Past Exhibitions | Smithsonian Institution

Religion in Early America

Through dozens of objects and images, Religion in Early America considers the intersection of religious freedom, religious diversity, and religious growth from the colonial era through the first decades of U.S. history.

June 28, 2017 – June 3, 2018

American History Museum

Off the Beaten Track: A Road Trip through the Archives of American Art

The photographs, sketches, diaries, correspondence, and video recordings on view reveal how artists have shaped and are shaped by their surroundings, from the 1830s to the 2000s.

December 8, 2017 – June 3, 2018

Archives of American Art

2001: A Space Odyssey Immersive Art Exhibit

Immerse yourself in “The Barmecide Feast,” a fully realized, full-scale reflection of the iconic, neo-classical hotel room from the penultimate scene of Stanley Kubrick’s and Arthur C. Clarke’s landmark film.

April 8, 2018 – May 28, 2018

Air and Space Museum

Jewelry of Ideas: Gifts from the Susan Grant Lewin Collection

The exhibition, co-curated by Ursula Ilse-Neuman and Cooper Hewitt, features 150 brooches, necklaces, bracelets and rings, and traces radical developments in jewelry from the mid-20th century to the present.

November 17, 2017 – May 28, 2018

Cooper Hewitt Design Museum

Cerámica de los Ancestros: Central America's Past Revealed

This bilingual (English/Spanish) exhibition illuminates Central America’s diverse and dynamic ancestral heritage with a selection of more than 150 objects. For thousands of years, Central America has been home to vibrant civilizations, each with unique, sophisticated ways of life, value systems, and arts.

April 18, 2015 – May 20, 2018

American Indian Museum New York

One Life: Sylvia Plath

The exhibition reveals how Plath shaped her identity visually as she came of age as a writer in the 1950s. Visitors will get a look into Plath’s personal life and her dualistic nature.

June 30, 2017 – May 20, 2018

Portrait Gallery

Brand New: Art and Commodity in the 1980s

Brand New is the first museum exhibition to examine the artistic appropriation of commercial products in the late 20th century, a pivotal moment when artwork became a commodity and the artist became a brand.

February 14, 2018 – May 13, 2018

Hirshhorn Museum

The Power of Words in an Age of Crisis: Buddhist Art in Japan

In Buddhism, the most powerful of all texts were the canonical scriptures known as sutras.

October 14, 2017 – May 6, 2018

Asian Art Museum Freer Gallery

In Memoriam: Barbara Bush

The Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery recognizes the life of Barbara Bush with a photograph by Diana Walker taken in 1989.

April 18, 2018 – April 29, 2018

Portrait Gallery

Ancient and Alive: Japan's Native Gods: Japanese Screens

The screens in this gallery depict celebrations during the Edo period (1615–1868), when their festivals were enjoyed by a broad sector of Japanese society.

October 14, 2017 – April 29, 2018

Asian Art Museum Freer Gallery

Ilya and Emilia Kabakov: Utopian Projects

The exhibition, spanning 1985 through present day, features more than 20 of the Kabakovs’ maquettes, whimsical models, for projects realized and unrealized.

September 7, 2017 – April 29, 2018

Hirshhorn Museum

Ilonka Karasz

One of the most successful American women designers of the early 20th century, Karasz deployed her modern aesthetic to design everything from ceramics and toys to rugs, silver, furniture, and more as seen in her works from the permanent collection.

October 12, 2017 – April 22, 2018

Cooper Hewitt Design Museum

Remembering Martin Luther King Jr.

The Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery celebrates the life and legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. by displaying his likeness by Jack Lewis Hiller.

April 4, 2018 – April 17, 2018

Portrait Gallery

The Virtue in Vice

A selection of over 100 objects from Cooper Hewitt’s collection showcases the virtuosity of objects designed to make our indulgences more scintillating.

September 6, 2017 – April 15, 2018

Cooper Hewitt Design Museum

Marlene Dietrich: Dressed for the Image

The biggest Hollywood star at a time when “talkies” were still new, Dietrich captured men’s hearts and women’s admiration on screen and off.

June 16, 2017 – April 15, 2018

Portrait Gallery

Manifestipi

The tipi, an iconic symbol and perhaps one of the most widely recognized structures of early life for Plains Indians, gets a space-age makeover.

February 3, 2018 – March 25, 2018

American Indian Museum New York

In Memoriam: Reverend Billy Graham

The National Portrait Gallery recognizes the life and accomplishments of Rev. Billy Graham with a photograph by Yousuf Karsh taken in 1972.

February 22, 2018 – March 25, 2018

Portrait Gallery

Tamayo: The New York Years

Tamayo: The New York Years is the first exhibition to explore the influences between this major Mexican modernist and the American art world.

November 3, 2017 – March 18, 2018

American Art Museum

Kara Walker: Harper's Pictorial History of the Civil War (Annotated)

The Smithsonian American Art Museum presents the complete set of Kara Walker's print series, Harper’s Pictorial History of the Civil War (Annotated) for the first time since it was acquired in 2008.

October 13, 2017 – March 11, 2018

American Art Museum

More Than a Picture: Selections from the Photography Collection

More than 150 photographs and related objects The photography showcases a striking visual account of key historical events, cultural touchstones and private and communal moments to illuminate African American life.

May 5, 2017 – March 8, 2018

African American History and Culture Museum

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

Watch This! New Directions in the Art of the Moving Image is a series of rotating exhibitions drawn from SAAM’s media arts collection.

March 11, 2017 – March 6, 2018

American Art Museum

Solar on the Line

Solar on the Line explores the innovation and technology behind solar power as a renewable energy resource.

November 29, 2016 – March 4, 2018

American History Museum

Tucker automobile #39, 1948

One of the fifty-one nearly identical Tucker automobiles, designed by Preston Tucker, Alex Tremulis, and J. Gordon Lippincott and Company, were built in 1948 before the Tucker Corp. became embroiled in fraud allegations.

December 12, 2015 – February 28, 2018

American History Museum

In Memoriam: Mathilde Krim

The Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery recognizes the life and accomplishments of AIDS research pioneer Dr. Mathilde Krim with a photograph by Annie Leibovitz.

January 22, 2018 – February 22, 2018

Portrait Gallery

Connections: Contemporary Craft at the Renwick Gallery

The permanent collection returns to the Renwick Gallery with a dynamic new presentation of 80+ objects celebrating craft as a discipline and an approach to living differently in the modern world.

July 1, 2016 – February 20, 2018

Renwick Gallery