Past Exhibitions | Smithsonian Institution

Jazz and More: Black Broadcast Pioneers

See objects from the Archives Collections related to Jazz on the radio.

March 30, 2006 – May 23, 2006

Hokusai

Focus on the paintings created during a career of more than 70 years of the great Japanese artist Hokusai, whose print Great Wave Off Kanagawa is one of the most widely recognized images ever produced.

March 4, 2006 – May 14, 2006

Asian Art Museum, East Building

Hiroshi Sugimoto

Visit the first major survey of Hiroshi Sugimoto (b. 1948, Tokyo), featuring 118 photographs and 2 sculptures from 1976 to the present.

February 16, 2006 – May 14, 2006

Hirshhorn Museum

Lemelson Center: Inventing Ourselves

How technology is used to reinvent our bodies is the subject of these 2 exhibit cases.

February 13, 2006 – May 7, 2006

American History Museum

Directions: Oliver Herring

For a single 8-hour period using simple materials (paper, pens, tables, chairs, ladders, a "boom box"), New York-based artist Oliver Herring (b. 1964, Germany) creates Task on the Hirshhorn plaza as part of the Directions series.

April 29, 2006 – April 29, 2006

Hirshhorn Museum

Eyes on the World: Photographs by Smithsonian Staff

See the 35 winning entries from the 2005 Smithsonian Staff Photo Contest, taken by Smithsonian staff, volunteers, fellows, and interns.

February 23, 2006 – April 20, 2006

Ripley Center

Benjamin Franklin: A Revolutionary Role

In commemoration of Benjamin Franklin's 300th birthday, the items in the exhibit case are used to examine his role as a statesman.

January 13, 2006 – April 17, 2006

American History Museum

Directions: Jim Hodges

As part of the Directions series, a monumental banner (70 feet by 25 feet) by New York-based artist Jim Hodges is featured across the building above the museum's main entrance on Independence Avenue.

August 19, 2005 – April 17, 2006

Hirshhorn Museum

Solos: New Design from Israel

See the first exhibition of contemporary Israeli design in the United States featuring approximately 25 works, including prototypes, experimental objects, and production pieces by 19 designers who live and work in Israel.

January 27, 2006 – April 16, 2006

Cooper Hewitt Design Museum

John Lennon: The Lost Album

To mark the 65th anniversary of John Lennon's birth and National Stamp Collecting Month, the museum presents Lennon's childhood stamp album.

October 6, 2005 – April 10, 2006

Postal Museum

The Spirit of Ancient Colombian Gold

On view are over 280 gold items dating between 500 B.C. and 1600 A.D. that reflect the diverse regional and cultural traditions of the indigenous people of the area that is now Colombia.

November 9, 2005 – April 9, 2006

Natural History Museum

New Tribe: New York: Lorenzo Clayton

Lorenzo Clayton (Navajo) believes that the Manhattan area radiates a powerful, urban spirituality stemming from its immense cultural diversity. He expresses this influence in both large installations and intricate works on paper dating from the early 1980s to the present.

January 14, 2006 – April 9, 2006

American Indian Museum New York

Reflections: Life Pieces to Masterpieces

See 27 art pieces created by 75 at-risk, east-of-the Anacostia River youths aged 3-21 enrolled in the award-winning human development program known as Life Pieces to Masterpieces.

November 13, 2005 – April 2, 2006

Anacostia Community Museum

Conversation Among Blues Women

Visit an installation that mixes masks, textiles, found objects, lighting, and sound to give voice to and document the experiences of a wide-ranging group of African American women.

November 13, 2005 – April 2, 2006

Anacostia Community Museum

Mother and Child: Expressions of Love

See 10 pieces that show how 8 contemporary, Washington-based artists take different approaches to explore the universal and ancient tie that binds mother and child.

November 13, 2005 – April 2, 2006

Anacostia Community Museum

"Do you hear that whistle...?" Celebrating the 60th Anniversary of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's film The Harvey Girls

Celebrates the 60th anniversary of the MGM classic movie musical The Harvey Girls.

December 21, 2006 – March 29, 2006

American History Museum

Nature's Best Photography Awards

View photographs from the Nature's Best International Photography Awards over the years. The annual awards honor the best amateur and professional photographers from around the world.

November 23, 2005 – March 27, 2006

Natural History Museum

Virtue and Entertainment: Chinese Music in the Visual Arts

Learn how music played an important role in ancient Chinese culture and was also richly presented in the visual arts.

October 1, 2005 – March 26, 2006

Asian Art Museum, West Building

Fashion in Colors

Explore color as a design element in the context of over 300 years of Western fashion.

December 9, 2005 – March 26, 2006

Cooper Hewitt Design Museum

Field to Factory: Afro-American Migration, 1915-1940

This exhibition interprets the complexities and effects of the Great Migration, a vast movement of more than 1 million African Americans who moved from the South to the North between 1915 and 1940 in search of a better life.

February 5, 1987 – March 26, 2006

American History Museum

Constance Larrabee

Constance Larrabee's 20 black-and-white photographs of South Africa documented the lives of African peoples in both rural and urban settings.

Mid-March 2005 – March 23, 2006

African Art Museum

Stamps Take Flight

Learn about the creative processes and printing techniques behind America's stamps as illustrated by stamps with air and space themes, including an "Inverted Jenny."

March 15, 2005 – March 19, 2006

Postal Museum

Perspectives: Mei-Ling Hom

Explore the meanings of clouds and the fluidity of those meanings for people who inhabit multiple cultures in this serene and contemplative installation of 30 cloud-like forms.

August 27, 2005 – March 5, 2006

Asian Art Museum, East Building

African Art Now: Masterpieces from the Jean Pigozzi Collection

This exhibition features 100 objects by 28 contemporary African artists representing 15 African countries from the Contemporary African Art Collection of Swiss entrepreneur and photographer Jean Pigozzi.

November 16, 2005 – February 26, 2006

African Art Museum

Gold: The Asian Touch

See a small, focused exhibition of 47 works that examines the meanings and uses of gold in different Asian cultures.

September 10, 2005 – February 19, 2006

Asian Art Museum, East Building