Past Exhibitions | Smithsonian Institution

How Posters Work

Featuring nearly 125 works from Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum’s permanent collection, the exhibition shows how dozens of different designers—from prominent pioneers like Herbert Matter, Paul Rand, Philippe Apeloig and M/M Paris, to lesser-known makers—have mobilized principles of composition, perception, and storytelling to convey ideas and construct experiences.

May 8, 2015 – November 15, 2015

Cooper Hewitt Design Museum

How the Civil War Changed Washington

This exhibition examines the social and spatial impact of the Civil War on Washington, DC, and the resulting dramatic changes in social mores, and in the size and ethnic composition of the city’s population.

February 2, 2015 – November 15, 2015

Anacostia Community Museum

You Must Remember This

See costumes worn by movie stars and other memorablia from Warner Bros. Studio.

February 1, 2012 – November 16, 2015

American History Museum

Meryl McMaster: Second Self

Meryl McMaster (Cree) is an emerging artist from Ottawa, Ontario, whose work is comprised of visually stunning large-scale photography. This exhibition includes selections from “Second Self,” a playful but compelling series of portraits which engage with self-perception and constructed identity.

June 12, 2015 – December 11, 2015

American Indian Museum New York

Art of the Gift: Recent Acquisitions

Art of the Gift celebrates some of the recent and promised gifts made to the museums and archives. Objects on view range from centuries-old Buddhist sculptures from Japan, Southeast Asia, and Tibet to lacquer ware and contemporary photography from Iran.

July 25, 2015 – December 13, 2015

Asian Art Museum Sackler Gallery

Hand of Freedom: The Life and Legacy of the Plummer Family

This exhibit looks at the life and legacy of the Plummer family in Prince Georges County, Maryland, in the 19th century.

February 23, 2015 – December 27, 2015

Anacostia Community Museum

Commemorating Controversy: The Dakota—U.S. War of 1862

Explore the causes, voices, events, and long-lasting consequences of the conflict between Dakota akicitas (warriors) and the U.S. military and immigrant settlers.

January 14, 2015 – December 29, 2015

American Indian Museum DC

EV1 Electric Car

The EV1 was the first modern electric car designed for a mass market. Beginning in 1996, General Motors built 1,117 of the cars and leased most of them to consumers in California, Arizona, and Georgia. The EV1 became the focal point of a national discussion about innovation and the promise of reducing air pollution and dependence on oil with electric cars.

June 10, 2015 – December 31, 2015

American History Museum

Lego American Flag

As part of our Innovation wing opening day celebration, visitors to the museum (with the help of Lego Master Builders) built an American flag out of Lego. And not just any flag: it's constructed with 156,000 bricks and is the largest Lego American flag ever built!

July 1, 2015 – December 31, 2015

American History Museum

Bold and Beautiful: Rinpa in Japanese Art

This exhibition features works by Korin, his brother Ogata Kenzan (1663-1743), and later artists inspired by the brilliant simplicity of Rinpa design.

June 28, 2015 – January 3, 2016

Asian Art Museum Freer Gallery

The Nile and Ancient Egypt

Exceptional artifacts evoke the power and enduring fascination with the Nile River.

December 7, 2013 – January 3, 2016

Asian Art Museum Freer Gallery

Cranes and Clouds: The Korean Art of Ceramic Inlay

See how the distinctive Korean ceramic decoration technique sanggam evolved—that made stamped or carved motifs appear to float within a limpid green glaze.

November 5, 2011 – January 3, 2016

Asian Art Museum Freer Gallery

Japanese Screens

View a selection of Japanese screens from the nearly 200 screens held by the Freer Gallery.

May 9, 1993 – January 3, 2016

Asian Art Museum Freer Gallery

Above and Beyond

Packed with interactive challenges this exhibition invites you to experience what it takes to make impossible dreams take flight.

August 1, 2015 – January 3, 2016

Air and Space Museum

Chinese Ceramics: 13th-14th Century

A dozen Chinese ceramics from the Freer collection show highlights of Yuan ceramic styles.

December 20, 2014 – January 3, 2016

Asian Art Museum Freer Gallery

Freer & Whistler: Points of Contact

Some 23 oil paintings represent a choice selection of the more than 1,300 paintings, prints, and drawings by Whistler from the gallery's collection.

February 23, 2008 – January 3, 2016

Asian Art Museum Freer Gallery

Promise of Paradise: Early Chinese Buddhist Sculpture

Learn about early Buddhist sculptures in China during the Tang dynasty through 28 objects that are on view.

December 1, 2012 – January 3, 2016

Asian Art Museum Freer Gallery

Arts of the Islamic World

The works on view here represent the three principal media for artistic expression in the Islamic world: architecture, the arts of the book, and the arts of the object.

May 3, 1998 – January 3, 2016

Asian Art Museum Freer Gallery

Ancient Chinese Jades and Bronzes

More than 100 of the Freer's jades and bronzes—among the greatest treasures of Chinese art outside China—are on view.

November 20, 2010 – January 3, 2016

Asian Art Museum Freer Gallery

Once There Were Billions: Vanished Birds of North America

The story of the last passenger pigeon and the disappearance of the great auk, Carolina parakeet, and heath hen and reveal the fragile connections between species and their environment.

June 24, 2014 – January 3, 2016

Natural History Museum

Black Box: Sergio Caballero

The exhibition consists of a single 25-minute film, “Ancha es Castilla” or “N’importe quoi” (2014). These titles loosely translate to “Anything Goes” and “Whatever,” among other renderings, but the artist prefers not to provide translations.

August 24, 2015 – January 3, 2016

Hirshhorn Museum

Enigmas: The Art of Bada Shanren (1626-1705)

Featured in this exhibition are examples of Shanren's most daring and idiosyncratic works, demonstrating his unique visual vocabulary.

June 20, 2015 – January 3, 2016

Asian Art Museum Freer Gallery

The Peacock Room Comes to America

Restored to its appearance in 1908, the Peacock Room's special exhibition highlights "points of contacts" between American and Asian art.

April 9, 2011 – January 3, 2016

Asian Art Museum Freer Gallery

Silk Road Luxuries from China

View exceptional examples of tableware and other functional objects crafted by Chinese artisans, who were influenced by new techniques and materials used in goods traded along the Silk Road.

November 5, 2011 – January 3, 2016

Asian Art Museum Freer Gallery

Le Onde: Waves of Italian Influence (1914-1971)

This exhibition of nearly 20 works from the museum’s collection follows Italian contributions to the transnational evolution of abstraction, through movements and tendencies such as futurism, spatialism, op art, and kinetic art.

August 22, 2015 – January 3, 2016

Hirshhorn Museum