Past Exhibitions | Smithsonian Institution

World Wall: A Vision of the Future Without Fear

A mural-in-progress by Chicana artist Judith Baca, addresses such contemporary global issues as war and conflict, cooperation, interdependence, and spiritual growth.

July 17, 1991 – September 3, 1991

Arts and Industries Building

Crossroads/Footprints/Dreamkeeper

Engage in a video/audio installation to explore African/Diaspora symbolic language, including religious icons, African drumming, and scenes of everyday life.

June 3, 1991 – July 7, 1991

Arts and Industries Building

Brazil Via New York/Oxygen Share

Learn about the depletion of the Brazilian rain forest in an exhibition dedicated to Chico Mendes, recently murdered activist and popular leader.

April 17, 1991 – July 7, 1991

Arts and Industries Building

Casitas: An Urban Cultural Alternative

Learn about the style and use of "casitas," a Caribbean architectural form, and see one built on-site by members of the Puerto Rican community from the Bronx.

February 1, 1991 – June 30, 1991

Arts and Industries Building

Principles of Flight

Visit a hands-on interactive exhibit that helps children understand how planes fly.

January 31, 1991 – March 31, 1991

Arts and Industries Building

Project Face to Face

This exhibition includes life masks of people from all walks of life who have been diagnosed as HIV positive.

January 31, 1991 – March 30, 1991

Arts and Industries Building

RAP 25th Anniversary Exhibition

View photomontages of Discover Graphics and Discovery Theater.

September 18, 1990 – December 31, 1990

Arts and Industries Building

The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen and the French Constitution of 1791

See two 18th-century copies of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen and the French Constitution of 1791 that are on loan from the French National Archives to celebrate the French bicentennial.

May 3, 1989 – October 31, 1989

Arts and Industries Building

Native American Flora

Visit a wildflower collection commemorating the 75th birthday of Lady Bird Johnson, former First Lady.

May 1, 1988 – August 30, 1988

Arts and Industries Building

Christmas Tree Decorated by Associates

See a Christmas tree, decorated by the National Associates Travel Program's Washington Anytime Weekend participants, that features handcrafted ornaments from the U.S. and abroad.

December 6, 1987 – January 8, 1988

Arts and Industries Building

A Victorian Horticultural Extravaganza

Recapture the feeling of "Horticultural Hall" at the Centennial in Philadelphia with this exhibition of plants--live, pressed and dried--as well as ladies' crafts and technology of the floral industry.

July 23, 1980 – June 30, 1987

Arts and Industries Building

Discovery Theater: Past and Future

See some 25 photographs portraying past and future productions featured at the Discovery Theater.

September 20, 1985 – June 30, 1986

Arts and Industries Building

Discovery Theater Art & Writing Contest Winners

View more than 30 paintings, drawings, stories, and poems selected from over 4,500 entries submitted by Washington area students in the Discovery Theater Art and Writing Contests.

April 1, 1985 – September 19, 1985

Arts and Industries Building

Workers at the White House

See 10 photo-and-text panels present workers at the White House.

March 5, 2001 – May 2001

Arts and Industries Building

Collection of Period Costumes

The Collection of Period Costumes exhibition opened in 1914 in the Smithsonian’s Arts and Industries Building.

1914 – Before 1955

Arts and Industries Building