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.

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

Prehistoric Spirals: Earthenware from Thailand

Red painted spirals swirl in distinct patterns across the surfaces of these vessels, testifying to the sophisticated material and aesthetic cultures of northeastern Thailand more than two thousand years ago.

December 18, 2021 – Ongoing

Asian Art Museum, East Building

Artist to Artist

Paired artworks, each representing two figures whose trajectories intersected at a creatively crucial moment.

October 1, 2021 – August 2, 2026

American Art Museum

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

Reckoning: Protest. Defiance. Resilience.

This exhibition explores how art depicts Black resistance, resilience, and protest.

September 10, 2021 – Ongoing

African American History and Culture Museum

Art in Industry

Art in Industry looks back at a time when Americans embraced artistic skills as a way to build a consumer-oriented industrial economy.

March 22, 2018 – TBA

American History Museum

Mark Bradford: Pickett's Charge

The exhibtion forms a monumental circular “cyclorama” that transforms historic Gettysburg imagery into a series of eight powerful, abstract paintings.

November 8, 2017 – Ongoing

Hirshhorn Museum

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

Setting the Bar: Arts of the Song Dynasty

Elegance and refinement in form, line, and color characterize the visual arts of China during the Song dynasty. As new technology enhanced ceramic production and the number of kilns rose, fresh approaches to decoration developed.

October 14, 2017 – Indefinitely

Asian Art Museum, West Building

Promise of Paradise: Ancient Chinese Buddhist Sculpture

The buddhas, bodhisattvas, and disciples in this exhibition were made to inspire and guide believers on their spiritual path. Their beauty imparted the promise of paradise.

October 14, 2017 – Indefinitely

Asian Art Museum, West Building

Art and Industry: China's Ancient Houma Foundry: Chinese Bronzes Added

~~Art and Industry: China's Ancient Houma Foundry: Chinese Bronzes~~ Removed

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Art and Industry: China's Ancient Houma Foundry: Chinese Bronzes

The largest bronze foundry complex from antiquity was excavated at Houma in northern China in the mid-twentieth century. At the two-acre site, archaeologists discovered evidence of extremely sophisticated manufacturing techniques.

October 14, 2017 – Indefinitely

Asian Art Museum, West Building

Rediscovering Korea's Past: Korean Ceramics

Today we admire the translucent gray-green celadon glaze on Korean ceramics of the Goryeo period as one of the great achievements of world potters.

October 14, 2017 – Indefinitely

Asian Art Museum, West Building

Afterlife: Ancient Chinese Jades

A construction boom in China more than a century ago resulted in new railways and factories—and the accidental discovery of scores of rich ancient cemeteries. Buried in these tombs for thousands of years were jewelry and ritual objects, all laboriously crafted from jade.

October 14, 2017 – Indefinitely

Asian Art Museum, West Building

Looking Out, Looking In: Art in Late Imperial China

Many of the powerful emperors of China’s last dynasties—the Ming (1368–1644) and Qing (1644–1912)—were patrons, collectors, and casual practitioners of the arts. They used art to legitimize and glorify their rule. It served many functions: for state rituals, for expressing piety, to dazzle palace visitors, to build diplomatic relations, and for personal pleasure.

October 14, 2017 – Indefinitely

Asian Art Museum, West Building

Engaging the Senses: Arts of the Islamic World

Every region, province, and even city developed its own artistic language with rich sensory resonances, many of which are explored in these galleries.

October 14, 2017 – Indefinitely

Asian Art Museum, West Building

Center of the World: China and the Silk Road

This wealthy, worldly hub offered a ready market for exotic imports that local artisans translated into a Chinese style.

October 14, 2017 – Indefinitely

Asian Art Museum, West Building

Body Image: Arts of the Indian Subcontinent

This exhibition explores concepts and aesthetics of the body. The theme of the body provides a portal for appreciating how India’s extraordinary culture is woven from distinctive but interrelated traditions.

October 14, 2017 – Indefinitely

Asian Art Museum, West Building

Feast Your Eyes: A Taste for Luxury in Ancient Iran

View highly sophisticated ancient Iranian metalwork ranging from deep bowls to elaborate drinking vessels to objects in gold and silver.

October 14, 2017 – Permanent

Asian Art Museum, East Building

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

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

Upcoming Art Exhibitions

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.

Curate your own art tour!

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!