Washington, DC, 20013-7012
202-275-1500
URL : http://americanart.si.edu
overview : The Smithsonian American Art Museum's Renwick Gallery collects, exhibits, studies, and preserves American crafts 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. - Temporary exhibitions of American crafts and decorative arts are shown on the Renwick's first floor.
collections : The Smithsonian American Art Museum is the home of the largest collection of American art in the world. Its holdings—over 37,500 works—represent the most inclusive collection of American art of any general museum today, reflecting the nation's ethnic, geographic, cultural, and religious diversity. The nation's first federal art collection, it predates the 1846 founding of the Smithsonian Institution. The Museum is located in the historic Old Patent Office Building in Washington, D.C., where inventors such as Thomas Edison obtained title to their work. The building also served as a hospital for wounded soldiers during the Civil War, and in March 1865 it was the site of Lincoln's second inaugural ball.
hours (subject to change) : 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. every day except December 25
topics : American art, district of columbia
