| March at SAAM is full of artful conversations and experiences. |
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Featured Program
SAAM Cherry Blossom Family Celebration
Saturday, March 22, 11:30 a.m.–3 p.m.
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Kogod Courtyard
Free | Registration encouraged Celebrate the season of cherry blossoms with SAAM! Begin the day on the F Street Plaza (weather permitting) with a taiko drumming performance by drumming group Nen Daiko. The program continues inside in the Kogod Courtyard for Japanese pop, boogie, and more with Les The DJ. Enjoy other performances while children (ages 12 and younger) make cherry-blossom themed crafts. Seasonal treats will be available for purchase from the Courtyard Café. A spring-themed scavenger hunt through SAAM’s galleries extends the cherry blossom fun.
This program is part of the 2025 National Cherry Blossom Festival. |
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| | Charles C. Eldredge Prize Lecture with Megan A. Smetzer
Thursday, March 13, 4 p.m.
Smithsonian American Art Museum
McEvoy Auditorium
Free | Registration required
Join art historian Megan A. Smetzer for the Eldredge Prize 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. Through extensive archival and museum research, Smetzer shows how beaders countered repressive colonial systems and sustained cultural practices through innovative artistic visions deeply connected to the environment, clan histories, and Tlingit worldviews.
The lecture will be held in person and online; registration is required. |
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| | Virtual America InSight: Verbal Description Tours
Thursday, March 13, 5:30 p.m.
Online
Free | Registration required 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. |
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| | Rediscovering Asian American Art Panel Conversation
Friday, March 14, 6:30 p.m.
Smithsonian American Art Museum
McEvoy Auditorium and YouTube
Free | Registration required
This program brings together three scholars who have worked to illuminate the contributions of twentieth-century Asian American artists. ShiPu Wang, Coats Family Chair in the Arts and professor of art history at the University of California, Merced, discusses his research into the lives and careers of Miki Hayakawa, Hisako Hibi, and Miné Okubo; community historian Patricia Wakida reflects on publishing artist catalogs and “awakening the archives” to bring the stories of WWII-era Japanese American artists to the public; and David Martin, curator at the Cascadia Art Museum, discusses his work recovering histories of Asian American artists of the Pacific Northwest. A group conversation follows the individual presentations, moderated by Melissa Ho, SAAM’s curator of twentieth-century art. |
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| | Art Bites Gallery Talk
Friday, March 28, 12:15 p.m.
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Free | Meet in G Street Lobby 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 what each one tells us about the diverse cultural landscape of the United States. Emma Oslé, Terra Foundation for American Art and Big Ten Academic Alliance Smithsonian Fellow, discusses Elia Alba’s If I were. |
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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. Donate to support SAAM. |
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Image Credits:
Cherry Blossom Festival; Photo by Norwood Photography
Megan A. Smetzer; Photo by Vance E. Williams.
America InSight; Photo by Mary Tait
Miki Hayakawa, One Afternoon, ca. 1935, oil on canvas, New Mexico Museum of Art, Santa Fe, Gift of Preston McCrossen in memory of his wife, the artist, 1954, 520.23P |
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