SAAM Stories

DC has always been more than just the seat of the United States government. It has produced a long list of artistic genres and movements (Washington Color School, go-go, and post-hardcore, just to name a few). And, of course, Washington is home to a large number of art museums and organizations. It also has a thriving arts community. Here at American Art, we have been fortunate to be able to host some of the amazing artists and musicians in various programs throughout the year.

This summer we are partnering with the National Postal Museum as Handi-hour goes "postal modern!"

July 20 would have been Nam June Paik's 80th birthday. To celebrate last year we enjoyed a cake inspired by Paik's work Electronic Superhighway: Continental U.S., Alaska, Hawaii, and this year I have heard a rumor that there will be cupcakes.

The exhibition Our America: The Latino Presence in American Art will open next fall on October 25, 2013. This may seem like a long time away, but E. Carmen Ramos, the museum's curator for Latino art, is already hard at work preparing for this exhibition, visiting artists and acquiring new artworks for the American Art Museum's collection.

You may remember we interviewed a whole bunch of video game designers, artists, writers, musicians, and producers for The Art of Video Games exhibition. We have hours of footage from these interviews, but only a few minutes made it into the final cuts for the exhibition. Here are some great quotes that ended up on the cutting room floor.

This post is part of an ongoing series on Eye Level: "Q and Art," where American Art's Research department brings you interesting questions and answers about art and artists from our archive.

It’s no secret that we’re excited for 40 under 40: Craft Futures to open at our Renwick Gallery July 20. If you’ve been following along, you know we’ve been featuring videos each of the 40 young artists created to introduce themselves to you. We got so many amazing and creative clips from them, it’s hard to choose favorites. But today we do want to show you the video we received from Gabriel Craig, a metalsmith, writer, and self-proclaimed craft activist.

One of our current exhibitions, African American Art: Harlem Renaissance, Civil Rights Era, and Beyond, will be visiting five other museums across the country once it closes here in September, and our conservation staff have been hard at work ensuring that the pieces on display are "road ready."

If you haven't noticed, we are very excited about the upcoming exhibition 40 under 40: Craft Futures in honor of the Renwick Gallery's 40th anniversary as the museum's branch for craft and decorative arts! In anticipation of the July 20th opening, we at the Luce Foundation Center thought we’d join in on the celebration by highlighting two craft objects on display in the Luce Center by young artists in our permanent collection.

In just over a month, the Smithsonian American Art Museum's Renwick Gallery opens 40 under 40: Craft Futures, an exhibition celebrating the Renwick's fortieth birthday as our branch for contemporary craft and decorative art.

Do you know that some of the materials used in art conservation are similar to those you might find listed on the back of your hair gel or face lotion bottle?

How many of you, as youngsters, wanted to be a superhero when you grew up? I wonder if sculptor Bret Price had any such aspirations.

Conservators must use a variety of techniques when treating mixed media artworks, each suited to a particular material in that piece. Read on to learn about the different treatments that Paintings Conservator Amber Kerr-Allison used to prepare Löis Mailou Jones's mixed media painting Moon Masque for display in our exhibition African American Art: Harlem Renaissance, Civil Rights Era, and Beyond, now on display through September 3.

Meet Martha the Passenger Pigeon and Incas the Carolina Parakeet. These two fine aves were lovingly crocheted by artist Laurel Roth for the exhibition 40 under 40: Craft Futures, opening at the museum's Renwick Gallery July 20.

The Art of Video Games exhibition includes a lot of interactive technology, but one of our favorite components is not hi-tech at all; it's a plain spiral-bound notebook that asks visitors to leave a comment.

In a poem titled, "Mother to Son," Langston Hughes wrote of an African American woman's hardships, as she advises her son to never give up: "Well, son, I'll tell you:/Life for me ain't been no crystal stair..." Far from it. These steps have tacks, splinters and torn up boards. Sometimes the stairs are bare. It is these steps I was reminded of when I visited American Art's new exhibition, African American Art: Harlem Renaissance, Civil Rights, and Beyond, on view through September 3, 2012.

Watch This! New Directions in the Art of the Moving Image, the dynamic exhibition of time-based media has been reinstalled, with new examples of video art that span the last fifty years. It has its own dedicated gallery on the third floor of the museum and is a welcoming space filled with works that fascinate, stimulate, and resonate.

The American Art Museum has been serving its own special pairing since November 2010. Called Luce Unplugged, we pair art with music. Each month the museum asks local musicians to perform on a Sunday afternoon after an art-talk on a piece chosen by the performing group.