Stephanie G. Mathis In the Smithsonian Museums, a variety of new exhibitions will be presented in 2019. Recent trends in curation mean that shows are often longer, sometimes even lasting more than one year.
Some of the most popular museums, such as the National Museum of Natural History, have announced no new exhibits for this calendar year as they are extending their current offerings. The National Air and Space Museum, meanwhile, will not unveil any recent exhibitions until after the renovations of its Washington, DC facility are complete. Tickets for the current highly sought-after exhibits still need to be purchased in advance.
There are still many openings at the Smithsonian museums on the National Mall and elsewhere. Curators will be highlighting important anniversaries and technologies, as well as thought-provoking artists and the upcoming Presidential election.
Here are 24 things you can look forward to in 2024 at the Smithsonian. All museums are located in Washington, D.C., unless otherwise stated.
Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream,” National Museum of African American History and Culture
On January 8, to celebrate Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy and life, a copy of the original “I Have a Dream” speech delivered by the civil rights leader during the 1963 March on Washington in support of Jobs and Freedom was returned to the public view. The original draft of the speech, which was written without the famous phrase, will be displayed along with other King-related items, such as a Congressional Gold Medal awarded posthumously to King in 2014, a handbill from 1956 advertising a Boston prayer meeting, and a laundry pan used by King on the March between Selma and Montgomery in 1965.
National Portrait Gallery, “Star Power: Photos From Hollywood’s Golden Age By George Hurrell”
George Hurrell was the go-to photographer of the 1930s and 1940s. He helped to shape the way the public saw film stars around the globe. Hurrell’s photographs, which are being showcased in a new exhibition decades after his peak of influence, still define the era where Hollywood stars became household names. Hurrell, who was first contracted by MGM and later by Warner Bros. as well as running his own Sunset Boulevard studio, captured dramatic, glossy shots of Greta Garbo as well as Spencer Tracy, Clark Gable, Joan Crawford, and others. Hurrell was reportedly the only photographer who could photograph Norma Shearer, as she refused to let anyone else take her picture. He would later use still portraits to help Rita Hayworth’s career.
Smithsonian American Art Museum, “Fighters for Freedom : William H. Johnson – Picturing justice”
William H. Johnson, born in the Deep South of America, became one of the most important American artists of the 20th Century. He was influenced by his time in New York and Europe, as well as the modern and folk art he encountered and experienced with other Black artists in Harlem. Johnson’s “Fighters for Freedom series” was created in the 1940s as a tribute to African American activists, scientists, and teachers, including Harriet Tubman and George Washington Carver. Mahatma Gandhi and other international leaders who worked to bring peace to the world were also included in the series. The Smithsonian has more than 1,000 Johnson works in its collection. This exhibit was first shown at five regional museums around the country.
National Museum of American History, “Change YOUR game / Cambia Tu Juego”
The American History Museum’s Lemelson Center for Invention and Innovation is hosting a new interactive exhibit that will be suitable for families. It will demonstrate how innovations and new technologies have helped improve athletic performance over the years. This includes a Crash Cloud Football helmet, cameras designed to automate the line calls during the U.S. Open professional tennis tournament, and prosthetics that make extreme sports accessible for athletes who are amputation-free. Through hands-on activities, visitors can solve their problems by creating game-changers that will improve their everyday lives.
Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum, “Becoming Visible”
The Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum has spent the last three years building it from scratch. The arduous task of building a museum from the ground up involves hiring staff, building collections, finding a new location for the organization, and launching the educational outreach that is at the heart of any museum’s mission. The museum’s first digital exhibit, “Becoming visible,” will be found on its site in March, despite the physical construction being years away. The 10-minute experience will feature the stories of five females whose narratives are not traditionally included in American history.
National Museum of Asian Art, “Stage the Supernatural: Ghosts in Japanese Prints,”
This show, which featured 60 objects from the collection of the museum, was originally scheduled to open before Halloween last October. However, a structural emergency at the last minute caused it to be delayed. “Staging the Supernatural” is set to open in March with works from the 18th Century to the early 20th Century that explore how spirits were projected onto the stage in the vibrant theater tradition of Kabuki or Noh.
National Museum of American History, “Zen and the Open Road”
The 50th anniversary of Robert Pirsig’s unexpected bestseller Zen & the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is this year. Inspired by a real father-and-son road trip from Minneapolis to San Francisco, To celebrate the book, the museum will display the 1966 Honda CB77 Super Hawk that was used in the literary journey. The exhibit also includes the four-year-old manuscript that Pirsig wrote, a first edition signed by the author, and the typewriter he used to create it. It also contains artifacts and the sailboat he purchased with royalties. (April 15, 2024, through TBD)
National Portrait Gallery, “Brilliant Exiles : American women in Paris, 1900-1939”
The City of Light was a magnet for young creatives at the beginning of the 20th Century. They were looking for inspiration in the arts, literature, design, and publishing, as well as music, fashion, theatre, and dance. This exhibition is different from other explorations of this movement because the curators focused on American women living in Paris from 1900 to the outbreak of World War II. The exhibition includes portraits of cultural luminaries such as Josephine Baker and Isadora Dunn, Zelda Fitzgerald, Anais Nin, Gertrude Stein, Ethel Waters, etc.
