Past Exhibitions | Smithsonian Institution

The Jazz Age: American Style in the 1920s

The Jazz Age explores the significant impact of European influences, the rapid growth of cities, avant-garde artistic movements, new social mores and the role of technology.

April 7, 2017 – August 20, 2017

Cooper Hewitt Design Museum

Voulkos: The Breakthrough Years

This is the first exhibition to focus on the early career of Peter Voulkos, who completely re-invented his medium of proper ceramics technique and form. Aproximately thirty-five examples from this crucial body of early work will be featured.

April 7, 2017 – August 20, 2017

Renwick Gallery

100 Years of America's National Park Service: Preserve, Enjoy, Inspire

The National Park Service turns 100 this year! To celebrate, the National Park Service has teamed up with the National Museum of Natural History to present over 50 images by award-winning photographers, showcasing America's national parks.

August 4, 2016 – August 14, 2017

Natural History Museum

Linn Meyers: Our View from Here

Linn Meyers creates her largest work to date, Our View from Here, at the Hirshhorn. The site-specific wall drawing, which occupies the entire circumference of the inner ring galleries, covers nearly 400 linear feet.

May 12, 2016 – August 13, 2017

Hirshhorn Museum

Down These Mean Streets

The exhibition will examine how Latino photographers depicted America’s urban streets when notions of the inner city began to emerge. The title of the exhibition is taken from Piri Thomas’ bestselling memoir Down These Mean Streets (1967), where the author narrates his tough upbringing in New York City’s El Barrio.

May 12, 2017 – August 6, 2017

American Art Museum

Neil Armstrong's Apollo 11 Gloves and Helmet

In commemoration of the 47th anniversary of the first moon landing, Neil Armstrong’s lunar extravehicular gloves and helmet are on display for the first time since 2012.

July 20, 2016 – July 31, 2017

Air and Space Museum Udvar-Hazy Center

Sculpture of South Asia and the Himalayas

Several centuries of sculptures from South India are on view.

November 26, 1992 – July 9, 2017

Asian Art Museum, East Building

Perspectives: Michael Joo

Inspired by the migration patterns of Korean red-crowned cranes, Brooklyn-based artist Michael Joo has created a monumental installation visualizing the bird's movements as lines in space.

July 2, 2016 – July 9, 2017

Asian Art Museum, East Building

Body of Devotion: The Cosmic Buddha in 3D

Like all Buddhas (fully enlightened beings), the Cosmic Buddha, a life-size limestone figure of Vairochana, is wrapped in the simple robe of a monk. Body of Devotion is an interactive installation that explores not only the work itself, but also the evolving means and methods of studying sculpture, from rubbings and photographs to the technological possibilities of today.

January 30, 2016 – July 9, 2017

Asian Art Museum, East Building

The Glazed Elephant: Ceramic Traditions in Cambodia

The Glazed Elephant explores these unconventional forms, their supposed functions, and the people who made and used them during this famous period in Cambodia’s history.

April 15, 2017 – July 9, 2017

Asian Art Museum, East Building

Inventing Utamaro: A Japanese Masterpiece Rediscovered

For the first time in nearly 140 years, Snow at Fukagawa, Moon at Shinagawa, and Cherry Blossoms at Yoshiwara, reunite in Inventing Utamaro.

April 8, 2017 – July 9, 2017

Asian Art Museum, East Building

Measured Perfection: Hiram Powers' Greek Slave

This one-gallery exhibition reveals the inner workings of the studio of Hiram Powers (1805-1873), who was among the most innovative sculptors of the nineteenth century, eagerly adapting long-standing sculpture traditions to new technologies of his age.

July 3, 2015 – July 9, 2017

American Art Museum

From the Regenia Perry Collection: The Backyard of Derek Webster's Imagination

This exhibition of nine pieces created by Derek Webster between 1980–1996 is from the Regenia A. Perry Folk Art Collection, part of the Anacostia Community Museum’s folk art collection.

October 17, 2016 – July 9, 2017

Anacostia Community Museum

Celebrate: John F. Kennedy

The Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery joins the nationwide celebration of the life and legacy of President John F. Kennedy on the centennial of his birth.

May 19, 2017 – July 9, 2017

Portrait Gallery

Korea Gallery

On view are some 85 objects, including Korean ceramics, wooden furniture, stone and wooden sculptures, paintings, and textiles.

June 8, 2007 – July 5, 2017

Natural History Museum

American Ballet

This display showcases costumes worn by ballerinas Violette Verdy, Marianna Tcherkassky, and Misty Copeland.

January 25, 2017 – June 18, 2017

American History Museum

Peacock Room REMIX: Darren Waterston's Filthy Lucre

Filthy Lucre, an immersive interior by painter Darren Waterston, reinterprets the James McNeill Whistler’s famed Peacock Room as a resplendent ruin.

May 16, 2015 – June 4, 2017

Asian Art Museum, East Building

Chinamania

Contemporary artist Walter McConnell interrogates the nineteenth century craze for Chinese blue-and-white ceramics through his reinstallation of Kangxi porcelains similar to those originally displayed in the Peacock Room.

July 9, 2016 – June 4, 2017

Asian Art Museum, East Building

Double Take: Daguerreian Portrait Pairs

This show highlights the depth of the National Portrait Gallery’s early photography collection, featuring fourteen historic daguerreotypes—two portraits each of famous mid-19th century figures, including Frederick Douglass, Jenny Lind, Zachary Taylor, and Jefferson Davis.

June 17, 2016 – June 4, 2017

Portrait Gallery

For a Love of His People: The Photography of Horace Poolaw

Through the themes of portraiture, community, family, military, and performance, the exhibition gives a glimpse of Native life in 20th-century Oklahoma.

November 11, 2016 – June 4, 2017

American Indian Museum DC

Transformers: More Than Meets the Eye!

This small exhibition features historic Transformers toys and props used in the major motion picture.

January 22, 2010 – June 1, 2017

Air and Space Museum Udvar-Hazy Center

One Life: Babe Ruth

Babe Ruth's memorable persona is highlighted in a selection of historic prints, photographs and personal paraphernalia representing “the Babe” both as a Yankee slugger and a national celebrity.

June 24, 2016 – May 21, 2017

Portrait Gallery

Color in a New Light

Journeying through the collections of the Smithsonian Libraries—from chemistry to catalogs, from colorblind tests to couture—we might see color in a new light.

January 23, 2016 – May 15, 2017

Natural History Museum

New York City: A Portrait Through Stamp Art

This exhibition explores the diversity of topics highlighting the cultural heritage of New York City with thirty pieces of original artwork.

December 10, 2015 – May 14, 2017

Postal Museum

orchids: A MOMENT

The Smithsonian Gardens and United States Botanic Garden 2017 Orchid Exhibition, showcases over 100 orchids in a limited-time display amidst the Hirshhorn’s unique architecture.

January 14, 2017 – May 14, 2017

Hirshhorn Museum