Events and Programs at the Smithsonian American Art Museum

Events and Programs at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington DC

Programs are free and open to the public unless ticket information is noted.

Art Talks and Activities

See Me at SAAM 
Wednesday, June 5, 2 p.m. 
See Me at SAAM is an interactive program designed to improve the well-being of individuals with dementia and their care partners by experiencing and discussing art in a small group.
Location: Smithsonian American Art Museum, meet in the Kogod Courtyard
Tickets: Free; Registration required. Please email access@si.edu or call (202) 633-2921.
Event Link

Yoga in Luce 
Wednesday, June 5, 6 p.m. 
Bring your mat and relax with this Vinyasa yoga and art appreciation series. Participants are invited to reflect on an artwork of their choosing before a credentialed instructor from Flow Yoga Center leads a one-hour, all-levels class surrounded by the beautiful artworks in the Luce Foundation Center.
Location: Smithsonian American Art Museum, Luce Foundation Center (third floor)
Tickets: $10; Participants must register online beforehand, cash is not accepted at the door
Event Link

Conversation with Artist David Levinthal 
Friday, June 7, 6 p.m. 
Be one of the first to see SAAM’s newest exhibition American Myth & Memory: David Levinthal Photographs, then hear from the artist himself as David Levinthal chats with exhibition curator Joanna Marsh about his work. Levinthal discusses his process and the role that photography plays in the construction of the American collective memory.
Location: Smithsonian American Art Museum, McEvoy Auditorium
Tickets: Free; Online registration required
Event Link

Beyond the Studio: Interactive Technology and Dance Workshop
Sunday, June 8, 1 – 3 p.m. 
Hear from professionals that work in the arts, then sharpen your own creative skills with a hands-on activity related to the speaker’s own expertise. In this installment, art meets technology as dancer and choreographer Sarah Ewing instructs a dance workshop inside an installation of her own interactive light projection artwork. This program is presented in collaboration with Cultural DC.
Location: Smithsonian American Art Museum, Luce Foundation Center (third floor)
Tickets: Free; Registration required, tickets available May 25 at noon
Event Link

Pride @ SAAM 
Sunday, June 9, 11:30 a.m. – 7 p.m. 
Celebrate Pride at SAAM’s pop-up exhibition that showcases artists using performance, music, media art, and traditional painting to explore LGBTQ+ histories and futures. Stop by the Feminist Pride Media Art Gallery to see films by women and femme identifying artists from SAAM’s collection and play “zinester” video games that imagine queer relations in outer space and other places. Participate in a Collection Highlights Gallery Talk, where every hour from noon – 3 p.m. visitors can take a close look at a specific artwork by an LGBTQ+ artist. Be sure to check out American University’s “DC Humanities” truck that will be parked in the F Street Plaza from 2 – 7 p.m. to collect and share stories from people who identify as LGBTQ+.
From 3 – 6 p.m., SAAM hosts a live performance by internationally recognized artist Brendan Fernandes, whose performance of Free Fall 49 takes over the massive Kogod Courtyard. This dance-based performance responds to the 2016 Pulse Nightclub shooting in Orlando through a choreographed call and response between a live DJ and dancers. As the music suddenly stops and then slowly resumes forty-nine times, the performers’ synchronized collapsing and rising commemorate the forty-nine lost lives while asserting the community’s resilience under fire.
Location: Smithsonian American Art Museum, Kogod Courtyard
Tickets: Free
Event Link

Wikipedia Edit-A-Thon: LGBTQ+ Edition 
Saturday, June 15, 10:30 a.m. – 3 p.m. 
Join SAAM for a Wikipedia Edit-A-Thon to learn how to edit and create new articles about LGBTQ+ artists. All levels of technological proficiency are welcome. A special tour of works in SAAM’s collection by LGBTQ+ artists kicks off the program at 10:30 a.m.
Location: Smithsonian American Art Museum, MacMillan Education Center
Tickets: Free; Registration recommended. Please email SAAMPrograms@si.edu

Conservation Talk: Preserving Great Outdoor Sculpture 
Friday, June 21, 1 p.m. 
Join objects conservator Ariel O’Connor as she discusses how she maintains SAAM’s large-scale outdoor sculptures, including Roy Lichtenstein’s Modern Head and Luis Jiménez’s Vaquero. Weather permitting, the talk includes a walk outside the museum to look at the large-scale works.
Location: Smithsonian American Art Museum, meet in the G Street Lobby
Tickets: Free
Event Link

Vietnam, Past is Prologue Curator Gallery Talk 
Wednesday, June 26, 5:30 p.m. 
Join Sarah Newman, the James Dicke Curator of Contemporary Art, as she discusses the work featured in SAAM’s exhibition Tiffany Chung: Vietnam, Past is Prologue. Newman examines how Chung’s multimedia works explore migration, con?ict, and shifting geographies in the wake of the Vietnam War.
Location: Smithsonian American Art Museum, meet in the F Street Lobby
Tickets: Free
Event Link

