November Programs at SAAM

Featured Program

Artist Raven Chacon in Concert and Conversation
Saturday, November 4, 2 p.m.

Artist Raven Chacon (Diné) is joined by Joy Harjo, Candice Hopkins, Ange Loft, Laura Ortman, and Olivia Shortt to present selections from his work For Zitkála-Šá (2020). A Pulitzer Prize-winning composer and 2023 MacAuthur Fellow, Chacon dedicated this portfolio of scores to contemporary Native American and First Nations women to celebrate their contributions to music. Following this piece, a local ensemble will perform ...lahgo adil’i dine doo yeehosinilgii yidaaghi (2004), which is held in the collection of the National Museum of the American Indian. This program marks the first time each of these compositions will be performed before a live audience in Washington, DC.

Concluding the event is a conversation with the five For Zitkála-Šá performers, moderated by Chacon. A selection of works from this portfolio of thirteen lithographs are currently on view in SAAM’s Musical Thinking: New Video Art and Sonic Strategies.

Please note this program takes place at the National Museum of the American Indian, Washington, DC.

This program is co-presented by the National Museum of the American Indian and the Smithsonian American Art Museum, with funding support from the Smithsonian American Women’s History Initiative.

Ekphrastic Poetry Workshop
Thursday, November 2, 5:30 p.m

Explore Composing Color: Paintings by Alma Thomas with award-winning poet and journalist Celeste Doaks. Her 2019 book, American Herstory, included ekphrastic poems about the art choices made by Michelle Obama to decorate the White House. Doaks will lead the group through her process of writing ekphrastic poetry and then teach attendees how to create their own poem about a work of art inspired by the paintings of Alma Thomas. Space is limited and registration is required.

Observe the Conservation of James Hampton’s Throne of the Third Heaven
Thursday, November 2, 2 – 6 p.m.
Friday, November 3, 2 – 6 p.m.
Thursday, November 9, 2 – 6 p.m.
Thursday, November 16, 2 – 6 p.m.
Friday, November 17, 2 – 6 p.m.
Saturday, November 18, 12 – 4 p.m.
Thursday, November 30, 2 – 6 p.m.

Join us to watch ongoing treatment of James Hampton's The Throne of the Third Heaven of the Nations’ Millennium General Assembly in a temporary conservation space on the museum’s first floor. In this recurring program, conservators and registrars at SAAM talk with the public about the intricate methods and materials used by Hampton as they do their work.

Virtual Beyond the Studio Workshop: Pressed Flower Ornaments with Hailey Rohn
Sunday, November 5, 1 – 2 p.m ET

Join local DC artist Hailey Rohn of Wildry for an engaging online workshop leading participants through the process of creating a pressed flower decorative ornament. Originally a landscape architect, Rohn turned her love of nature and sustainability into a full-time artistic career.

Please note that space is limited for this program; participants must register by 7 p.m. ET on October 25. Tickets include the cost of materials needed for the activity, instructions, and postage.

In the final lecture in SAAM’s annual Clarice Smith Distinguished Lecture Series, critic Mary Louise Schumacher is joined by fellow art critics Seph Rodney and Hrag Vartanian of Hyperallergic and Jeneé Osterheldt of The Boston Globe for a special preview screening of Schumacher’s film Out of the Picture (140 minutes), followed by a conversation with the art critics.

Made over the course of several years, this feature-length film follows the critics noted above, as well as Carolina Miranda and Jen Graves, as the landscape of art criticism evolves in a fast-paced media environment. The film is in-person only; the conversation portion will be recorded and available online on the museum’s YouTube channel at a later date.

Virtual America InSight: Verbal Description Tours
Thursday, November 9, 5:30 – 6:30 p.m. ET

Join the Smithsonian American Art Museum for a docent-led virtual tour designed for participants who are blind or have low vision. Discover highlights from the collection through rich verbal descriptions that invoke a multisensory experience.

In-person and Virtual Artist Conversation with Geo Neptune and Lily Hope
Thursday, November 16, 6:30 – 7:30 p.m.