National Museum of Asian Art, “Do Ho Suh Public Figures”
Do Ho Suh, a South Korean artist, will be returning to Washington, DC, to mark the ongoing centennial celebrations of the Freer Gallery of Art, which was opened in 1923. Suh’s new outdoor public art piece, Public Figures, will be presented at this exhibition. The piece, which appears to be an empty pedestal for a statue, is actually supported by hundreds of small figures who work together to raise the pedestal. Suh’s work will be displayed outside the Freer Gallery for more than 30 years.
National Museum of the American Indian, “Unbound: Narrative art of the Plains”
The museum’s exhibition will include more than 50 contemporary pieces alongside historical hides, ledgers, and muslins. This will provide a complete portrait of narrative art in the Native Nations of the Great Plains from the 18th to the 21st Century. From 19th-century sketches by Cheyenne artist Bear’s Heart to adaptations of those designs on modern canvases by Martin E. Red Bear (Oglala/Sicangu Lakota) and Lauren Good Day (Arikara/Hidatsa/Blackfeet/Plains Cree), the exhibition–an expanded iteration of a show first held in New York in 2016—will examine ceremonial events, wars, family life and Native identity.
“OSGEMEOS – Endless Story,” Hirshhorn Sculpture Garden and Museum
The “Endless Story,” the first U.S. Museum survey of art by Gustavo & Otavio Pandolfo (the identical twins) who work under the name OSGEMEOS, will feature 1,000 works, photographs and archival material that reflect the Brazilian duo’s hip-hop inspired urban graffiti traditions. The Moon Room will be included in the exhibition, along with works from the brothers’ childhood and large-scale paintings on canvas and wood. It also provides sound, custom wallpaper, and special architecture.
Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, “Subversive Skilled Sublime: Women’s Fiber Art”
The Smithsonian’s new exhibition on contemporary craft and decorative arts will argue that fiber is the ideal medium for women of the 20th Century. The selection of 34 artworks made from cloth, thread, or yarn reflects the creators’ individuality and creativity. Kay Sekimachi creates three-dimensional woven boxes, bowls, and sculptures. Lia Cook uses an electronic Jacquard to create electrifying pieces. Consuelo Underwood creates colorful works that reference immigration, human rights, and border politics.
National Museum of African Art, “Bruce Onobrakpeya : The Mask and the Cross”
His first major U.S. exhibition was held at Atlanta’s High Museum of Art last year. The High Museum of Art in Atlanta held its first major exhibition last year. The show, which will be displayed in Washington soon, is a retrospective of Onobrakpeya’s work from 1967 to 1978. Onobrakpeya combined Nigerian folklore, cosmology, and traditions with themes taken from the Bible and Christianity. Other examples from the artist’s six-decade-long career are included in the exhibition.
National Museum of American History, “Forensic science on Trial”
The history of forensic science is much older than the television series “CSI.” The American History Museum will host a new exhibition, Albert H. Small Documents Gallery, that will trace forensic science’s roots back to 1872 when Connecticut woman Lydia Sherman was tried for poisoning her three husbands and the eight children she cared for. The exhibition will feature a courtroom display with arsenic test results from Sherman’s case, the first lie detection device, and a vial of scopolamine that was marketed as “truth serum” by a doctor in early 20th century Robert House.
National Portrait Gallery, “This Morning, This Evening and So Soon: James Baldwin’s Voices of Queer Resistance”
This exhibition, named after a story written by Baldwin and guest curated by Hilton Als, a Pulitzer Prize-winning critic for the New Yorker — will explore the intersections of the celebrated American writer with other Black civil rights icons who were forced to hide their homosexuality, from the organizer Bayard Rustin through to the playwright Lorraine Hansberry. Other notables include poet Essex Hemphill and filmmaker Marlon Rriggs, as well as former U.S. Rep. Barbara Jordan. The exhibition will feature portraits by artists such as Richard Avedon and Glenn Ligon. Faith Ringgold and Lorna Simpson are also represented.
