Past Exhibitions | Smithsonian Institution

I Dream a World: Selections from Brian Lanker’s Portraits of Remarkable Black Women: Part I

This exhibition features more than 25 photographs by Brian Lanker, the Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer.

July 8, 2022 – January 29, 2023

Mr. Pergolesi's Curious Things: Ornament in 18th-Century Britain

Brilliantly hued watercolors from Cooper Hewitt’s collection highlight Michel Angel Pergolesi’s skill in transforming ancient relics into lighthearted decorative motifs.

October 1, 2022 – January 29, 2023

Cooper Hewitt Design Museum

Living in Two Times: Photography by Bahman Jalali and Rana Javadi

Noted for their sharp documentary images and haunting photomontage works, the artists are among the most influential figures in the development of late twentieth-century photography in Iran.

August 6, 2022 – January 8, 2023

Asian Art Museum, East Building

I Am... Contemporary Women Artists of Africa

Taking its name from a 1970’s feminist anthem, I Am… Contemporary Women Artists of Africa draws upon a selection of artworks by women artists from the museum's permanent collection.

June 20, 2019 – December 31, 2022

African Art Museum

Building America's National Collection: 175 Years of Collecting

See selected objects representing all of the museums that offer a tantalizing sample of the breadth and depth of the Smithsonian's vast collections.

May 8, 2005 – December 14, 2022

Smithsonian Castle

Genome: Unlocking Life's Code

With engaging interactives, 3D models, custom animation and videos of real-life stories, this exhibition examines the benefits and the challenges that genomics presents to modern society.

October 21, 2021 – November 28, 2022

Natural History Museum

Once Upon a Roof: Vanished Korean Architecture

One special type of ornamented roof tile is the focus of this exhibition.Called chimi in Korea, these impressive features crowned both ends of the main roof ridge of prominent buildings.

May 21, 2022 – October 30, 2022

Asian Art Museum, East Building

Recent Acquisitions: Gifts from the Corcoran Gallery of Art

This exhibition presents more than 25 gifted works, including portraits of cultural figures Louis Armstrong, Katharine Graham, and Frida Kahlo; presidents James Madison and Zachary Taylor; and the first Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, Joseph Henry.

October 9, 2020 – October 23, 2022

Portrait Gallery

Sarah and Eleanor Hewitt: Designing a Modern Museum

This exhibition—through archival photography and documents, personal drawings and correspondence, news clippings and ephemera—chronicles the colorful lives and contributions of the dynamic sisters.

February 4, 2022 – October 23, 2022

Cooper Hewitt Design Museum

Documenting Diversity: How Anthropologists Record Human Life

Examine the ways anthropologists have recorded and shared their field observations using the technologies of their time.

June 18, 2021 – October 18, 2022

Natural History Museum

Nicolas Party: Draw the Curtain

The exterior of the Hirshhorn’s iconic cylindrical building is the site of internationally renowned Swiss artist Nicolas Party’s newest artwork.

September 18, 2021 – October 17, 2022

Hirshhorn Museum

Unforgettable Behavior: Wildlife Photographer of the Year

Unforgettable Behavior brings together exceptional images recognized in past years of the Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition, which is owned and run by the Natural History Museum, London.

November 3, 2021 – September 30, 2022

Natural History Museum

Outbreak: Epidemics in a Connected World

Outbreak invites visitors to join epidemiologists, veterinarians, public health workers, and citizens of all ages and origins as they rush to identify and contain infectious disease outbreaks.

May 18, 2018 – September 30, 2022

Natural History Museum

Nature by Design: Botanical Expressions

Botanical Expressions focuses on key figures—Christopher Dresser, Emile Gallé, William Morris, and Louis Comfort Tiffany—whose knowledge of the natural sciences and personal practices of gardening enriched their creative output as designers.

December 7, 2019 – September 25, 2022

Cooper Hewitt Design Museum

Represent: Hip-Hop Photography

Inspired by the four elements of hip-hop—DJ’s, MCs, breakdancers and graffiti—Represent showcases photographs from the Eyejammie Hip Hop Photography Collection alongside other images from the museum’s photography collection.

May 6, 2022 – September 25, 2022

African American History and Culture Museum

Foreign Exchange: 18th-Century Design on the Move

Drawing from the permanent collection, this exhibition explores the unprecedented circulation of labor, skills, aesthetics, and luxury goods across international borders in the 18th century.

January 28, 2022 – September 25, 2022

Cooper Hewitt Design Museum

Revealing Krishna: Journey to Cambodia's Sacred Mountain

Revealing Krishna transports visitors to a sacred mountain in the floodplains of southern Cambodia.

April 30, 2022 – September 18, 2022

Asian Art Museum, East Building

Food for the People: Eating and Activism in Greater Washington

Take a deep dive into the food issues of the nation’s capital—past and present—with this outdoor and indoor exhibition featuring artifacts, art installations, videos, and hands-on interactives.

April 17, 2021 – September 17, 2022

Anacostia Community Museum

Dakota Modern: The Art of Oscar Howe

Dakota Modern: The Art of Oscar Howe traces more than forty years of the artist’s career and development from early conventional work created while in high school in the 1930s through the emergence in the 1950s and 1960s of his innovative and abstract approach to painting.

March 12, 2022 – September 11, 2022

American Indian Museum New York

Sam Gilliam: Full Circle

Gilliam’s first solo exhibition at the Hirshhorn reflects the breadth of his multilayered practice and marks the first exhibition in Gilliam’s chosen hometown of Washington, D.C., since 2007.

May 25, 2022 – September 11, 2022

Hirshhorn Museum

The Power to See Beauty: Charles Lang Freer

Who has “the power to see beauty”? How much do you need to know to appreciate a work of art from another culture or historical era? Our museum founder Charles Lang Freer (1854–1919) asked himself these fundamental questions as he prepared to transfer his personal collection of Asian antiquities and American tonalist paintings to a new public museum on the National Mall.

October 14, 2017 – September 6, 2022

Asian Art Museum, West Building

Watergate: Portraiture and Intrigue

On the fiftieth anniversary of the Watergate break-in, this exhibition from the National Portrait Gallery's collection, brings visitors face-to-face with the scandal's cast of characters.

March 25, 2022 – September 5, 2022

Portrait Gallery

Habitat

Habitat is a two-year Smithsonian-wide exhibition exploring one big idea: Protecting habitats protects life.

May 10, 2019 – September 5, 2022

Smithsonian Gardens

Duro Olowu Selects: Works from the Permanent Collection

Olowu’s exhibition highlights the theme of pattern and repetition throughout the collection, demonstrating how designers, artists, and makers have relied on pattern to express ideas, preserve heritage, capture attention, and construct objects and environments.

March 18, 2022 – August 28, 2022

Cooper Hewitt Design Museum

Make Good the Promises: Reconstruction and Its Legacies

Make Good the Promises: Reconstruction and Its Legacies is a 4,300-square-foot exhibition exploring the Reconstruction era through an African American lens.

September 24, 2021 – August 21, 2022

African American History and Culture Museum