Smithsonian American Art Museum and Renwick Gallery

A person stands on a balcony and looks up at an artwork made of golden cast arms.
Welcome to the Smithsonian American Art Museum and its Renwick Gallery

Explore the sweep of the American imagination across four centuries at the nation's flagship museum for American art and craft. Dive into inspiring artworks, the reimagined collection, and an array of special exhibitions including Glenn Kaino: Bridge. Experience our offerings both online and in person at our two locations, including national educational programs, innovative research, video interviews with artists, virtual artist studio tours, lectures, audio guides, and more. Admission is always free.

Featured Exhibitions

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Tuan Andrew Nguyen: The Island
August 16, 2024May 4, 2025
This exhibition of the Tuan Andrew Nguyen's film, The Island, is shown for the first time with Bidong Spirit I, a sculpted headdress that appears in the film.
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Subversive, Skilled, Sublime: Fiber Art by Women
May 31, 2024January 5, 2025
The artists in Subversive, Skilled, Sublime: Fiber Art by Women mastered and subverted the everyday materials of cotton, felt, and wool to create deeply personal artworks.
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Artist to Artist
October 1, 2021May 18, 2025
Artist to Artist features paired artworks, each representing two figures whose trajectories intersected at a creatively crucial moment, whether as student and teacher, professional allies, or friends.

Audio Guides

Experience the Museum Your Way

Smartify's free personalized tours are tailored to your interests and the time you have available. Simply answer a couple of quick questions and we'll hand pick a collection of unmissable objects and captivating stories just for you.

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Upcoming Featured Events

Featured Stories

Embroidered tapestry with the Virgen de Guadalupe in the center, flowers around the frame, and barbed wire slashing through the middle of the work.
How Consuelo Jimenez Underwood weaves lived experiences into her artwork.
Amy Fox
Social Media and Digital Content Specialist
Illustration showing a person with short, brown hair. They are holding a camera up to their face.
Laura Aguilar challenged accepted standards of beauty and represented the LGBTQ+ community, becoming one of the most influential Chicana photographers of her generation.
A detail of a painting outside of a house. Through the window, a woman is putting a blanket on a bed..
Celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month with a look into the diversity and depth of SAAM’s Latinx collection
Headshot of woman with black hair
Rebekah Mejorado
Public Relations Specialist

New Acquisitions

Hank Willis Thomas, Pledge, 2018, screenprint on retroflective vinyl mounted on aluminum composite, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the Elizabeth and James Eisenstein Family, 2023.12
Pledge
Date2018
screenprint on retroflective vinyl mounted on aluminum composite
On view
Carrie Mae Weems, Lincoln, Lonnie, and Me - A Story in 5 Parts, 2012, video installation and mixed media, color, sound; 18:29 minutes, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase through the American Women's History Initiative Acquisitions Pool, administered by the Smithsonian American Women's History Initiative, 2023.9A-G, © Carrie Mae Weems. Courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York.
Lincoln, Lonnie, and Me — A Story in 5 Parts
Date2012
video installation and mixed media, color, sound; 18:29 minutes
Not on view
Firelei Báez, Untitled (Premiere Carte Pour L'Introduction A L'Histoire De Monde), 2022, oil and acrylic on archival printed canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase through the American Women's History Initiative Acquisitions Pool administered by the Smithsonian American Women's History Initiative and the Luisita L. and Franz H. Denghausen Endowment, 2023.32, © 2023, Firelei Báez. Image courtesy of the artist and James Cohan, New York. Photographer: Jackie Furtado
Untitled (Premiere Carte Pour L’Introduction A L’Histoire…
Date2022
oil and acrylic on archival printed canvas
On view
Hisako Hibi, Floating Clouds, 1944, oil on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase through the American Women's History Initiative Acquisitions Pool, administered by the Smithsonian American Women's History Initiative, 2023.6.1, © 2024, Ibuki Hibi Lee
Floating Clouds
Date1944
oil on canvas
Not on view