Past Exhibitions | Smithsonian Institution

Chinese Ceramics: 10th-13th Century

Chinese ceramics highlight glazes and the skills of Song dynasty artisans.

November 5, 2011 – January 3, 2015

Making a Modern Museum: Celebrating the Fiftieth Anniversary of the National Museum of American History

Retrace the history of the museum from its origins in the 1960s as the Museum of History and Technology to today's National Museum of American History.

May 16, 2014 – January 4, 2015

American History Museum

Ubuhle Women: Beadwork and the Art of Independence

Learn about a new form of bead art and how Ubuhle women transform the beadwork surface into a contemporary work of art.

December 9, 2013 – January 4, 2015

Anacostia Community Museum

Sylvan Sounds: Freer, Dewing, and Japan

Landscapes by Thomas Dewing are juxtaposed with Japanese works that Freer acquired in the late 1890s to illuminate the connection between Freer's taste for Japanese art and his affection for American tonalist paintings.

May 18, 2013 – January 4, 2015

Asian Art Museum Freer Gallery

Pacific Exchange: China & U.S. Mail

Examine the relationship between China and the United States through stamps and mail.

March 6, 2014 – January 4, 2015

Postal Museum

The Religious Art of Japan

Important works from the Freer's collection of Japanese religious art are exhibited.

December 21, 2002 – January 4, 2015

Asian Art Museum Freer Gallery

1965 Ford Mustang

An silver-blue 1965 Ford Mustang evokes 1964, the year the museum opened to the public.

April 25, 2014 – January 4, 2015

American History Museum

The Journey: A National Juried Exhibition for Emerging Artists with Disabilities, Ages 16-25

Emerging artists showcase work that illuminates innovative viewpoints at the intersection of sustainability, creativity, and disability.

September 17, 2014 – January 5, 2015

Ripley Center

Indelible: The Platinum Photographs of Larry McNeil and Will Wilson

Photographers Larry McNeil (Tlingit/Nisgaá) and Will Wilson (Diné/Bilagaana) challenge the romanticizing softness of 19th-century images of the “Vanishing Race.”

June 7, 2014 – January 5, 2015

American Indian Museum DC

Sculptures by Paul Manship

From the museum's collection of nearly 500 works by Paul Manship (1885-1966) are 25 of his graceful sculptures.

July 15, 2007 – January 7, 2015

American Art Museum

Salvatore Scarpitta: Traveler

Featuring key additions to the Hirshhorn's collection, this is the first solo presentation of Salvatore Scarpitta's work at an American museum in over a decade, and the first ever on the East Coast.

July 17, 2014 – January 11, 2015

Hirshhorn Museum

Face Value: Portraiture in the Age of Abstraction

See how mid-20th century artists reinvented portraiture as a progressive art form for a new generation.

April 18, 2014 – January 11, 2015

Portrait Gallery

Preview Case: American Enterprise

This sneak peek at the museum's renovations features a Google Cork Board server.

September 14, 2013 – January 13, 2015

American History Museum

Souvenir Nation: Relics, Keepsakes, and Curios

What is a souvenir? What becomes a souvenir? Find out in this exhibition!

August 9, 2013 – January 28, 2015

Smithsonian Castle

Untitled: The Art of James Castle

View a sampling of the immense oeuvre of work by artist James Castle (1899-1977).

September 26, 2014 – February 1, 2015

American Art Museum

Home Sewn: Quilts from the Lower Mississippi Valley

Through the lens of four fancy quilts, explore layers of family history, artistic traditions, and entrepreneurship that enrich the fabric of an African American community in rural Mississippi.

December 9, 2013 – February 1, 2015

Anacostia Community Museum

Richard Estes' Realism

Explore the work of Richard Estes, the foremost practitioner of photorealism and premier painter of American cityscapes.

October 10, 2014 – February 8, 2015

American Art Museum

Watch This! New Directions in the Art of the Moving Image

In this permanent rotating gallery dedicated to the media arts, the museum examines the history and the latest developments in the art of the moving image.

May 1, 2013 – February 15, 2015

American Art Museum

For a Love of His People: The Photography of Horace Poolaw

Horace Poolaw's photographs celebrate his subjects’ place in American life and preserve an insider’s perspective on a world few outsiders are familiar with: the Native America of the Southern Plains during the mid-20th century.

September 9, 2014 – February 15, 2015

American Indian Museum New York

Ceramica de los Ancestros: Central America's Past Revealed

Treasures from the museum's collection of Central American ceramics shed new light on the exchange of dynamic ideas about art, culture, politics, and technology within the region’s largely unknown civilizations.

March 29, 2013 – February 15, 2015

American Indian Museum DC

3-D Portrait of President Obama

In 2014, President Barack Obama became the first President to be scanned using 3-D technology. Data from the scan were used to create his portraits, and a 3-D printed bust will be on view for Presidents Day weekend Friday, Feb. 13, through Monday, Feb. 16, 2015.

February 13, 2015 – February 16, 2015

Portrait Gallery

"Cracked Plate" Photograph of Lincoln

For just five days, the museum will display the original print of the “cracked plate” portrait of Abraham Lincoln. This photograph by Alexander Gardner is one of the most haunting portraits of any president.

February 12, 2015 – February 16, 2015

Portrait Gallery

The Singing and the Silence: Birds in Contemporary Art

Explore how contemporary artists employ bird imagery as a conduit for understanding contemporary culture.

October 31, 2014 – February 22, 2015

American Art Museum

A Day in the Life: Artists' Diaries from the Archives of American Art

Direct and private, diaries provide firsthand accounts of appointments made and met, places seen, and work in progress—all laced with personal ruminations, name-dropping, and the occasional sketch or doodle.

September 26, 2014 – February 28, 2015

Archives of American Art

Rising Up: Hale Woodruff's Murals at Talladega College

Six murals by Atlanta-based artist Hale Woodruff for Talladega College, Alabama, trace the rise of African Americans from slavery to freedom.

November 7, 2014 – March 1, 2015

American History Museum