Smithsonian American Art Museum

The Smithsonian American Art Museum is the home to one of the largest and most inclusive collections of American art in the world. The collection captures the aspirations, character, and imagination of the American people over three centuries. With more than 7,000 artists represented, the collection reveals key aspects of America’s rich artistic and cultural history from the colonial period to today.

The museum has been a leader in identifying and collecting significant aspects of American visual culture, including photography, modern folk and self-taught art, African American art, Latinx art, and video games. The museum has the largest collection of New Deal art and exceptional collections of contemporary craft, American impressionist paintings, and masterpieces from the Gilded Age. In recent years, the museum has focused on strengthening its contemporary art collection, and in particular media arts, through acquisitions, awards, curatorial appointments, endowments, and by commissioning new artworks.