Virtual American Art Programs at the Smithsonian American Art Museum and Renwick Gallery in Washington DC
We have moved our public programming online! Enjoy American Art programs from the safety of home. Please note all programs are offered exclusively online with no in-person option. Registration is required via Eventbrite.
Programs are free and open to the public unless otherwise noted.
October 2021 Programs
For the Record: Ten Years of Luce Unplugged at SAAM
Friday, October 1, 6 p.m. ET
Luce Unplugged, DC’s favorite local music concert series, is celebrating ten years of rocking out! Let’s celebrate by looking back at some of the greatest hits with DC music aficionados Matt Cohen, Stephanie Williams, Paul Vodra, and Emma Sarappo. Join the Smithsonian American Art Museum for a virtual trip down memory lane and discuss favorite performances, local bands, and DC’s unique and vibrant indie music scene.
Over the past decade, the Smithsonian American Art Museum has worked with contributors from Washington City Paper, DC Music Download, and Hometown Sounds to bring you performances by talented musicians that call Washington, DC, home. Check out our anniversary page and enjoy performance recordings, interviews, and special content highlighting the amazing local musicians who have performed in the Luce Foundation Center as part of this beloved concert series.
Location: Online
Tickets: Free | Registration Required via Eventbrite
Event Link
America InSight Online: Verbal Description Tours
Thursday, October 7, 5:30 p.m. ET
Join the Smithsonian American Art Museum online for a docent-led tour designed for participants who are blind or have low vision. Discover highlights from the collection through rich audio verbal descriptions that invoke a multisensory experience.
Location: Online
Tickets: Free | Registration Required via Eventbrite
Event Link
In-Person Exhibition Preview: Sargent, Whistler, and Venetian Glass
Thursday, October 7, 8:00 p.m. ET
Be one of the first to experience the magic of Venice during this in-person exhibition preview. Join us as we celebrate the opening of the highly anticipated Sargent, Whistler, and Venetian Glass: American Artists and the Magic of Murano at the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Explore the dazzling Venetian glass revival of the nineteenth century, which inspired American artists such as John Singer Sargent and James McNeill Whistler. Featuring more than 140 objects, it is the first comprehensive examination of American tourism, artmaking, and art collecting in Venice, revealing the glass furnaces and their new creative boom as a vibrant facet of the city’s allure. Discover a selection of rarely seen glass vessels presented alongside paintings, watercolors, and prints. Specialty cocktails and food inspired by the magic of Venice will be available for purchase. Masking is required when not actively eating or drinking. Space is limited. Social distancing is encouraged.
Registration for this event closes on October 6 at 8:00 p.m. ET.
Location: In-person Smithsonian American Art Museum (8th and G Streets, NW)
Tickets: Free | Registration Required via Eventbrite
Event Link
Clarice Smith Virtual Lecture with Nada Shabout
Wednesday, October 13, 6:30 p.m. ET
Examine the enduring impact of colonialism and orientalism within the mainstream history of modernism with scholar Nada Shabout. During this captivating virtual talk, discuss efforts to decolonize the field of art history and prioritize inclusion and equity. Shabout highlights the noticeable absence of Arab artists in conventional narratives about modern and contemporary art and uses several past and present examples to emphasize the need to produce new knowledge and revise curricula to fully integrate Arab artists within the field.
Nada Shabout is a professor of art history and coordinator of the Contemporary Arab and Muslim Cultural Studies Initiative at the University of North Texas, Denton. She is the founding president of the Association for Modern and Contemporary Art from the Arab World, Iran and Turkey, and project advisor for the Saudi National Pavilion of the 2019 Venice Biennale. She is the author of Modern Arab Art: Formation of Arab Aesthetics (2007) and co-editor, with Salwa Mikdadi, of New Vision: Arab Art in the 21st Century(2009) and, with Anneka Lenssen and Sarah Rogers, of Modern Art in the Arab World: Primary Documents, Museum of Modern Art (2018). Shabout has acted as curator for such exhibitions as Dafatir: Contemporary Iraqi Book Art, (2005–2009), Modernism and Iraq, Wallach Art Gallery, Columbia University (2009), and Sajjil: A Century of Modern Art, Interventions: A Dialogue between the Modern and the Contemporary (2010).
This program is part of our annual Clarice Smith Distinguished Lectures in American Art series, which presents new insights into American art from the perspectives of outstanding artists, critics, and scholars. The series is made possible by the generosity of Clarice Smith.
Location: Online
Tickets: Free | Registration Required via Eventbrite
Event Link
Art Signs Online: Artful Conversations in ASL
Thursday, October 14, 5:30 p.m. ET
Curious about American art? Join us for a 30-minute virtual conversation about selected works from the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s collection. This program is presented in American Sign Language (ASL) with voice interpretation for hearing participants. A Zoom link will be provided via email upon registration.
Location: Online
Tickets: Free | Registration Required via Eventbrite
Event Link
Art & Me Preservation Family Workshop: Trick or Treat
Saturday, October 16, 10–10:45 a.m. ET
The art doctor is in to help you get your spooky fix! Join us this Halloween season for some ghoulish art stories in this virtual workshop. See how Smithsonian conservators preserve and protect our artworks that love the dark, from ghosts to bats. Then create your own shadow decorations in time for Halloween.
This hands-on, art-making preservation workshop is designed for children ages three to eight and their caretakers. The program is co-hosted by the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art.
Register now! One registration per family. A Zoom link and a list of suggested materials will be sent to registered participants 24–48 hours in advance of the workshop.
Location: Online
Tickets: Free | Registration Required via Zoom
Event Link
In-Person Exhibition Preview: New Glass Now
Thursday, October 21, 6:30 p.m. ET
Expect the unexpected and be the first to see the latest innovations by glass artists during this special in-person exhibition preview of New Glass Now at SAAM’s Renwick Gallery. Discover how artists, architects, and designers from around the world use the challenging medium of glass to push technical, social, and cultural boundaries in this survey organized by The Corning Museum of Glass. Representing?fifty?makers working in more than?twenty-three?countries, New Glass Now showcases artists who challenge the status quo and represent a modern era in glassmaking full of new voices, visions, and representation. Masking is required when not actively eating or drinking. Space is limited. Social distancing is encouraged.
Location: In-person Renwick Gallery (Pennsylvania Avenue at 17th Street NW)
Tickets: Free | No Registration Required
Event Link
Día de los Muertos Virtual Family Celebration
Saturday, October 30, 10 a.m. ET
Celebrate Día de los Muertos online with Ballet Folklórico Mi Herencia Mexicana and the Smithsonian American Art Museum. There is fun for the whole family during this virtual performance. Watch as Ballet Folklórico Mi Herencia Mexicana demonstrate several Mexican folk dances including El Toro Viejo from Sinaloa and the popular, El Son de La Negra from Jalisco. Learn more about Día de los Muertos as the dancers and explain the history behind their dance traditions.
Continue celebrating Día de los Muertos on SAAM’s Latinx Heritage Family Zone, where you can learn more about Día de los Muertos, make crafts, do coloring pages, and watch videos about this traditional Mexican celebration.
Location: Online
Tickets: Free | Registration Required via Eventbrite
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
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