SAAM 2025 Director’s State of the Museum

Jane Carpenter-Rock, Acting Margaret and Terry Stent Director for the Smithsonian American Art Museum, presents an overview of the museum’s achievements, operations, and programming from the previous year. She discusses what’s to come for 2025 and looks ahead to 2026 for the Nation’s 250th anniversary celebrations. Randall Griffey, head curator at SAAM, gives a fascinating deep dive into a newly acquired piece, Aaron Douglas’s “Inspirat...

Charles C. Eldredge Prize Lecture with Megan A. Smetzer

Art historian Megan A. Smetzer presents her lecture “Gifts from Their Tlingit Grandmothers: Fashioning Relationships Through Beaded Patterns and Threaded Stories.” She is the 2024 recipient of the Eldredge Prize, which annually recognizes originality and thoroughness of research and excellence in writing, for her book “Painful Beauty: Tlingit Women, Beadwork, and the Art of Resilience” (2021). Through extensive archival and m...

Handi-hour Crafting: Beaded Bow Garland

Add charm to any space with your own colorful and trendy beaded bow garland. Learn the basic materials needed and the steps to create your own project at home. In this instructional video, Mary Lesher, Public Programs Coordinator at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, teaches crafting techniques featured at Handi-hour, D.C.’s original crafting happy hour. Register for Handi-hour: https://events.blackthorn.io/5f4ZMUx7/5a2bVR1RtW5

Virtual “The Shape of Power” Artist Conversation

Artists Judy Baca, Ed Bereal, and Peter B. Jones were deeply influenced by the social and cultural shifts of the 1960s and their work channeled the period’s social activism into assertive aesthetic statements. In this lively discussion, the artists talk about their artistic practices and their work featured in the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s exhibition “The Shape of Power: Stories of Race and American Sculpture.” The conve...