Past Exhibitions | Smithsonian Institution

Ramp It Up: Skateboard Culture in Native America

This exhibition features rare and archival photographs and film of Native skaters, as well as skatedecks from Native companies and contemporary artists, to celebrate the vibrancy, creativity, and controversy of American Indian and Native Hawaiian skate culture.

December 11, 2009 – August 8, 2010

American Indian Museum New York

Graphic Masters III: Highlights from the Smithsonian American Art Museum

View watercolors, pastels, and drawings from the 1960s to the 1990s that illustrate the extraordinary variety and accomplishment of works on paper by American artists.

January 15, 2010 – August 8, 2010

American Art Museum

Black & White: Chinese Ceramics from the 10th-14th Centuries

Delight in the variety of glossy black-glazed wares, brilliant white porcelains, and eye-catching combinations of both colors on single vessels created during the Song and Yuan dynasties.

December 18, 2004 – August 1, 2010

Asian Art Museum, West Building

Surface Beauty: American Art and Freer's Aesthetic Vision

See paintings by American artists Thomas Dewing and Dwight Tryon whose interest in surface beauty resonated with the work of James McNeill Whistler.

February 23, 2008 – August 1, 2010

Asian Art Museum, West Building

Hide: Skin as Material and Metaphor: Part I

The featured artists draw upon this rich subject in multifaceted ways, using both the material and concept of skin as a metaphor for widespread issues.

March 6, 2010 – August 1, 2010

American Indian Museum New York

Black Box: Chris Chong Chan Fui

Chris Chong Chan Fui (b. 1982, Borneo, Malaysia) lives and works in Kuala Lumpur and is the first Malaysian artist to present work at the Hirshhorn.

April 19, 2010 – August 1, 2010

Hirshhorn Museum

The Texture of Night: James McNeill Whistler

Though small in scale, view these nighttime views of London, Venice, and Amsterdam that are among Whistler's most aesthetically suggestive and technically innovative works.

June 6, 2009 – July 25, 2010

Asian Art Museum, West Building

Artful Animals

Explore how African artists create striking works of art, using images from an array of domestic and untamed animals, in this exhibition dedicated to young audiences.

July 1, 2009 – July 25, 2010

African Art Museum

Yuungnaqpiallerput (The Way We Genuinely Live): Masterworks of Yup'ik Science and Survival

This exhibition reveals Yup'ik elders' scientific and spiritual knowledge for living in a sub-arctic environment.

April 17, 2010 – July 25, 2010

Natural History Museum

In the Realm of the Buddha

Visit two distinct exhibitions that offer fascinating encounters with the sacred art of Tibetan Buddhism.

March 13, 2010 – July 18, 2010

Asian Art Museum, East Building

Since Darwin: The Evolution of Evolution

This exhibition reveals the significant role Darwin's theories have played in explaining and unifying all the biological sciences.

September 12, 2009 – July 18, 2010

Natural History Museum

Portraiture Now: Communities

Three artists -- Rose Frantzen, Jim Torok, and Rebecca Westcott -- explore the idea of community in portraits of friends, neighbors, or family.

November 6, 2009 – July 5, 2010

Portrait Gallery

The African Presence in Mexico: From Yanga to the Present

Look at the history, culture, and art of Afro-Mexicans, beginning in the colonial era and continuing to present day in this traveling exhibition.

November 8, 2009 – July 4, 2010

Anacostia Community Museum

Delivering Hope: FDR & Stamps of the Great Depression

Franklin D. Roosevelt, president during the Great Depression, used stamps to communicate with the American people.

September 9, 2009 – June 7, 2010

Postal Museum

Jazz at the Philharmonic

These cases feature business, travel, and performance documents related to "Jazz at the Philharmonic," a series of jazz concerts, tours, and performances produced by Norman Granz in the 1940s to 1960s.

April 1, 2010 – May 31, 2010

American History Museum

Panamanian Passages

Trace Panama's human and natural history since the rise of the isthmus over 3 million years ago to its 20th-century struggle for sovereignty.

October 14, 2009 – May 31, 2010

Ripley Center

IndiVisible: African-Native American Lives in the Americas

Read compelling text and see powerful graphics on 20 banners discusses the cultural integration and diffusion of African American and American Indian people.

November 10, 2009 – May 31, 2010

American Indian Museum DC

Directions: John Gerrard

This exhibition features works by Irish artist John Gerrard (b. 1974, Dublin) who photographed actual sites of farms and oil fields from 360 degrees and then simulated cinematic movement around the sites using the computer, complete with shifting, natural lighting effects.

November 5, 2009 – May 31, 2010

Hirshhorn Museum

Children at Play in Chinese Painting

Enjoy the recurring theme of children at play in fragrant gardens or at work in lush fields in Chinese art over the past two millennia.

November 18, 2009 – May 23, 2010

Asian Art Museum, West Building

The Sant Ocean Hall Focus Gallery: Deeper Than Light

This exhibition retraces a team of scientists' journey into this relatively undiscovered world using art, images, models, and multimedia.

February 20, 2010 – May 23, 2010

Natural History Museum

Framing the West: The Survey Photographs of Timothy H. O'Sullivan

These 80 photographs of Timothy H. O'Sullivan (1840-1882), photographer for government-sponsored geological surveys and expeditions, go beyond mere documentation of newly explored landscapes; they show a forthright and rigorous style formed in response to the American West.

February 12, 2010 – May 9, 2010

American Art Museum

A Letter from George Washington, November 30, 1785

On view is the letter George Washington wrote on November 30, 1785, to David Stuart, a trusted associate and stepfather to Washington's grandchildren.

February 25, 2010 – May 7, 2010

American History Museum

Picturing Words: The Power of Book Illustration

This exhibition explores the power of pictures and book illustrations.

November 21, 2008 – May 3, 2010

American History Museum

Quicktake: Tato Nano

Enjoy a bright, sunshine yellow Nano, "the people's car" from India, along with diagrams and a short film describing its concept, development and production.

February 18, 2010 – April 25, 2010

Cooper Hewitt Design Museum

Women and Spirit: Catholic Sisters in America

See rare artifacts and photographs from more than 400 communities that explore the role of Catholic sisters in American life.

January 15, 2010 – April 25, 2010

Ripley Center