on Thursday, November 17th from 5–7 p.m. in the Kogod Courtyard. Laurel Fehrenbach, Public Programs Coordinator for the museum, asked Sandra a few questions about her music and what to expect for her concert.

October is National Archives Month and as such it gives us a chance to celebrate some of the unique archival holdings that the Smithsonian owns. Blogs across the Smithsonian are giving an inside look at the Institution's archival collections. Kathleen A. Brown, an archivist tasked with sorting through and organizing 40 plus boxes of papers and ephemera from American Art's recently acquired archive of Nam June Paik fills us in on her process.

Beginning tomorrow, October 5, the American Art Museum will be hosting a two-day symposium called Encuentros: Artistic Exchange between the U.S. and Latin America.

American Art's lighting designer, Scott Rosenfeld updates us on new developments in museum lighting.

The history of American Art's Renwick Gallery is a rich one. Recently, The Bigger Picture, the blog of the Smithsonian Institution Archives posted a story about the Renwick during the Civil War written by Intern Aly DesRochers. We thought it would be interesting to our readers as well.

This post is part of an ongoing series on Eye Level: The Best of Ask Joan of Art. Begun in 1993, Ask Joan of Art is the longest-running arts-based electronic reference service in the country.