Past Exhibitions | Smithsonian Institution

No Spectators: The Art of Burning Man

The exhibition brings the maker culture of Burning Man alive hrough artworks, room-sized installations, jewelry, costumes, and ephemera that will transport visitors to the gathering’s famed desert location, the “playa.”

March 30, 2018 – January 21, 2019

Renwick Gallery

UnSeen: Our Past in a New Light, Ken Gonzales-Day and Titus Kaphar

The exhibition highlights the work of two leading contemporary artists who grapple with the under- and misrepresentation of certain minorities in portraiture and American history.

March 23, 2018 – January 6, 2019

Portrait Gallery

Celebrating Fifty Years

In 1968, following major renovations, the Old Patent Office Building opened as the permanent home for two Smithsonian museums, the National Collection of Fine Arts (since renamed the Smithsonian American Art Museum) and the National Portrait Gallery.

August 11, 2017 – January 6, 2019

Portrait Gallery

Trevor Paglen: Sites Unseen

Artist Trevor Paglen’s work explores surveillance, state secrecy, data collection, and the ways in which technology is altering humans’ relationship with the land around us.

June 21, 2018 – January 6, 2019

American Art Museum

Your Community, Your Story: Celebrating Five Decades of the Anacostia Community Museum, 1967-2017

Your Community, Your Story highlights some of the museum’s signature projects and demonstrates how ACM’s work helps us understand city life and strengthen community bonds.

September 15, 2017 – January 6, 2019

Anacostia Community Museum

Narwhal: Revealing an Arctic Legend

Narwhal: Revealing an Arctic Legend showcases what is known about how narwhals sense their environment, and explores exciting new scientific discoveries about these animals in the context of a changing arctic climate.

August 3, 2017 – January 6, 2019

Natural History Museum

Transformer: Native Art in Light and Sound

Presents the work of ten artists who use light, digital projection, and experimental media to reflect on their place in and between traditional and dominant cultures.

November 10, 2017 – January 6, 2019

American Indian Museum New York

Pushing the Envelope: Mail Art from the Archives of American Art

This exhibition provides an overview of the international mail art movement, and features visually complex examples of mail art.

August 10, 2018 – January 4, 2019

Archives of American Art

The Peacock Room Comes to America

Whistler’s extravagant interior has been on permanent display since the Freer Gallery of Art opened January 1, 1923.

October 14, 2017 – January 2, 2019

Asian Art Museum, West Building

Military Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV)

On view six modern military UAVs that represent a variety of missions and technologies.

April 24, 2008 – January 2, 2019

Air and Space Museum

The Golden Age of Flight

Americans were wild about aviation in the 1920s and '30s, the period between the two world wars that came to be known as the Golden Age of Flight.

April 5, 1984 – January 2, 2019

Air and Space Museum

Sea-Air Operations

The focus of this gallery is overwater flight, including aircraft carrier operations from 1911 to the present.

July 1, 1976 – January 2, 2019

Air and Space Museum

Jet Aviation

This gallery illustrates the first 40 years of jet aviation (1939-1979), including the evolution of commercial and military jet aircraft.

July 1, 1981 – January 2, 2019

Air and Space Museum

Legend, Memory, and the Great War in the Air

This gallery features the emergence of air power in World War I and contrasts the romance of aerial combat with the reality.

November 13, 1991 – January 2, 2019

Air and Space Museum

Trail of Tears: A Story of Cherokee Removal

This powerful exhibition takes a deeper look at Indian removal from the Cherokee perspective.

April 12, 2018 – January 2, 2019

American Indian Museum DC

World War II Aviation

The story of World War II is too big for a single gallery, so this one focuses on land-based fighter aviation.

July 1, 1976 – January 2, 2019

Air and Space Museum

America by Air

This exhibition traces the history of commercial air transportation in the U.S. from 1914 to today and discusses how technological innovations have revolutionized air travel.

November 17, 2007 – January 2, 2019

Air and Space Museum

In Memoriam: George Herbert Walker Bush

In memory of George Herbert Walker Bush, the National Portrait Gallery has added a drape to his portrait in the America's Presidents gallery. Visitors may pay their respects and record their thoughts in a journal next to the portrait.

December 1, 2018 – January 1, 2019

Portrait Gallery

A Unique Lens: Photographs from the Smithsonian Family

This exhibition showcases the photographic talent and diverse work and interests of Smithsonian staff.

February 18, 2016 – January 1, 2019

Ripley Center

Apollo to the Moon

This gallery traces NASA's manned space program beginning with Project Mercury's Freedom 7 (5/5/61); then the Gemini Project (1965-66); followed by the Apollo Program (1967-1972), with Apollo 17 as the last manned exploration of the moon.

July 1, 1976 – December 2, 2018

Air and Space Museum

Looking at Earth

This gallery traces the development of technology for viewing Earth from balloons, aircraft, and spacecraft.

May 8, 1986 – December 2, 2018

Air and Space Museum

My Fellow Soldiers: Letters from World War I

Through personal correspondence written on the frontlines and home front, this centennial exhibition uncovers the history of America’s involvement in World War I.

April 6, 2017 – December 2, 2018

Postal Museum

Portraits of the World: Switzerland

Portraits of the World: Switzerland is the inaugural exhibition of a series that will highlight the global context of American portraiture.

December 15, 2017 – November 12, 2018

Portrait Gallery

Artist Soldiers: Artistic Expression in the First World War

This exhibition examines artistic expression in WWI by first-hand participants, both official art by commissioned AEF combat artists, and spontaneous works by individual soldiers.

April 6, 2017 – November 11, 2018

Air and Space Museum

For Love of Place: Japanese Screens

On view during spring and summer, this gallery’s selection of snow-themed paintings suggests one way that these works may have been used: to create an ambience of heat-deflecting cool.

May 5, 2018 – November 4, 2018

Asian Art Museum, West Building