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  7. Smithsonian American Art Museum
American Art Museum

Smithsonian American Art Museum

Hours

clock

11:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily
Closed Dec. 25

Location

location

8th and G Streets, NW
Washington, DC

map View Floor Plan

ticket Free, no passes needed

Visit Website external

My Visit

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Smithsonian American Art Museum Added

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About

The nation’s first collection of American art offers an unparalleled record of the American experience, capturing the aspirations, character and imagination of the American people throughout three centuries. The museum is home to one of the largest and most inclusive collections of American art in the world, including works by such stylistically diverse luminaries as John Singleton Copley, Winslow Homer, and Georgia O’Keeffe. The museum shares its magnificent National Historic Landmark building with the National Portrait Gallery. 

Highlights

Early American Art, 19th and 20th–Century Art; Contemporary Art; Photography; Modern Folk and Self-Taught Art; African American Art; Latino Art; New Deal Art; and the Luce Foundation Center for American Art, an interactive public study center.

MetroAccess

To provide an address for MetroAccess Paratransit, please use 800 G St, NW. Please note this address is located directly across the street from the museum’s entrance.

Metrorail

Metro station: Gallery Place/Chinatown (9th Street exit); Red, Green, or Yellow line

Nearest Accessible Metro Entrance:
Gallery Place/Chinatown
NE side of 7th St., NW, between F and G St.

Check MetroRail's Elevator and Escalator Service Status page for service disruptions.

Parking

There is no public parking facility for the museum. City-operated metered parking and commercial lots are available.

View a map of accessible parking spaces.

Reserved parking near the museums can be purchased in advance through ParkWhiz.
Note: ParkWhiz is a third-party vendor (ParkWhiz Privacy Policy).

Dining

Courtyard Café
The Café offers a fresh and seasonal menu of American-inspired dishes, as well as coffee drinks, wine, beer, and desserts. Specialty sandwiches, soups, pastries, organic salads, wraps, antipasti, and organic options are all on the menu at this gorgeous, all-seasons location.
11:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.

For assistance with/information on group dining, please visit Group Sales.

Shopping

The SAAM Museum Store features gifts, books, jewelry, and more! The SAAM/NPG Online Museum Store is open anytime.

See Getting Here for information on accessible parking and public transportation.

Accessibility Information and Programs

  • Smithsonian accessibility for visitors
  • Museum accessibility details

Disability access service requests: [email protected]

Displaying 11 of 11 results.

  • My Visit

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    Pictures of Belonging: Miki Hayakawa, Hisako Hibi, and Miné Okubo Added

    Pictures of Belonging: Miki Hayakawa, Hisako Hibi, and Miné Okubo Removed

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    Pictures of Belonging: Miki Hayakawa, Hisako Hibi, and Miné Okubo

    An in-depth look at three trailblazing American artists of Japanese descent in the story of modernism.

    November 15, 2024 – August 17, 2025

    American Art Museum

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    The Shape of Power: Stories of Race and American Sculpture Added

    The Shape of Power: Stories of Race and American Sculpture Removed

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    The Shape of Power: Stories of Race and American Sculpture

    The Shape of Power examines the ways in which sculpture has shaped and reflected attitudes and understandings about race in the U.S.

    November 8, 2024 – September 14, 2025

    American Art Museum

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    Sightlines: Chinatown and Beyond Added

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    Sightlines: Chinatown and Beyond

    Sightlines: Chinatown and Beyond highlights the imprint of Asian Americans on the physical and cultural terrain of Washington, D.C.

    September 7, 2024 – November 30, 2025

    American Art Museum

  • My Visit

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    Glenn Kaino: Bridge Added

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    Glenn Kaino: Bridge

    Glenn Kaino’s powerful aerial sculpture Bridge is comprised of 200 golden arms hanging from the ceiling of SAAM’s Luce Foundation Center. 

    July 26, 2024 – Ongoing

    American Art Museum

  • My Visit

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    Isaac Julien: Lessons of the Hour—Frederick Douglass Added

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    Isaac Julien: Lessons of the Hour—Frederick Douglass

    Sir Isaac Julien’s moving image installation Lessons of the Hour (2019) interweaves period reenactments across five screens to create a vivid picture of nineteenth-century activist, writer, orator, and philosopher Frederick Douglass.

