Past Exhibitions | Smithsonian Institution

A Splendid Land: Paintings from Royal Udaipur

With dazzling paintings on paper and cloth A Splendid Land reveals how artists conveyed emotions, depicted places, celebrated water resources, and fostered personal bonds over some two hundred years in the rapidly changing political and cultural landscapes of early modern South Asia.

November 19, 2022 – May 14, 2023

Asian Art Museum, East Building

Discovery and Revelation: Religion, Science, and Making Sense of Things

This exhibition tells stories concerning intersections of religion and science from three centuries of American history, beginning with a 1721 controversy concerning smallpox and Puritan notions of divine judgement, and ending with encounters of technology and belief in the digital age.

March 18, 2022 – April 30, 2023

American History Museum

Jeffrey Veregge: Of Gods and Heroes

This site-specific work includes an epic battle between Marvel characters and aliens invading the streets of New York City.

November 19, 2021 – April 9, 2023

American Indian Museum New York

Sculpture Garden

The Sculpture Garden offers visitors a contemplative haven in the heart of our nation’s capital.

October 4, 1974 – April 7, 2023

Hirshhorn Museum

Feathered Ink

Across three galleries, Feathered Ink explores how Japanese artists have experimented over several centuries with different brush techniques in their depictions of avian subjects.

August 27, 2022 – April 2, 2023

Asian Art Museum, West Building

Rinpa: Creativity Across Time and Space

We invite you to explore a selection of paintings and ceramics by several generations of Rinpa artists from our collection.

October 1, 2022 – April 2, 2023

Asian Art Museum, West Building

This Present Moment: Crafting a Better World

This Present Moment highlights the role that artists play in our world to spark essential conversations, stories of resilience, and methods of activism.

May 13, 2022 – April 2, 2023

Renwick Gallery

We Are Made of Stories: Self-Taught Artists in the Robson Family Collection

We Are Made of Stories traces the rise of self-taught artists in the twentieth century and examines how, despite wide-ranging societal, racial, and gender-based obstacles, their creativity and bold self-definition became major forces in American art.

July 1, 2022 – March 26, 2023

American Art Museum

Design and Healing: Creative Responses to Epidemics

This exhibition features the work of designers, artists, doctors, engineers, and neighbors who asked, “How can I help?”

December 10, 2021 – March 19, 2023

Cooper Hewitt Design Museum

Developing Stories: Native Photographers in the Field

Developing Stories: Native Photographers in the Field features photo essays by Native photojournalists Donovan Quintero, Tailyr Irvine, and Russel Albert Daniels

November 3, 2022 – March 12, 2023

American Indian Museum New York

The Utopia Project

This interactive gallery is a space to learn the art of activism and to unlock the creativity in each of us to transform our world.

November 1, 2022 – March 1, 2023

Anacostia Community Museum

Face Values

Face Values is an immersive installation that explores the pervasive but often hidden role of facial-detection technology in contemporary society.

September 20, 2019 – February 13, 2023

Cooper Hewitt Design Museum

Our Universes: Traditional Knowledge Shapes Our World

Focusing on Native cosmology and organized around one solar year, this exhibition explores the annual ceremonies of Native peoples as a window on their ancestral teachings.

September 21, 2004 – February 12, 2023

American Indian Museum DC

Smithson Crypt

The final resting place of the Institution's benefactor, James Smithson (1765-1829), is a small chapel-like room located at the north entrance to the Castle.

March 6, 1905 – January 31, 2023

Smithsonian Castle

Welcome to Your Smithsonian

This exhibition looks at the history of the Smithsonian, focusing on its research; museums; and public programs in art, culture, history, and science, and the role of the American public in the Smithsonian's museums and research. The Smithsonian is a partnership between its specialist staff and the American people.

March 20, 2015 – January 31, 2023

Smithsonian Castle

Views from the Tall Tower

See how the Washington skyline, as seen from the north tower of the Castle, has changed since 1863.

August 1, 2012 – January 31, 2023

Smithsonian Castle

The Earliest Known Photograph of the Castle

The earliest known photograph of the Castle, taken in 1850 during the building's contruction, is on view.

August 10, 2015 – January 31, 2023

Smithsonian Castle

Well-Dressed Walls: Spanning Three Centuries of Wallpaper from the Cooper Hewitt Collection

In this small display, reproductions of wallpaper dating from the 1770s to the 1950s from the collection of the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum are installed in pairs to reflect the practice of designing wallpapers to be used together.

March 23, 2016 – January 31, 2023

Smithsonian Castle

Smithsonian Stamped!

In this small display, learn about the origins of the commemorative stamp and view two Smithsonian commemorative stamps celebrating our 100^th and 150^th anniversaries.

December 16, 2021 – January 31, 2023

Smithsonian Castle

Underdogs and Antiheroes: Japanese Prints from the Moskowitz Collection

Expect the unexpected. The exhibition focuses on the captivating stories and urban legends of individuals living on the fringes of society in early modern Japan.

March 19, 2022 – January 29, 2023

Asian Art Museum, East Building

Preston Singletary: Raven and the Box of Daylight

Preston Singletary: Raven and the Box of Daylight features works from internationally acclaimed artist Preston Singletary (Tlingit American, 1963), and tells the story of Raven, the creator of the world and giver of the stars, moon, and sun.

January 28, 2022 – January 29, 2023

American Indian Museum DC

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

More Doctors Smoke Camels: A Close Reading of Historical Advertising

Contemporary audiences will learn how advertisers from the 1920s to the 1960s worked to promote cigarettes in the face of the health problems they caused.

April 5, 2019 – January 29, 2023

American History 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

Girlhood (It's Complicated)

Through its rich collections and new acquisitions, the museum explores how girls have been on the front lines of social and cultural change.

October 9, 2020 – January 2, 2023

American History Museum