Exhibitions in Washington, DC

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.

Library of CongressFree

Library collections trace how Americans have argued with, rallied around and reached for the Declaration of Independence — its ideals of equality, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture GardenFree

Ten room-swallowing installations trace immersive art from the late 1960s on — Flavin, Gilliam, Irwin, Pape and Long, then Chan, Eliasson, Finch, Johnson and Rottenberg. Five shown here for the first time.

National Archives MuseumFree

America250 show marking the Declaration's 250th anniversary, in three parts: the Revolution, the preservation of the original parchment, and how Americans have celebrated independence since 1776.

National Portrait GalleryFree

More than twenty portraits of musicians, dancers and actors, mostly paintings and sculpture from the past century: Paul Robeson, Katharine Hepburn, Dizzy Gillespie, Maria Callas, LL Cool J.

National Gallery of ArtFree

What does it mean to have a "homeland" when it's shaped by movement, memory, and change? East Building Mezzanine.

National Museum of Asian ArtFree

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 MuseumFree

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.

National Gallery of ArtFree

One of today's most influential artists proposes new ways of seeing art and histories through language. East Building.

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 GalleryFree

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 GalleryFree

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

Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture GardenFree

Three towering white aluminium heads by Yoshitomo Nara, enlarged from small 2021 clay heads, open the revitalized Sculpture Garden's West Lawn series.

National Museum of American HistoryFree

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

Anacostia Community MuseumFree

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.

National Museum of Asian ArtFree

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

Renwick GalleryFree

Mid-career survey of Saya Woolfalk's Empathics, part-plant, part-human beings, told through immersive installations, sculptural garments, glass and video projections.

Library of CongressFree

Highlights from the American Folklife Center's 50 years of collecting: recordings, photos and objects on the living traditions of food, play, work and place.

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 Gallery of ArtFree

Once coveted by America's wealthy, these landscape paintings were largely lost to history. West Building.

National Museum of the American IndianFree

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 GalleryFree

All-new work across seven galleries by Apsáalooke (Crow) artist Wendy Red Star, whose portraiture reworks archival images of Native leaders.

National Portrait GalleryFree

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 Portrait GalleryFree

Sixteen presidential portrait medals, 1793 to 1881, that the U.S. government presented to Native American leaders during treaty negotiations and visits to Washington.

National Museum of American HistoryFree

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 ArtFree

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 HistoryFree

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 HistoryFree

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.