Art Lover's Guide to Visiting the Smithsonian

The Smithsonian's art collections span centuries, offering space for reflection, interpretation, and discovery. Immerse yourself in exhibitions that demonstrate the transformative power of art and design to delight, inspire, inform, and provide new ways of seeing and thinking about the world around us.

Curate your own art tour!

Tap or click the ♥ heart on any museum or exhibition you are interested in, then email yourself a list of your favorites to help you make the most of your time with us.

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Art and Design Museums

The Asian Art Museum, African Art Museum, and Hirshhorn located next to each other on the National Mall between 12th and 7th Streets, SW. The American Art Museum and Portrait Gallery are about a 15 minute walk north of the National Mall. The Renwick is across from the White House. Cooper Hewitt is in New York City.

Art Exhibitions Across the Smithsonian

As an expression of human history and culture, art can be found at nearly every museum at the Smithsonian. Discover exhibitions that illuminate how art connects us—across cultures, places, and disciplines.

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

Glenn Kaino: Bridge

Glenn Kaino’s powerful aerial sculpture Bridge is comprised of 200 golden arms hanging from the ceiling of SAAM’s Luce Foundation Center.

July 26, 2024 – Ongoing

American Art Museum

Ruffled Feathers: Creating Whistler’s Peacock Room

Ruffled Feathers offers visitors a chance to explore the Peacock Room’s tangled history and the personal and global forces that shaped it.

July 13, 2024 – January 31, 2027

Asian Art Museum, West Building

Shifting Boundaries: Perspectives on American Landscapes

This exhibition explores the views of New England portrayed by American painters William Metcalf, Dwight Tryon, Winslow Homer, and Abbott Thayer and how they have evolved and been reshaped over time.

July 13, 2024 – July 26, 2026

Asian Art Museum, West Building

Benin Bronzes

These artworks were some of the 29 pieces that were legally transferred to their country of origin, Nigeria, in fall 2022.

June 3, 2024 – December 31, 2026

African Art Museum

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

Reclaiming My Time

Works by contemporary Black designers engage ideas about cultural heritage, bodies at rest, and histories of labor and leisure.

May 31, 2024 – January 2026

African American History and Culture Museum

Do Ho Suh: Public Figures

A special edition of Do Ho Suh's work Public Figures is the first new sculpture installed outside the historic Freer Gallery of Art in over three decades.

April 27, 2024 – April 29, 2029

Asian Art Museum, West Building

Revolutions: Art from the Hirshhorn Collection, 1860–1960

A major survey of artwork made during a transformative period characterized by new currents in science and philosophy, and ever-increasing mechanization.

March 22, 2024 – November 29, 2026

Hirshhorn Museum

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

Knotted Clay: Raku Ceramics and Tea

This exhibition features tea bowls, water containers, and other vessels in the museum’s permanent collection that demonstrate the glazes and forms unique to Raku ware.

December 9, 2023 – 2026

Asian Art Museum, West Building

Isaac Julien: Lessons of the Hour—Frederick Douglass

Sir Isaac Julien’s moving image installation Lessons of the Hour (2019) interweaves period reenactments across five screens to create a vivid picture of nineteenth-century activist, writer, orator, and philosopher Frederick Douglass.

December 8, 2023 – August 9, 2026

American Art Museum

Isaac Julien: Lessons of the Hour—Frederick Douglass

Sir Isaac Julien’s moving image installation interweaves period reenactments across five screens to create a vivid picture of Frederick Douglass.

December 8, 2023 – August 9, 2026

Portrait Gallery

Galleries for Modern and Contemporary Art

The museum's permanent collection freshly examines the explosion of possibility in American art between the 1940s and today.

September 22, 2023 – Ongoing

American Art Museum

Connecting Stories at the National Museum of Asian Art

Let Connecting Stories inspire you to explore our collections further and to develop your own connection to the stories at the museum.

April 29, 2023 – Ongoing

Asian Art Museum, East Building

The Art of Knowing in South Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Himalayas Added

~~The Art of Knowing in South Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Himalayas~~ Removed

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The Art of Knowing in South Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Himalayas

The Art of Knowing brings together highlights from our collections to explore religious and practical knowledge across time, space, and cultures

March 25, 2023 – Ongoing

Asian Art Museum, East Building

Abraham Lincoln by W.F.K. Travers

The life size portrait of Abraham Lincoln by W.F.K. Travers joins the America's Presidents exhibition.

February 10, 2023 – December 31, 2027

Portrait Gallery

A Collector's Eye: Freer in Egypt

Freer acquired a range of works, including the renowned Washington Codex—one of the oldest Bibles in the world—a digital copy of which will be on view along with an exceptional group of New Kingdom Egyptian glass vessels, a Byzantine jewelry set, amulets, and hundreds of beads, many of which will be seen in this exhibition for the first time.

January 28, 2023 – Ongoing

Asian Art Museum, West Building

Freer's Global Network: Artists, Collectors, and Dealers

This exhibition looks closely at the interconnected web of artists, dealers, and collectors who helped shape the Freer Gallery of Art’s collection amid the shifting political and economic environment of the early twentieth century.

October 15, 2022 – Ongoing

Asian Art Museum, West Building

Ancient Yemen: Incense, Art, and Trade

The fine alabaster statues and metalworks display the masterful skills of artists from ancient Yemen, who blended local ideas and Greek and Roman inspirations into new creations, underscoring the region’s remarkable artistic and cultural cosmopolitanism.

September 3, 2022 – Ongoing

Asian Art Museum, East Building

Upcoming Art Exhibitions

My Visit

The Ascent of Rauschenberg: Reinventing the Art of Flight

Gain a richer understanding of Robert Rauschenberg’s innovative techniques, sustained legacy, and unique perspective on all things that fly.

July 1, 2026 – Summer 2027

Air and Space Museum
My Visit

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Much Here is Beautiful: Photography Surveys of the U.S. Bicentennial Added

~~Much Here is Beautiful: Photography Surveys of the U.S. Bicentennial~~ Removed

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Much Here is Beautiful: Photography Surveys of the U.S. Bicentennial

From the California coast to the Kansas heartland to the streets of New York City, photographs provide an expansive and evocative portrait of America with a focus on the 1970s and early 1980s.

September 18, 2026 – April 17, 2027

American Art Museum
My Visit

Handwork: Contemporary Craft at the Renwick Gallery

See objects from the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s permanent collection that explore the meaning and relevance of craft in American culture.

November 13, 2026 – Ongoing

Renwick Gallery
My Visit

Added to My Visit Removed from My Visit

Photographic Memory: Fifty Years of Photography at the National Portrait Gallery Added

~~Photographic Memory: Fifty Years of Photography at the National Portrait Gallery~~ Removed

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Photographic Memory: Fifty Years of Photography at the National Portrait Gallery

Photographic Memory marks fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the National Portrait Gallery's photographs collection.

November 14, 2026 – TBD

Portrait Gallery

Explore art and design from anywhere!

Discover online collections, stories, and podcasts related to art and design from across the Smithsonian.

Explore Art & Design

Colorful wood and glass mirrored room with paper lanterns by Yayoi Kusama.

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Art and Design Museums

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Art Exhibitions Across the Smithsonian

Upcoming Art Exhibitions

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Explore art and design from anywhere!