National Portrait Gallery, “Picturing Presidents: Daguerreotypes & Ambrotypes From the Collection,”
The National Portrait Gallery is displaying a series of images to mark the presidential election of another year. From the sixth president of the United States, John Quincy Adams, to the 21st president of the United States, Chester A. Arthur, there are eight men featured. A rare ambrotype pin from Abraham Lincoln’s 1860 presidential campaign is on display. Daguerreotypes depicting George Washington, Andrew Jackson, and Barack Obama are also on display. (June 21st, 2024 through June 8th, 2025)
National Museum of American History, “Stanley Towards a New Kind of War”
The Stanley, which is not to be confused with a steam-powered car that was introduced a century ago, was a self-driving robot vehicle developed by a Stanford University team and Volkswagen in 2004; it won the off-road driverless car contest held by the Department of Defense the following year to test the feasibility of sending robots out in place of American soldiers. The blue Volkswagen Touareg helped revolutionize driverless cars, which are slowly making their way onto city streets. Meet the original model this year. National Museum of Asian Art, “Shifting Boundaries: Perspectives on American Landscapes”
In its American galleries, the oldest museum on the National Mall has always interpreted the works of James McNeill Whistler and Thomas Dewing based on the tastes and perspectives of Charles Lang Freer, its founding donor. The paintings in this exhibition will be interpreted from a range of voices that were previously underrepresented. This means that works by Winslow Homer, John Singer Sargent, and Willard Metcalf will be interpreted in new ways to reflect the human relationship with nature. (July 13, 2024, through TBD)
National Postal Museum: “Voting By Mail”
A presidential election year provides a great opportunity to look back at past examples of voting by mail. The National Postal Museum is currently preparing an exhibition on this topic. It already has a collection of mailed ballots from 1864, a postcard requesting an absentee vote for an Alabama soldier in World War II, a 5-cent stamp encouraging citizens to register to vote, and a complete absentee voting kit and instructions from last year’s presidential election. (August 20,24 to TBD
“Sublime Light: Tapestry Art by D.Y. Begay, National Museum of the American Indian
D.Y. is a fourth-generation dining weaver who sold her very first rug when she was 12 years old. Begay uses colors derived from plants of the Navajo Nation to create her paintings, which reflect the colors and vistas of her reservation. She calls her work “painting using yarn.” The first retrospective of her career will feature 48 of her tapestries spanning more than 30 years of work. (September 19, 2024, through TBD)
National Museum of Asian Art, “An Epic of Kings: the Great Mongol Shahnama”
The Ilkhanids produced the Persian epic, known as Firdawsi’s Book of Kings or the Great Mongol Shahnama, in 1335. It was celebrated for the boldly designed, large-scale images. In an upcoming exhibition at the Freer Gallery of Art, more than 20 folios from the manuscript–including nine depicting the story of Alexander the Great–show how the Mongols consciously inserted themselves into the history of Iran. These works will be displayed alongside pieces from China and Latin America to show the global conversations that took place in the 14th Century. (August 31st, 2024 through January 5th, 2025)
Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum: “Making Home – Smithsonian Design Triennial,” New York City
The seventh edition of the Cooper Hewitt Design Triennial was established in 2000 as a way to address urgent issues of contemporary design. It focuses on the home. Cooper Hewitt and the National Museum of African American History and Culture, located in Manhattan’s Upper East Side in the Andrew Carnegie Mansion, present an exhibition exploring how design influences domestic life within the United States and its territories, as well as Tribal Nations. (Fall 2024)
National Portrait Gallery and Archives of American Art, “Felix Gonzalez Torres: Always Return”
Felix Gonzalez-Torres, a Cuban-born American visual artist, has not presented a major exhibition in Washington, D.C., for more than 30 years. He is credited with redefining portraiture during the 20th Century. The 1991 Untitled (Portrait of Ross In L.A.) is one of Gonzalez-Torre’s most famous works. It consists of an infinite supply of candies wrapped in different colors. The upcoming exhibit will extend beyond the museum. The artist’s ‘Untitled’ (America) (1994), consisting of twelve strings of light with each having 42 bulbs, will be installed on the facade of the building, the first floor of the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library nearby and along Eight Street, between D and E Streets N.W. in partnership with Downtown DC Business Improvement District. (October 18-2024 through June 22-2025)
Smithsonian American Art Museum, “Pictures Of Belonging: Miki Haakawa Hisako Hibo and Mine Okubo.”
A new exhibit highlighting recent museum acquisitions focuses on three acclaimed American artists of Japanese descent who were previously excluded from the story of the modernist movement in the United States. Miki Hayakawa, Hisako Hibo, and Mine Okubo all had innovative and long careers despite their lives being marked by mass incarceration as Japanese Americans in World War II. The Topaz War Relocation Center, located in Delta, Utah, from 1942 to 1944, held 9,000 Japanese Americans. The Smithsonian American Art Museum recently acquired works by Hibi Okubo as part of a project to enrich and expand the representation of Asian American perspectives and artists.
