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The David H. Koch Hall of Fossils—Deep Time

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Featured events and exhibitions

Featured Exhibitions

With more than two hundred exhibitions to choose from, we've highlighted selections from across our museums and zoo.

Tap or click the ♥ heart on each exhibition that interests you to create a My Visit list that you can email to yourself.

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My Visit

How Can You Forget Me: Filipino American Stories

Explore the overlooked history of a trailblazing Filipino community in California from the 1910s to the 1970s.

December 23, 2025 – November 28, 2027

American History Museum
My Visit

Big Things for Big Rooms

This presentation of 10 artworks traces the development of immersive, large-scale artworks since the late 1960s.

December 20, 2025 – July 4, 2027

Hirshhorn Museum
My Visit

Devon Turnbull: HiFi Pursuit Listening Room Dream No. 3

The listening room installation presents a large scale, handmade, audio system by multi-disciplinary artist Devon Turnbull.

December 12, 2025 – July 19, 2026

Cooper Hewitt Design Museum
My Visit

Added to My Visit Removed from My Visit

Made In America: The Industrial Photography of Christopher Payne Added

~~Made In America: The Industrial Photography of Christopher Payne~~ Removed

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Made In America: The Industrial Photography of Christopher Payne

See more than 70 large-format photographs that celebrate the combination of human skill and mechanical precision that transform raw materials into objects.

December 12, 2025 – October 4, 2026

Cooper Hewitt Design Museum
My Visit

Portrait of a Nation: 2025 Honorees

See the most recent recipients of the Portrait of a Nation Awards, which honors extraordinary individuals who have made transformative contributions to the United States and its people.

December 12, 2025 – November 15, 2026

Portrait Gallery
My Visit

Clearly Indigenous: Native Visions Reimagined in Glass

Explore glass art as a medium for Indigenous stories, designs, and contemporary issues through 120 artworks by 29 Indigenous artists.

November 28, 2025 – May 29, 2026

American Indian Museum New York
My Visit

Grandma Moses: A Good Day’s Work

This exhibition introduces “Grandma” Moses to new generations and examines her legacy in the context of America today.

November 25, 2025 – July 12, 2026

American Art Museum
My Visit

Water's Edge: The Art of Truman Lowe

Lowe’s elegant sculptures evoke the rivers, streams, and waterfalls of the Wisconsin woodlands where he was raised and the canoes used to traverse them.

November 25, 2025 – January 1, 2027

American Indian Museum DC
My Visit

Korean Treasures: Collected, Cherished, Shared

Spanning ancient times to the present, the works featured in this exhibition embody the depth and diversity of Korea’s artistic legacy.

November 15, 2025 – February 1, 2026

Asian Art Museum, East Building
My Visit

The Peacock Room in Blue and White

Immerse yourself in the Peacock Room as it would have looked 150 years ago.

September 27, 2025 – Ongoing

Asian Art Museum, West Building
My Visit

Corazón y vida: Lowriding Culture

This vibrant, bilingual exhibition showcases the unique car-making tradition of lowriding culture with photos, graphics, and two classic cars.

September 26, 2025 – TBD

American History Museum
My Visit

Added to My Visit Removed from My Visit

American Winners: Athletes and Entertainers Who Shaped the Nation Added

~~American Winners: Athletes and Entertainers Who Shaped the Nation~~ Removed

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American Winners: Athletes and Entertainers Who Shaped the Nation

This exhibition salutes a diverse array of athletes and entertainers by presenting more than ﬁfty works from the permanent collection.

September 26, 2025 – September 7, 2026

Portrait Gallery

Opening Soon

My Visit

At the Vanguard

At the Vanguard weaves together stories of ingenuity, artistry and resistance—through collections from five Historically Black Colleges and Universities partners.

January 16, 2026 – July 19, 2026

African American History and Culture Museum
My Visit

Here: Pride and Belonging in African Art

Explore how LGBTQ+ artists from Africa and its diaspora are part of a larger, joyful story of African art history.

January 23, 2026 – August 23, 2026

African Art Museum
My Visit

The Outwin 2025: American Portraiture Today

The Outwin 2025 features 35 portraits (by 36 artists) from the museum’s seventh triennial Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition.

January 24, 2026 – August 30, 2026

Portrait Gallery
My Visit

Teen Portrait Competition, 2025

A video presentation of photographs from the 19 finalists in the 2025 Teen Portrait Competition.

January 24, 2026 – August 30, 2026

Portrait Gallery
My Visit

Nick Cave: Mammoth

Nick Cave envisions a world animated by the power of the past and the transformative possibilities of the imagination.

February 13, 2026 – January 3, 2027

American Art Museum
My Visit

Art of Noise

An exploration of how design has transformed people’s relationship to music over the past 100 years.

