Exhibitions in Washington, DC
May 2027
May at a glance: 0 exhibitions opening, 2 closing, and 20 more on view across the city.
Closing in May
To Hear Her Speak: Black Women and Shakespeare2 MayFolger Shakespeare Library · Free
Curated by Patricia Akhimie, some 100 photographs, playbills, diaries and costumes trace 450 years of Black women engaging Shakespeare, from Phillis Wheatley to Maya Angelou and Toni Morrison.
Beauford Delaney: So Much Love and Beauty23 MayThe Phillips Collection
Beauford Delaney (1901-1979) from 1940s New York street scenes and portraits to 1960s Paris abstraction, hung alongside influences such as Monet and Stuart Davis and peers including Sam Francis and Ed Clark.
Also on through May
The Spirit of Invention: Patent Office and Patenteesto 6 JunNational Portrait Gallery · Free
The museum turns its lens on its own building: the early Patent Office, told through portraits of Andrew Jackson, Samuel Morse and Lincoln, the only president to hold a patent.
Gold: Celebrating 50 Years of Beauty at Hillwoodto 13 JunHillwood Estate, Museum & Gardens
Hillwood's golden-anniversary show traces gold as material and colour, from Post's gilded boxes, watches and objets d'art to new work by Alfredo Jaar, Tawny Chatmon and Fabiola Jean-Louis.
- The Declaration's Promise: A Revolutionary Ideato 3 Jul
Library of Congress · Free
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.
Big Things for Big Roomsto 4 JulHirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden · Free
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.
Free and Independent: A Celebration of the Declarationto 5 JulNational Archives Museum · Free
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.
A Museum in the Makingto 1 AugNational 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.
Women to Watch 2027: A Book Arts Revolutionto 8 AugNational 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.
Bisa Butler: Tender Monumentsto 22 AugSmithsonian 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.
Portrait of a Nation: 2025 Honoreesto 17 OctNational 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.
- Photographic Memory: Fifty Years of Collectingto 7 Nov
National Portrait Gallery · Free
The photographs department turns fifty with more than one hundred works spanning the daguerreian era to the digital age.
How Can You Forget Me: Filipino American Storiesto 28 NovNational Museum of American History · Free
The overlooked history of a trailblazing Filipino community in California, from the 1910s to the 1970s.
- Adorned in Gold: Japanese Lacquer from the Jacqueline Avant Collectionto 2 Jan
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.
We Make Historyto 2 JanAnacostia 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.
Remix: The Collectionto 16 JanNational 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.
Nation to Nation: Treaties Between the United States and American Indian Nationsto 17 JanNational 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.
Meserve Collection Highlights: Modern Prints from Mathew Brady's Portrait Negativesto 14 MayNational 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.
¡Puro Ritmo! The Musical Journey of Salsato 26 NovNational 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.
- Do Ho Suh: Public Figuresto 29 Apr
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.
Bison: Standing Strongto 31 MayNational 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.
From These Lands: Sharing Our Natural and Cultural Heritageto 31 DecNational 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.
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