SAAM Stories

Behind every good sunrise lurks an inevitable sunset. This Sunday, May 6, Something of Splendor: Decorative Arts from the White House closes at American Art's Renwick Gallery after a near seven-month run.

Combining "happy hour" and "handmade," our May 10th Handi-hour offers the opportunity to make crafts, taste selected craft beers, and listen to live music in the Grand Salon of our Renwick Gallery of American Craft.

Our latest exhibition, African American Art: Harlem Renaissance, Civil Rights Era, and Beyond, opens today and runs through September 30, 2012. The show features a selection of paintings, sculpture, prints, and photographs by black artists from the museum's collection.

Austin Wintory is the composer behind such video games as Journey and flOw. Wintory will be doing a pre-concert Q&A on April 29th at 2:30 p.m. before the University of Maryland Gamer Symphony Orchestra plays in the museum's Kogod Courtyard. Laurel Fehrenbach, public programs coordinator for the Smithsonian American Art Museum, asks Wintory how music is yet another form of the art of video games.

For the third straight year, the American Art Museum will be celebrating Jazz Appreciation Month with a tribute to the Empress of the Blues, Ella Fitzgerald. The performance will take place April 22 and is generously supported by the Ella Fitzgerald Charitable Foundation.

Sometimes loss is not a bad thing. In the case of art conservation, a tiny paint loss can be used to aid the conservators in their examination process. Here, objects conservator, Hugh Shockey, has the Hirox 3-D digital microscope focused on the edge of a small paint loss of the John Scott sculpture, Thornbush Blues Totem.

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. Today's question: What is Joan of Arc holding in her left hand? It looks like a mop, but I don't think that's the right answer.

Who doesn't like getting a personal letter in the mail? Some people get excited over coupons or magazines, but I enjoy receiving a letter hand addressed to me with a customized stamp. Well, there is now a new Forever® stamp, available from the United States Postal Service, which features a painting from the American Art Museum's collection. The artwork called, Flowers by William H. Johnson is now on view in the museum's 2nd floor galleries.

The American Art Museum mourns the loss of one of our country's most important artists, Elizabeth Catlett. Ms. Catlett, whose career spanned more than seventy years, connected her work to progressive causes, especially those she thought were important to African American women.

Have you ever taken a poster off a wall and found some pieces of foamy tape left behind? That's similar to what is stuck to the base of the John Scott sculpture, Thornbush Blues Totem.

Somewhere between the letters PhD and CSI lives the amazing work of painting conservators. Part researcher and part detective, they study paintings with state-of-the-art tools that help them see through layers of paint and varnish and enable them to conserve works of art whose colors may have gradually shifted over time and whose canvases may show signs of age.

The opening weekend for The Art of Video Games exhibition was, in one word, AWESOME. Were you there? You should have been! Over twenty-two thousand people visited the museum over the three days, enjoying the exhibition as well as the vast array of programs and activities that we offered.

The 2012 American Picture series will begin on Saturday, March 24, with Maira Kalman, who will discuss Diane Arbus's photograph Untitled (8) (1970-71). Untitled (8) is a strange and haunting photograph of five adults in Halloween costumes. Kalman is a renowned illustrator and contributor to The New Yorker, and The New York Times.

Victoria Lichtendorf joined American Art in 2009 as the Clarice Smith Education Manager. Working with Clarice Smith Education team member, Adrienne Gayoso, she has the great pleasure of collaborating with an outstanding group of teachers from across the United States during summer institutes and throughout the school year. Victoria tells us about teacher Steve Rayburn who is using American art to teach in his English class.

GameFest continues this evening and all day tomorrow, from 11:30 a.m. to 7 p.m.

The Triforce Quartet plays well-known music from various video games.

While GameFest is taking place in both our Kogod Courtyard and McEvoy Auditorium, people are also taking in The Art of Video Games exhibition.

GameFest attendee dressed as Chun Li from the video game Street Fighter II.