Join Sharing Honors and Burdens: Renwick Invitational 2023 artists Geo Neptune (Passamaquoddy) and Lily Hope (Tlingit) in conversation with Darienne Turner, assistant curator of Indigenous Art of the Americas at the Baltimore Museum of Art.

Neptune, a skilled basket maker and activist, explores themes of generational consciousness while incorporating sacred Native American mythology into their work. One of the last living apprentices of her mother, late master Chilkat weaver Clarissa Rizal, Hope is a designer and weaver whose contemporary works in textile and paper collage weave together Ravenstail and Chilkat design. These artists will discuss the importance of cultural identity and how it informs their creative practice.

Media sponsorship for Sharing Honors and Burdens: Renwick Invitational 2023 programing is provided by the American Craft Council.

Art Bites Gallery Talk
Friday, November 17, 12:15 – 12:45 p.m.

Join SAAM’s research fellows for this lunchtime series of gallery talks as they share new discoveries about artworks on view. Learn the stories behind these objects and how each one tells us about America’s ever-changing culture. Francesca Soriano, Douglass Foundation Predoctoral Fellow, discusses James McNeill Whistler's Valparaiso Harbor.

To view other Art Bites talks, visit SAAM’s full calendar of events.

Many Wests: Artists Shape an American Idea Lecture with Anne Hyland
Wednesday, November 29, 6:45 p.m.

Commonly accepted ideas about the American West, both in popular culture and in dominant historical narratives, are often based on a past that never was. They frequently diminish, if not overlook entirely, important viewpoints and experiences.

Join Anne Hyland, curatorial assistant and coordinator for the Art Bridges Cohort Program at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, for a lively talk about the exhibition Many Wests: Artists Shape an American Idea. The exhibition, now on view at SAAM, offers counterviews of “the West” through the perspectives of 48 modern and contemporary artists especially those who identify as Asian American, Black, Indigenous, LGBTQ+, and Latinx who offer a broader and more inclusive view of this region. Their artworks question old and sometimes racist clichés, examine tragic and sidelined histories, and illuminate the multiple communities and events that contribute to the past and present of this region of the United States.

Tickets available at ​smithsonianassociates.org/ticketing/tickets/many-wests CODE: 1L0542

Art Signs: Musical Thinking Tour in ASL
Thursday, November 30, 5:30 – 6:30 p.m.

In this special edition of Art Signs, Deaf collaborators from Motion Light Lab (ML2) at Gallaudet University lead an hour-long American Sign Language (ASL) tour of the exhibition Musical Thinking: New Video Art and Sonic Strategies, focusing on the haptics and captions developed in partnership with ML2. The tour and discussion engage with selected artworks from a d/Deaf perspective. Voice interpretation is provided for hearing participants.

The Smithsonian American Art Museum is able to create and share experiences like these thanks to funding from generous supporters like you.

Thank you for ensuring that American art is available to all.

Image Credits:
Photo courtesy of Raven Chacon

Raven Chacon, For Joy Harjo, from the series For Zitkála Šá, 2020, lithograph on paper, sheet and image: 11 in. × 8 1⁄2 in. (27.9 × 21.6 cm), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase through the Julia D. Strong Endowment, 2022.7.1.10, © 2019-2020, Raven Chacon

Photo courtesy of Celeste Doaks 

Conservation photo of  James Hampton's Throne, Photo by Anna Nielsen

Still from Out of the Picture

Verbal description tour, Photo by Mary Tait

James McNeill Whistler, Valparaiso Harbor, 1866, oil on canvas, 30 1/8 x 20 1/8 in. (76.6 x 51.1 cm), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of John Gellatly, 1929.6.159

Angel Rodríguez-Díaz, The Protagonist of an Endless Story, 1993, oil on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase made possible in part by the Smithsonian Latino Initiatives Pool and the Smithsonian Institution Collections Acquisition Program, 1996.19, © 1993, Angel Rodriguez-Diaz

Christine Sun Kim, Detail from Close Readings, 2015, four-channel video; 25:53 minutes, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase through the Luisita L. and Franz H. Denghausen Endowment, 2020.79.2, © 2015 Christine Sun Kim. Courtesy of the artist and François Ghebaly, Los Angeles

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