Smithsonian American Art Museum
Our family refers to the Smithsonian American Art Museum as the “fun” art museum. Located in the heart of Washington, DC, the American Art Museum shares space with the National Portrait Gallery.
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Overview
The Smithsonian American Art Museum (abbreviated as SAAM) has the world’s largest collection of art made in America. In addition to the main museum in the Penn Quarter District, there is the Renwick Gallery near the White House.
The museum started in 1829 from the collection of John Varden. It was originally displayed in the classic Smithsonian Castle on the National Mall. Starting in 1968 the American Art Museum opened in the Old Patent Office Building along with the National Portrait Gallery.
The Smithsonian American Art Museum is actually two museums in one as it shares the building with the National Portrait Gallery. On a given floor each museum occupies half of that floor. However, as you go up a floor the museums shift. So, if you are on the first floor of the National Portrait Gallery, when you walk to the second floor you will be in the American Art Museum.
Both museums are, like most of the Smithsonian museums, free to the public. This allows you to walk in and out at your leisure. In this case, it is welcome because, unlike the Smithsonian museums on the mall, there are many attractive dining options.
Location and Logistics
The Smithsonian American Art Museum is located in the heart of Washington, D.C. several blocks from the National Mall. It is right by Capital Arena (where the Wizards and Capitals play) and near Chinatown and Ford’s Theater where Lincoln was assassinated.
We have often traveled by Metro when our family lived by a Metro station. The National Portrait Gallery is a block off the Metro from either the Metro Center stop or the Gallery Place/Chinatown stop. The museum runs from F Street and G Street along 7th and 9th Avenue. When you exit the Metro stations (which can run several blocks) look for signs that point you in the right direction.
In recent years, we have driven into the District and parked in one of the many garages. We use the app SpotHero. This allows you to put in your destination and find all available parking spaces. Generally, a garage close to the museums will be about $20 for most of the day. If you are willing to walk further, you can find lower prices. On our last visit to the National Portrait Gallery we found a place right across the street where we got 5 hours of parking for $15
Overall, I consider central Washington, D.C. fairly easy and reasonable for transportation and parking. In order to have more time seeing sites I recommend paying a little extra to be close.
The American Art Museum has two entrances. One is on G Street and one is on F Street. Both entrances take you to the main level.
The museum runs in a square with an enclosed atrium in the middle. The space is shared with the National Portrait Gallery. One side, for each museum. However, as you go up floors, the side each museum is on switches.
Basically, when you go to the American Art Museum you will also be going to the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery. That is a good thing because the National Portrait Gallery is a lot of fun and expands on the American theme.
Exhibits
We describe the work at the Smithsonian American Art Museum as fun art. On the first floor is the Folk and Self-Taught Art exhibit which had some really cool pieces. For example, there were sculptures made out of bottle caps.
One piece that really caught our eye was called the The Throne of the Third Heaven of the Nations Millennium General Assembly (The Throne for short). This massive display was created by James Hampton in the 1950s. Hampton died in 1964 and little is known about him. He was a Washington janitor who built the Throne in his spare time out of scraps.
Pictures can not do this work justice. It took up a full room of the museum.
The first floor has a large area for special exhibitions. When we came in late 2019 a new exhibit featured the work of Japanese American artist Chiura Obata. Obata was interred in a camp during World War II and some of the work depicted that experience. However, this was only a small part of his work, much of which focused on landscape of the American West. Being from California we enjoyed the many landscape and art from the West.
Special exhibits are a big part of the American Art Museum so it is always good to go online and see what is on display. The official website can be slow, so you can also check the general Smithsonian web site.
To get an idea of exhibits check out the list of past exhibits. Our family favorite was the 2012 exhibit “The Art of Video Games.” Our kids definitely miss this exhibit. Of course, I wish I had taken more pictures at the time.
One exhibit we enjoyed was Sculpture Down to Scale. This had small models of large scale sculptures throughout the US. One was a model of a sculpture in downtown San Diego (we still need to check the real thing out).
The second and third story of the American Art Museum are a little more traditional. The second floor has galleries devoted to specific eras such as Early America, the Gilded Age, the Civil War and more. There are special sections on Western Art and Landscapes. The third floor focuses on more contemporary art.
Dining and Shopping
In general dining at the Smithsonian museums is expensive and mediocre. However, unlike the museums on the National Mall there are plenty of dining options in this neighborhood.
The central courtyard does have a small café but we have not tried it (the Courtyard Cafe). Instead we use our visits to try different restaurants.
Right across F Street from the museum is where we first tried the famed Shake Shack burger chain. Shake Shack has expanded to our San Diego area, so we now look for other options. (Shake Shack is really good but we prefer our local In-N-Out Burger).
For pizza we enjoyed PI Pizzeria. On our last visit we walked a couple block to Chinatown to try out Nando’s Peri Peri Chicken. It appears this is a local DC/Baltimore area chain that also has a few locations in Chicago.
We really enjoyed Nandos but it is one of only many options in the neighborhood. This includes upscale options like Jaleo from famed chef Jose Andres (we have eaten at his Oyamel restaurant about 4 blocks away).
Like all Smithsonian museums, the gift shops for both the American Art Museum and the National Portrait Gallery are worth a visit. They are located next to each other on the first floor along G street.
When we visited at the end of 2019, the downtown holiday market was in full force directly in front of the museum on F Street. It appear that other market may operate here during the year.
Fun Diego Family has deep roots in Washington, DC. I was born at George Washington University Hospital a few blocks from the White House. For 25 years my parents lived in Rosslyn by the Key Bridge and Arlington Cemetery. My brother and family lives in Vienna, Virginia.
As regular visitors to the area we are doing guides to the places that our family likes to go to when we visit. The places we are covering are attractions our family ask to return to on a regular basis. The come highly approved.
The National Portrait Gallery and American Art Museum are close to the top of our list of Smithsonian museums. This is coming from a family that are not the greatest art aficionados.
