Past Exhibitions | Smithsonian Institution

Dewing's Poetic World

Exploring Dewing’s social connections reveals how his art was influenced by his friendships with Charles Lang Freer, who encouraged him to pursue Japonisme, and with architect Stanford White, who designed the elaborate frames for many of his paintings on view in this intriguing exhibition.

November 27, 2019 – April 3, 2022

Asian Art Museum, West Building

Biomes: Life in the Balance

Visit deserts, rainforests, grasslands, wetlands, and tundra without leaving the National Mall in this Smithsonian Garden's exhibit.

May 10, 2019 – March 31, 2022

Ripley Center

Boeing Milestones of Flight Hall

This exhibition celebrates some of the most significant airplanes, rockets, and spacecraft in history. They tell tales of ingenuity and courage, war and peace, politics and power, as well as society and culture.

July 1, 2016 – March 27, 2022

Air and Space Museum

The Wright Brothers & The Invention of the Aerial Age

This exhibition presents the Wrights' technical achievements and examines the cultural impact of early powered flight.

October 11, 2003 – March 27, 2022

Air and Space Museum

Moving Beyond Earth

Explore the achievements and challenges of human spaceflight in the United States during the space shuttle and space station era.

November 19, 2009 – March 27, 2022

Air and Space Museum

Explore the Universe

Learn what scientists think our universe is like, how the present scientific view of the universe came to be, how our universe is being shaped today, and what mysteries remain.

September 21, 2001 – March 27, 2022

Air and Space Museum

Time and Navigation: The Untold Story of Getting from Here to There

This exhibition reveals why a good clock is crucial to navigation and how increasingly accurate timekeeping has influenced how we find our way.

April 12, 2013 – March 27, 2022

Air and Space Museum

#IfThenSheCan - The Exhibit

#IfThenSheCan – The Exhibit is he largest collection of statues of women ever assembled together, to be installed on and around the National Mall.

March 5, 2022 – March 27, 2022

Smithsonian Gardens

Space Race

This exhibition traces the competition in space between the U.S. and the former Soviet Union from its origins in the 1950s to the recent international cooperation.

May 16, 1997 – March 27, 2022

Air and Space Museum

Storied Women of the Civil War Era

This intimate exhibition includes portraits of Civil War era women who captivated the public while becoming sought-after subjects for Mathew Brady’s camera.

May 24, 2019 – March 20, 2022

Portrait Gallery

Unsettled Nature: Artists Reflect on the Age of Humans

Unsettled Nature offers visitors the opportunity to explore the unparalleled, ubiquitous and still-growing mark that humanity is making on the world through 16 works of art.

June 18, 2021 – March 7, 2022

Natural History Museum

New Glass Now

New Glass Now documents the innovation and dexterity of artists, designers, and architects from around the world working in the challenging material of glass. This global survey is designed to highlight the breadth and depth of contemporary glass making.

October 22, 2021 – March 6, 2022

Renwick Gallery

Connections: Contemporary Craft at the Renwick Gallery

Connections is the Renwick Gallery’s dynamic ongoing permanent collection presentation, featuring more than 80 objects celebrating craft as a discipline and an approach to living differently in the modern world.

March 12, 2019 – March 6, 2022

Renwick Gallery

Uncle Tom's Cabin: Early and Notable Editions

The exhibit shows the early and notable editions of the novel in the library’s collection, as well as its interesting publishing history.

February 28, 2020 – February 28, 2022

African American History and Culture Museum

Caravans of Gold, Fragments in Time: Art, Culture, and Exchange across Medieval Saharan Africa

Rare and precious archaeological fragments are seen side by side, bringing new understanding to complete works of art from the medieval period.

July 16, 2021 – February 27, 2022

African Art Museum

Martin Luther King Jr.'s Original "I Have a Dream" Speech

Martin Luther King Jr.’s original speech from the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom is on display in Defending Freedom, Defining Freedom.

January 13, 2022 – February 27, 2022

African American History and Culture Museum

Jon Gray of Ghetto Gastro Selects

The Bronx, New York-based creative collective Ghetto Gastro curates the 19th installment in the exhibition series that invites designers, artists, architects, and public figures to examine and interpret the museum’s collection.

July 1, 2021 – February 13, 2022

Cooper Hewitt Design Museum

Encountering the Buddha: Art and Practice Across Asia

Visitors can step into a Tibetan Buddhist shrine, linger at a Sri Lankan stupa, travel with an eighth-century Korean monk and discover remarkable objects in Encountering the Buddha.

October 14, 2017 – February 6, 2022

Asian Art Museum, East Building

Warranted to Give Satisfaction: Daguerreotypes by Jeremiah Gurney

In 1840, Jeremiah Gurney abandoned his career as a jeweler to establish one of New York City’s first daguerreotype studios.

June 25, 2021 – February 6, 2022

Portrait Gallery

Welcome Home: A Portrait of East Baltimore, 1975-1980

Of the more than seventy projects funded by the NEA, the East Baltimore Survey was unique for having been conceived, led, and carried out by women photographers.

July 16, 2021 – January 23, 2022

American Art Museum

Her Story: A Century of Women Writers

This exhibition drawn from the NPG collection highlights twenty-four noted women writers from the past one hundred years.

September 18, 2020 – January 23, 2022

Portrait Gallery

Hokusai: Mad about Painting

Drawing on the museum’s impressive Hokusai collection artworks are being added throughout the summer.

July 16, 2021 – January 9, 2022

Asian Art Museum, West Building

Escaramuza Dress

An escaramuza charra dress worn by Veronica Davila is on view, representing the only female event in the Mexican charrería.

September 17, 2021 – January 4, 2022

American History Museum

Nature by Design: Cochineal

This installation explores the enduring legacy of the cochineal insect as a natural colorant and its innovative use among contemporary designers from across the Americas.

November 16, 2019 – January 2, 2022

Cooper Hewitt Design Museum

Suzie Zuzek for Lilly Pulitzer: The Prints that Made the Fashion Brand

The exhibition features more than 35 original watercolor and gouache design drawings by Zuzek to reveal Zuzek’s artistic contribution to the iconic Pulitzer style.

June 10, 2021 – January 2, 2022

Cooper Hewitt Design Museum