February 13, 2026 – July 19, 2026

Cooper Hewitt Design Museum
My Visit

Carlotta Corpron: Light Is a Plastic Medium

Corpron's investigations into the poetics of light and form and innovative use of technology supported the establishment of photography as fine art.

February 27, 2026 – January 31, 2027

Hirshhorn Museum
My Visit

Vishnu’s Cosmic Ocean

See the largest bronze ever cast in Southeast Asia, a depiction of the Hindu god Vishnu reclining on a coiled serpent floating in the primordial ocean.

March 7, 2026 – September 7, 2026

Asian Art Museum, East Building
My Visit

Added to My Visit Removed from My Visit

Into the Waters with Senju and Bingyi: Two Contemporary Paintings Added

~~Into the Waters with Senju and Bingyi: Two Contemporary Paintings~~ Removed

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Into the Waters with Senju and Bingyi: Two Contemporary Paintings

Feel the power and beauty of water in this exhibition featuring contemporary artists Hiroshi Senju and Bingyi.

April 2, 2026 – August 23, 2026

Asian Art Museum, East Building
My Visit

Added to My Visit Removed from My Visit

Of the Hills: Pahari Paintings from India’s Himalayan Kingdoms Added

~~Of the Hills: Pahari Paintings from India’s Himalayan Kingdoms~~ Removed

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Of the Hills: Pahari Paintings from India’s Himalayan Kingdoms

Discover the extraordinary beauty and unique history of paintings made for Hindu kings in India’s Pahari (hill) region between the 1620s and 1830s.

April 18, 2026 – July 26, 2026

Asian Art Museum, East Building
My Visit

¡Puro Ritmo! The Musical Journey of Salsa

The National Museum of the American Latino presents its second major exhibition on the origins of salsa music.

Spring 2026 – TBA

American History Museum
My Visit

In Pursuit of Life, Liberty & Happiness

An immersive exhibition exploring the ideals of the Declaration of Independence.

May 14, 2026 – September 2026

American History Museum

Closing Soon

My Visit

Breaking Down Walls: Art as a Portal for the Incarcerated

This exhibition highlights the efforts of artists to create transformative experiences in carceral facilities.

September 5, 2025 – January 18, 2026

Archives of American Art
My Visit

Basquiat × Banksy

Basquiat’s Boy and Dog in a Johnnypump (1982) and Banksy’s response, Banksquiat, are placed in dialogue.

September 29, 2024 – January 19, 2026

Hirshhorn Museum
My Visit

Unbound: Narrative Art of the Plains

This exhibition celebrates the full expression of narrative art among Native nations of the Great Plains.

June 1, 2024 – January 20, 2026

American Indian Museum DC
My Visit

Added to My Visit Removed from My Visit

Star Power: Photographs from Hollywood’s Golden Age by George Hurrell Added

~~Star Power: Photographs from Hollywood’s Golden Age by George Hurrell~~ Removed

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Star Power: Photographs from Hollywood’s Golden Age by George Hurrell

George Hurrell created definitive, timeless images of many of the most glamorous figures of filmdom’s golden era.

March 1, 2024 – January 25, 2026

Portrait Gallery
My Visit

Korean Treasures: Collected, Cherished, Shared

Spanning ancient times to the present, the works featured in this exhibition embody the depth and diversity of Korea’s artistic legacy.

November 15, 2025 – February 1, 2026

Asian Art Museum, East Building
My Visit

Cut + Paste: Experimental Japanese Prints and Photographs

Cut + Paste showcases seventeen Japanese artists who pushed the limits of printmaking and photography and whose experimental works blur reality, memory, and even how we perceive space and time.

June 21, 2025 – February 22, 2026

Asian Art Museum, East Building
My Visit

Reasons to Gather: Japanese Tea Practice Unwrapped

Reasons to Gather presents eleven historic tea utensils and accessories that demonstrate accrued layers of historical and cultural meaning.

April 12, 2025 – April 26, 2026

Asian Art Museum, West Building
My Visit

Dazzling Diversity

Celebrate the vast and varied insect world through the pages of early natural history books from the Smithsonian Libraries and Archives.

September 10, 2024 – May 11, 2026

Natural History Museum
My Visit

Clearly Indigenous: Native Visions Reimagined in Glass

Explore glass art as a medium for Indigenous stories, designs, and contemporary issues through 120 artworks by 29 Indigenous artists.

November 28, 2025 – May 29, 2026

American Indian Museum New York
My Visit

Added to My Visit Removed from My Visit

From Shadow to Substance: Grand-Scale Portraits During Photography’s Formative Years Added

~~From Shadow to Substance: Grand-Scale Portraits During Photography’s Formative Years~~ Removed

View My Visit

From Shadow to Substance: Grand-Scale Portraits During Photography’s Formative Years

This exhibition traces the evolution of the grand-scale, whole-plate photograph format from the high-end daguerreotype to the more affordable tintype.