    December 8, 2023 – December 6, 2026

    American Art Museum

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    Galleries for Modern and Contemporary Art Added

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    Galleries for Modern and Contemporary Art

    The museum's permanent collection freshly examines the explosion of possibility in American art between the 1940s and today.

    September 22, 2023 – Ongoing

    American Art Museum

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    Artist to Artist Added

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    Artist to Artist

    Paired artworks, each representing two figures whose trajectories intersected at a creatively crucial moment.

    October 1, 2021 – August 2, 2026

    American Art Museum

  • My Visit

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    Folk and Self-Taught Art Added

    Folk and Self-Taught Art Removed

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    Folk and Self-Taught Art

    These galleries serve as a reminder that not all artists are formally trained and that the making of art is as much an act of passion as of intellect.

    October 21, 2016 – Ongoing

    American Art Museum

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    Experience America Added

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    Experience America

    The 1930s was a heady time for artists in America. Through President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal programs, the federal government paid them to paint and sculpt and urged them to look to the nation’s land and people for subjects.

    August 14, 2014 – Ongoing

    American Art Museum

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    Luce Foundation Center for American Art Added

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    Luce Foundation Center for American Art

    The Luce Foundation Center for American Art is the first visible art storage and study center in Washington that showcases more than 3,300 artworks from the museum's permanent collection.

    July 1, 2006 – Permanent

    American Art Museum

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    American Art through 1940 Added

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    American Art through 1940

    See artworks from the museum’s permanent collection that connect with major moments in America’s past, from early America and the Republic to the settlement of the western frontier, the Civil War, and the Gilded Age.

    July 1, 2006 – Ongoing

    American Art Museum

  • View all exhibitions
  • Mrs. George Watson

    Smithsonian American Art Museum
  • The Magic Room

    Smithsonian American Art Museum
  • Stu-mick-o-súcks, Buffalo Bull's Back Fat, Head Chief, Blood Tribe

    Smithsonian American Art Museum
  • Cape Cod Morning

    Smithsonian American Art Museum
  • The Eclipse

    Smithsonian American Art Museum
  • Maesta

    Smithsonian American Art Museum
  • Manhattan

    Smithsonian American Art Museum
  • Going to Church

    Smithsonian American Art Museum
  • Among the Sierra Nevada, California

    Smithsonian American Art Museum
  • Confrontation

    Smithsonian American Art Museum
  • Untitled, Bronx Storefront, "La Rumba Supermarket"

    Smithsonian American Art Museum
  • Electronic Superhighway: Continental U.S., Alaska, Hawaii

    Smithsonian American Art Museum
  • THE LORD WILL DELIVER HIS PEOPLE ACROSS JORDAN

    Smithsonian American Art Museum
  • State Names

    Smithsonian American Art Museum
  • Modern Head

    Smithsonian American Art Museum
  • Grey Sun

    Smithsonian American Art Museum
  • Neapolitan Meringue

    Smithsonian American Art Museum
  • Radiante

    Smithsonian American Art Museum
  • Triumph of the Egg

    Smithsonian American Art Museum
  • Sin Título, from the series La Tempestad

    Smithsonian American Art Museum
  • Elizabeth Winthrop Chanler (Mrs. John Jay Chapman)

    Smithsonian American Art Museum
  • Wild West

    Smithsonian American Art Museum
  • Nude with Guitar

    Smithsonian American Art Museum
  • 42nd St. Nocturne

    Smithsonian American Art Museum
  • For SAAM

    Smithsonian American Art Museum
  • (Underpass--New York)

    Smithsonian American Art Museum
  • Subway

    Smithsonian American Art Museum
  • View of Artist's Home

    Smithsonian American Art Museum
  • Landscape with Sheep

    Smithsonian American Art Museum
  • The Friction Disappears

    Smithsonian American Art Museum
  • Woman Eating

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  • Reservoir

    Smithsonian American Art Museum
  • Santa Barbara

    Smithsonian American Art Museum
  • Halo 2600

    Smithsonian American Art Museum
  • Preamble

    Smithsonian American Art Museum
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