Exhibitions in Washington, DC

National Museum of Asian Art · Free

How Charles Lang Freer used his Detroit home as a proving ground for what became the first national art museum of the United States.

National Museum of Women in the Arts

NMWA's hallmark biennial series returns with contemporary artists' books: sculptural, printed and paper works that rethink what a book can be, chosen with the museum's global committees.

Smithsonian American Art Museum · Free

A mid-career survey of nearly forty of Bisa Butler's large-scale quilted portraits, shown alongside work by influences including Faith Ringgold and Betye Saar.

The Phillips Collection

A 75-work retrospective of the founding Latinx artist Juan Sánchez (b. 1954), grouped as Autobiography, Community, Nation and Utopia. Co-organised with the Whitney and Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico.

National Portrait Gallery · Free

New portraits of the 2025 award winners — Jamie Dimon, Temple Grandin, Joy Harjo and Steven Spielberg — including commissions by David Lenz and Kate Capshaw.

National Portrait Gallery · Free

The photographs department turns fifty with more than one hundred works spanning the daguerreian era to the digital age.

National Museum of Women in the Arts

The most comprehensive survey of Gwen John (1876-1939) in over 40 years, uniting her quiet oil portraits with rarely seen drawings and watercolours from Wales to Paris.

National Museum of American History · Free

The overlooked history of a trailblazing Filipino community in California, from the 1910s to the 1970s.

National Museum of Asian Art · Free

Edo-period maki-e lacquer from the collection of philanthropist Jacqueline Avant: gold-on-black hairpins, combs, boxes and a princess's litter.

Anacostia Community Museum · Free

Ahead of the museum's 60th anniversary, this show asks how Washingtonians keep their own history - anchored by the diary of Adam Francis Plummer, with letters, photographs and hands-on archiving stations.

Hillwood Estate, Museum & Gardens

Hillwood revisits Post's wardrobe for the first time in a decade, drawing on nearly 300 garments and 600 jewels from a childhood christening gown to Belle Epoque couture and later daytime suits.

National Museum of Women in the Arts

The museum-wide collection installation, rejecting chronology for themes like Photo Credit, Seeing Red and Objectified across six continents and six centuries of women artists.

National Museum of the American Indian · Free

Original treaties on loan from the National Archives, wampum belts and peace medals tell the story of US–Native diplomacy from the colonial era to the present.

National Portrait Gallery · Free

Nine modern prints struck from Mathew Brady's original Civil War-era negatives — Lincoln, Hawthorne, Grant and Emma, Queen of Hawai'i — shown with a glass plate and Brady's wooden storage box.

National Museum of American History · Free

From the streets of Havana to the dance floors of New York and beyond, this bilingual show traces how salsa grew into a defining sound of the United States.

National Museum of Asian Art · Free

On the Freer plaza facing the National Mall, a monumental empty plinth held aloft by hundreds of small striding figures, questioning who monuments are for.

National Museum of Natural History · Free

America's national mammal, from 100,000 years of shaping the prairie to near-extinction and recovery. A six-foot bull bison, an ancient bison skull and a North American prairie soundscape.

National Museum of Natural History · Free

More than 600 specimens and cultural belongings from all 50 states, DC and five US territories — fossils, minerals and treasures chosen to represent every corner of the country.