June 20, 2025 – June 14, 2026

Portrait Gallery
My Visit

Grandma Moses: A Good Day’s Work

This exhibition introduces “Grandma” Moses to new generations and examines her legacy in the context of America today.

November 25, 2025 – July 12, 2026

American Art Museum
My Visit

Shahzia Sikander: The Last Post

Through precisely inked and animated scenes, this video artwork critically considers the legacy of British colonialism in Asia.

July 3, 2025 – July 12, 2026

American Art Museum

Don't Miss

My Visit

NASA’s Earth Information Center @ NMNH

Explore high-resolution data visualizations, interactive experiences, and videos that share how scientists collect and interpret data.

October 8, 2024 Through 2028

Natural History Museum
My Visit

The Wright Brothers & the Invention of the Aerial Age

Explore who Wilbur and Orville Wright were, what they achieved and how they did it, and how the world reacted.

October 14, 2022 – Indefinitely

Air and Space Museum
My Visit

Destination Moon

The gallery shows how an extraordinary combination of things made it possible for humans to walk on the Moon—and how we are going back.

October 14, 2022 – Indefinitely

Air and Space Museum
My Visit

The Tibetan Buddhist Shrine Room

The Tibetan Buddhist Shrine Room includes more than two hundred bronzes, paintings, silk hangings, and carpets that were created in Tibet, China, and Mongolia between the thirteenth and early twentieth centuries.

March 5, 2022 – Ongoing

Asian Art Museum, East Building
My Visit

Laurie Anderson: Four Talks

Laurie Anderson has painted directly on the walls of the Hirshhorn in a stream-of-consciousness manner without preparatory sketches.

September 24, 2021 – Ongoing

Hirshhorn Museum
My Visit

Americans

American Indians represent less than 1 percent of the U.S. population, yet names and images of Indians are everywhere. Americans invites visitors to ask why.

January 18, 2018 – Indefinitely

American Indian Museum DC
My Visit

Visionary: Viewpoints on Africa's Arts

Visionary offers broad thematic connections between works from across the spectrum of times, places, and media represented in the museum’s holdings.

November 4, 2017 – Permanent

African Art Museum
My Visit

America's Presidents

The nation’s only complete collection of presidential portraits outside the White House tells the American story through the individuals who have shaped it.

September 22, 2017 – Permanent

Portrait Gallery
My Visit

American Democracy: A Great Leap of Faith

Presents national treasures that represent American democracy—based on the bold American experiment to create a government “of the people, by the people and for the people.”

June 28, 2017 – Permanent

American History Museum
My Visit

Greensboro Lunch Counter

The sit-in of four African American college students at this Woolworth counter helped ignite a youth-led movement to challenge inequality throughout the South.

June 28, 2017 – Indefinitely

American History Museum
My Visit

Musical Crossroads

This exhibition tells the story of African American music from the arrival of the first Africans to today’s hip-hop.

September 24, 2016 – Permanent

African American History and Culture Museum
My Visit

Slavery and Freedom

This exhibition explores the complex story of slavery and freedom, a story standing at the core of our national experience.

September 24, 2016 – Permanent

African American History and Culture Museum
My Visit

American Enterprise

Learn how business and innovation helped the United States develop from a small dependent agricultural nation to one of the world's largest economies.

July 1, 2015 – Permanent

American History Museum
My Visit

Added to My Visit Removed from My Visit

Nation to Nation: Treaties between the United States and American Indian Nations Added

~~Nation to Nation: Treaties between the United States and American Indian Nations~~ Removed

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Nation to Nation: Treaties between the United States and American Indian Nations

Learn about the treaties that lie at the heart of the relationship between Indian nations and the United States.

September 21, 2014 – January 17, 2028

American Indian Museum DC
My Visit

Experience America

Through New Deal programs, the federal government paid artists to paint and sculpt and urged them to look to the nation’s land and people for subjects.

August 14, 2014 – Ongoing

American Art Museum
My Visit

Gems of American Philately

Examine a 1918 Inverted Jenny and 12 other philatelic gems that are rarely on view.

September 22, 2013 – Permanent

Postal Museum
My Visit

Added to My Visit Removed from My Visit

The Star-Spangled Banner: The Flag that Inspired the National Anthem Added

~~The Star-Spangled Banner: The Flag that Inspired the National Anthem~~ Removed

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The Star-Spangled Banner: The Flag that Inspired the National Anthem

The sight of those “broad stripes and bright stars” inspired Francis Scott Key to write a song that eventually became the United States national anthem.

