About this place

The Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM) is America's first federal art collection, dedicated to the enjoyment and understanding of American art. The museum celebrates the extraordinary creativity of our country's artists, whose works are windows on the American experience. The Smithsonian American Art Museum's Renwick Gallery collects, exhibits, studies, and preserves American crafts and decorative arts from the nineteenth to twenty-first centuries. Housed in a historic architectural landmark across the street from the White House, the Renwick features one-of-a-kind pieces created from clay, fiber, glass, metal, and wood. Selections from the Renwick's permanent collection of American crafts and decorative arts are displayed on a rotating basis in the second-floor galleries. Popular works include Larry Fuente's Game Fish, Wendell Castle's Ghost Clock, and Albert Paley's Portal Gates. Temporary exhibitions of American crafts and decorative arts are shown on the Renwick's first floor. There special exhibitions highlighting contemporary artists as well as traditions in American crafts open in the spring and fall. The museum is open from 11:30am to 7pm daily (except December 25). The Renwick is open from 10am. to 5:30pm, daily (except December 25).