SAAM Stories

In 1952 Sara Roby established a foundation to encourage artists creating figurative works, at a time when Abstract Expressionism was the dominant force in the art world in the years following World War II.

This is the thirteenth in a series of personal observations about how people experience and explore museums. Take a look at Howard's other blog posts about seeing things.

Katie Crooks coordinates the quarterly craft program Handi-hour at the American Art Museum. Coming up: our next Handi-hour on March 6 will be a nostalgic look back at crafts from our youth. Katie demonstrates what's in store.

Programs Coordinator Alli Jessing spoke with the filmmakers of the upcoming documentary film Rubén Salazar: Man in the Middle, which tells the story of the life and death of prominent Civil Rights-era journalist Rubén Salazar, who was killed by an L.A. County sheriff's deputy in 1970.

On February 19, American Art will host a special screening of the acclaimed documentary short film Inocente. This program is presented in conjunction with the exhibition Our America: The Latino Presence in American Art, which is on view through March 2, 2014.

Happy Valentine's Day! And to celebrate we've set up a special photobooth in our Kogod Courtyard for that perfect Valentine's Day selfie. Get out of the cold and come on down.

Christopher Kendall, artistic director of the contemporary music ensemble in residence at American Art, the 21st Century Consort, talked with Jo Ann Gillula about the upcoming concert, Tango Amor, Saturday February 15, 2014 at 5 p.m. in American Art's McEvoy Auditorium.

The snow was coming and I was racing around town before my weather sequester began. When I got to the store the parking lot was filled, and cars were backed out onto the street (obviously, everyone's storm timing was in sync).

We are hosting another Luce Unplugged Community Showcase with the Washington City Paper this Friday from 6 to 8 p.m. Local bands The Walking Sticks and Paint Branch will perform and local distillery Bloomery Plantation Distillery will offer free tastings to visitors twenty-one and older.

Here, in the Luce Foundation Center, we are lucky enough to get to know some of our "regulars." We have many kinds: people who sit and do work at our tables, families who regularly do our scavenger hunt, and art enthusiasts who browse the cases, just to name a few.

The civil rights era is resonant in many works featured in Our America: The Latino Presence in American Art, which remains on view until March 2, 2014. Several artists in the exhibition came of age during the 1960s and 1970s when the movement thrived and had ripple effects in communities across the United States. Not only did activists and organizers like César Chávez, Dolores Huerta, and Antonia Pantoja build on Dr. King's legacy and demand Latino equal rights in the arenas of labor and education, some Latino artists created works and organizations that challenged traditional racial hierarchies that undergirded American society.

During the past year, regular visitors to the American Art Museum might have noticed certain galleries on our second floor were temporarily closed. The reason? Our curators, exhibition team, and collections managers had undertaken the challenge of reinstalling about half of the galleries on the floor.

There are just a few weeks left to see the exhibition Our America: The Latino Presence in American Art in Washington, D.C. at the Smithsonian American Art Museum. The exhibition features work by 72 leading modern and contemporary artists, several of whom can be heard in our audio podcast series along with scholars from across the Smithsonian.

Can you tell me more about Three-Way Portrait of Thomas Jefferson, James Monroe and Unidentified Native American? What is the history of this type of artwork?

My favorite new story comes from the writings of poet Naomi Shihab Nye and her prose piece, "Museum," from her collection, Honeybee.

Mousetrap, one of the patent models now in American Art's collection.

Curatorial assistant Florencia Bazzano-Nelson recaps Latino Art Now! Nuestra América: Expanding Perspectives in American Art, a conference held on November 7-9, 2013 at the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the National Museum of the American Indian. Presented in conjunction with the exhibition Our America: The Latino Presence in American Art, on view at American Art until March 2, 2014, the program fostered dynamic exchanges along multiple axes of inquiry.

Though relatively new as a medium, the brief history of video games already includes several generations of both games and gamers. The rapid evolution of technology and the enormous cultural reach of video games have set the stage for a new genre in media art.