About Smithsonian American Art Museum

The Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM; formerly the National Museum of American Art) is a museum in Washington, D.C., part of the Smithsonian Institution. Together with its branch museum, the Renwick Gallery, SAAM holds one of the world's largest and most inclusive collections of art made in the United States from the colonial period to the present. More than 7,000 artists are represented in the museum's collection. Most exhibitions are held in the museum's main building, the Old Patent Office Building (which is shared with the National Portrait Gallery), while craft-focused exhibitions are shown in the Renwick Gallery.

The museum provides electronic resources to schools and the public through its national education program. It maintains seven online research databases with more than 500,000 records, including the Inventories of American Painting and Sculpture that document more than 400,000 artworks in public and private collections worldwide. Since 1951, the museum has maintained a traveling exhibition program; as of 2013, more than 2.5 million visitors have seen the exhibitions.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Founded
1829
Opened
1968
Annual visitors
329.7K
in 2021
Architect
James Renwick Jr.
Director
Stephanie Stebich

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  1. Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington01WashingtonBobak Ha'Eri · CC BY 3.0
  2. Contemporary Art Galleries, Smithsonian American Art Museum02Contemporary Art Galleries, Smithsonian American Art MuseumAmy Vaughters, Smithsonian American Art Museum · CC BY-SA 3.0
  3. Contemporary Art Galleries, Smithsonian American Art Museum03Contemporary Art Galleries, Smithsonian American Art MuseumAmy Vaughters, Smithsonian American Art Museum · CC BY-SA 3.0
  4. Modern and contemporary art galleries04Modern and contemporary art galleriesAmy Vaughters, Smithsonian American Art Museum · CC BY-SA 3.0
  5. Modern and contemporary art galleries05Modern and contemporary art galleriesAmy Vaughters, Smithsonian American Art Museum · CC BY-SA 3.0
  6. American art galleries06American art galleriesAmy Vaughters, Smithsonian American Art Museum · CC BY-SA 3.0

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Nearby museums

Make a day of it. 4 more museums are within a mile of Smithsonian American Art Museum; the closest, National Portrait Gallery, is practically next door.