Art Bites: Paisid Aramphongphan 
Friday, June 28, 12:15 p.m. 
Take a lunch break and join SAAM’s research fellows as they share their new discoveries about artworks from the collection. Research fellow Paisid Aramphongphan discusses Paul Thek’s Warrior’s Leg, which is currently featured in SAAM’s exhibition Artists Respond: American Art and the Vietnam War, 1965-1975. Come learn the stories behind this artwork and find out what it tells us about America’s ever-changing culture.
Location: Smithsonian American Art Museum, meet in the G Street Lobby
Tickets: Free
Event Link

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Music, Performances & Film

Film Screening: The Searchers 
Saturday, June 8, 3 p.m. 
Rediscover a fifties film classic with John Ford’s The Searchers, starring John Wayne as a Confederate veteran whose obsessive hunt for the Comanche band that killed most of his brother’s family and abducted his niece consumes five years and costs many lives. Presented in conjunction with SAAM’s exhibition American Myth & Memory: David Levinthal Photographs, the film juxtaposes ideas about heroism with racism, misogyny, and the price of vengeance. Rated PG (119 minutes, 1956).
Location: Smithsonian American Art Museum, McEvoy Auditorium
Tickets: Free
Event Link

Luce Unplugged: Jess Eliot Myhre and Chris Ousley of Bumper Jackson
Thursday, June 13, 5:30 – 7 p.m. 
Luce Unplugged showcases DC’s best local bands surrounded by beautiful artworks in the Luce Foundation Center. In this installment, Jess Eliot Myhre and Chris Ousley from Bumper Jacksons combine roots jazz and country swing – two genres that have origins in the stories and songs of Appalachia. Libations and snacks are available for purchase at the on-site bar.
Location: Smithsonian American Art Museum, Luce Foundation Center (third floor)
Tickets: Free
Event Link

America Now: Celebration of Music 
Saturday, June 22 
11 a.m. – 5:30 p.m., National Museum of American History 
6 p.m. – Midnight, Smithsonian American Art Museum and National Portrait Gallery 
Go from day to night with this year’s America Now event, when three of your favorite Smithsonian museums unite for a free, one-day festival celebrating the best of art, history, and music in DC. This year is a Celebration of Music, with live performances, DJ’s, workshops, and dance parties.
Start your day at the National Museum of American History with an exploration of hip-hop culture through activities, DJ performances, and an outdoor dance party. Then, spend your evening at the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the National Portrait Gallery from 6 p.m. to midnight with musical performances by Rare Essence, Out of Town Blues Band, and a special headliner to be announced on June 1. Festive food and drinks are available for purchase. Bars close at 11:30 p.m., galleries open to midnight. Recommended for visitors 18 and older.
Locations: National Museum of American History, Smithsonian American Art Museum and National Portrait Gallery
Tickets: Free
Event Link

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Ongoing Programs

Sketching: Draw and Discover!
Tuesdays, 2:30 – 4:30pm 
Draw inspiration from artists’ sketches as well as the thousands of objects on display in the Luce Foundation Center of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, then spend time sketching in our workshop. Some materials provided; please bring a small sketchbook and pencils.
Location: Smithsonian American Art Museum, Luce Foundation Center Information Desk, Third-floor
Tickets: Free
Event Link

Conservation Conversation 
Wednesday, June 5, 12, 19, 26; 3 p.m.  
Learn how museum conservators preserve SAAM’s artworks in the Lunder Conservation Center. The center has five state-of-the-art laboratories and studios equipped to treat paintings, prints, drawings, photographs, sculptures, folk art objects, contemporary crafts, decorative arts, and frames. Group size is limited.
Location: Smithsonian American Art Museum, Lunder Conservation Center
Tickets: Free
Event Link

Art Signs: Gallery Talk in American Sign Language (ASL)
Thursday, June 13, 5:30 p.m. and June 16, 1:30 p.m. 
Join us for lively gallery conversations in American Sign Language led by Deaf gallery guides. For more information, email CohrsG@si.edu.
Location: Smithsonian American Art Museum, meet in the F Street Lobby
Tickets: Free
Event Link

America InSight: Verbal Description Tours
Sunday, June 9, 1:30 p.m.  
Thursday, June 20, 3:30 p.m. 
Join a docent-led tour designed for visitors who are blind or have low vision. Discover highlights of the collection through rich verbal description and sensory experience.
Location: Smithsonian American Art Museum, meet in F Street lobby
Tickets: Free
Event Link

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For more information on this museum, visit our Smithsonian American Art Museum page.

Event listings are provided by the Smithsonian American Art Museum and Renwick Gallery