November 21, 2008 – Permanent

American History Museum
My Visit

Cold War Aviation

The role of aircraft in the post-World War II competition between superpowers is explored.

December 15, 2003 – Permanent

Air and Space Museum Udvar-Hazy Center
My Visit

Binding the Nation

This gallery provides an overview of mail service in America from colonial times through the 19th century.

July 30, 1993 – Permanent

Postal Museum

Kids' Favorites

My Visit

Futures in Space

Explore the potential near- and long–term futures that may emerge with advances in space exploration technology and enterprise.

July 28, 2025 – Indefinitely

Air and Space Museum
My Visit

Really BIG Money

Artifacts and activities help young visitors understand that money can be a powerful and memorable way to learn about the world.

April 8, 2022 – Indefinitely

American History Museum
My Visit

The David H. Koch Hall of Fossils—Deep Time

Learn how life on Earth evolved and see highlights from the museum's unrivaled collection of 46 million fossils.

June 8, 2019 – Permanent

Natural History Museum
My Visit

Explore! with the National Portrait Gallery

Explore! is a space where kids (ages 18 months to 8 years old accompanied by an adult) can experiment with portraiture hands-on. Hours are subject to change.

January 28, 2017 – Indefinitely

Portrait Gallery
My Visit

Sports: Leveling the Playing Field

Learn how African Americans have contributed to sports in American and how sports have helped people respond to injustice.

September 24, 2016 – Indefinitely

African American History and Culture Museum
My Visit

Wegmans Wonderplace

Wegmans Wonderplace welcomes curious kids ages 0–6 and their grownups. Please also note that children may not visit Wegmans Wonderplace without an adult. Please check our events calendar for the latest hours.

December 9, 2015 – Indefinitely

American History Museum
My Visit

Patrick F. Taylor Foundation Object Project

In Object Project, visitors consider the impact of innovative things on everyday life in the past.

July 1, 2015 – Permanent

American History Museum
My Visit

Spark!Lab

Open Wednesday–Sunday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Spark!Lab reveals the real story behind inventors’ work through hands-on activities that help kids and families learn about the history and process of invention. Hours are subject to change.

July 1, 2015 – Indefinitely

American History Museum
My Visit

American Trail

American Trail is where Zoo visitors can learn about animals native to the U.S. and Canada, many of which have come back from the brink of extinction and are thriving thanks to conservation efforts.

September 1, 2012 – Permanent

National Zoo
My Visit

As We Grow: Traditions, Toys, Games

The toys, games, and clothing displayed offer children ways of learning traditions of families and people and represent many tribes and time periods.

August 22, 2012 – Permanent

American Indian Museum DC
My Visit

Eternal Life in Ancient Egypt

Learn about Egyptian burial ritual and cosmology and what they reveal about life in ancient Egypt.

November 17, 2011 – Permanent

Natural History Museum
My Visit

Sant Ocean Hall

Dive in with Phoenix—a model of an actual North Atlantic right whale—and discover how the ocean is a global system essential to all life.

September 27, 2008 – Permanent

Natural History Museum
My Visit

Human Spaceflight

Learn how the United States, Soviet Union/Russia, and other nations have made human spaceflight a reality.

November 1, 2004 – Permanent

Air and Space Museum Udvar-Hazy Center
My Visit

Kids' Farm

At the Kids’ Farm, children of all ages have an opportunity to meet and greet cows, alpacas, hogs, donkeys, goats, chickens, and fish.

June 12, 2004 – Permanent

National Zoo
My Visit

America on the Move

This exhibition examines how transportation—from 1876 to 1999—has shaped our American identity.

November 22, 2003 – Permanent

American History Museum
My Visit

Kenneth E. Behring Family Hall of Mammals

Travel to four continents to see some 274 mammals in lifelike poses in their natural habitat.

November 15, 2003 – Permanent

Natural History Museum
My Visit

Janet Annenberg Hooker Hall of Geology, Gems, and Minerals

This hall features 2,500 minerals and gems, including the Hope Diamond, Hooker Emerald Brooch, and a sample from the Bennu asteroid.

September 20, 1997 – Permanent

Natural History Museum
My Visit

Insect Zoo, O. Orkin

The Insect Zoo features many species of live insects, a "nursery" room where visitors can peek at insect larvae and pupae.

September 10, 1993 – Permanent

Natural History Museum
My Visit

Moving the Mail

Faced with the challenge of moving the mail quickly, the postal service looked to trains, automobiles, airplanes, and buses to deliver the mail.

July 30, 1993 – Permanent

Postal Museum
My Visit

The Dolls' House

This dollhouse and its 800 miniature furnishings represent a romantic view of the life of a large and affluent American family in the early 1900s.

Opened 1951 – Indefinitely

American History Museum

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