Almost all of Cannon’s large paintings (above: Three Ghost Figures, 1970), are portraits, often in electric shades of orange, purple and brilliant blue. Many vividly depict Native Americans as living, sometimes flawed individuals.

How T.C. Cannon and His Contemporaries Changed Native American Art

In the 1960s, a group of young art students upended tradition and vowed to show their real life instead

Empress Dowager Cixi by Katharine A. Carl, 1903

New Scholarship Is Revealing the Private Lives of China’s Empresses

Lavish paintings, sumptuous court robes, objets d’art tell the stories of Empress Cixi and four other of the most powerful Qing dynasty women

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Smithsonian Voices

Meet Native Fashion Designer Norma Baker-Flying Horse, Creator of Red Berry Woman

This year, Paris Fashion Week featured her work. “To be a Native American designer showing for the Fashion Week Studio was amazing.”

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Smithsonian Voices

How Time-Based Media Intersects With Perspectives From the LGBTQ Community

The curator of time-based media at the Smithsonian American Art Museum talks about upcoming initiatives emphasizing women artists and LGBTQ+ perspectives

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Smithsonian Voices

Works of Pioneering Photographer Constance Stuart Larrabee to Be Digitized

The work of Constance Stuart Larrabee, a pioneering photographer, will soon be digitized

Mi Vida by Jesse Treviño, 1971-73

How American Artists Engaged with Morality and Conflict During the Vietnam War

The Smithsonian American Art Museum’s new show documents the turbulent decade and the provocative dialog happening in a diverse art community

"Tiffany Chung's exhibition opens our eyes to a history hidden in plain sight, illuminating the war and its aftermath from the perspective of those who lived through it," says curator Sarah Newman.

For Tiffany Chung, Finding Vietnam’s Forgotten Stories Began as a Personal Quest

To map the post-war exodus, the artist turned to interviews and deep research, starting with her own father’s past

Queen Liliʻuokalani (above in Honolulu in 1917) “was one of the most successful composers . . . so much so that her repertoire remains at the forefront of those performed by Hawaiian musicians today,” says the Smithsonian's John Troutman

Hitting the High Notes: A Smithsonian Year of Music

How the Music of Hawaiʻi’s Last Ruler Guided the Island’s People Through Crisis

A prolific composer, Queen Liliʻuokalani created some of the most popular Hawaiian tunes and compositions of all time

River basin map of the contiguous United States

Art Meets Science

These Beautiful Maps Capture the Rivers That Pulse Through Our World

Cartographer Robert Szucs creates colorful maps of the watersheds that creep across states, countries, continents and the globe

A portrait (detail, above) of Mary Church Terrell, a prominent D.C. activist and suffragist. The image is just one of dozens of turn-of-the-century photographs featured in "Pictures with Purpose"

For Turn-of-the-Century African-Americans, the Camera Was a Tool for Empowerment

A new installment in the Smithsonian’s “Double Exposure” photo book series depicts black Americans championing their lives through photography

Daesha Devón Harris Combines Oral History and Antique Portraits to Tell a Story of Loss and Hope

These layered works testify to African-American history

In 2016, 5,712 American Indian and Alaska Native women and girls were reported missing, which is likely the tip of the iceberg,

Women Who Shaped History

These Haunting Red Dresses Memorialize Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women

Artist Jaime Black says the REDress Project is an expression of her grief for thousands of Native victims

Gladys Bentley’s powerful voice, fiery energy on the piano and bold lyrics made her a star of New York City nightclubs.

Women Who Shaped History

The Great Blues Singer Gladys Bentley Broke All the Rules

For the Smithsonian’s Sidedoor podcast, host Haleema Shah tells the story of an unapologetically gay African-American performer in 1920s and 30s

The new designs call for the reopening of a long shuttered underground passageway that connects the garden to the museum plaza, as well as plans for a new area for large-scale contemporary works, performance spaces and intimate settings for the museum’s masterpiece collections.

American South

Hirshhorn Sculpture Garden to Undergo First Redesign in More Than 40 Years

Hiroshi Sugimoto’s design provides easier access from the National Mall and space for larger installations

The gift’s promise lies not just in its scale and Lichtenstein’s outsize place in 20th-century art, but in the fact that much of the materials will be searchable together online.

The Stories of Poets, Artists and Cartoon Characters Are All Waiting to Be Discovered in Roy Lichtenstein’s Personal Papers

The Pop artist’s archives, recently donated to the Smithsonian, are soon to be digitized

Zissou Tasseff-Elenkoff's "Power to the People" is dedicated to civil rights for every human regardless of race, color or religion.

What Should a Contemporary Monument Look Like?

A new multi-city art exhibition called “New Monuments for New Cities” tackles this question head on

American artist Georgia O'Keeffe poses outdoors beside an easel with a canvas from her series, 'Pelvis Series Red With Yellow,' Albuquerque, New Mexico, 1960.

Why Are Georgia O’Keeffe’s Paintings Breaking Out in Pimples?

A new handheld tool lets scientists diagnose the chemical reaction behind “art acne”—and learn how it can be prevented

Dugger makes a stylish statement by superimposing vibrant images of women jumping and twirling over photographs of patterned mats common in Nigeria.

In Nigeria, the Veil Is a Fashion Statement

Artist Medina Dugger finds joy in a colorful yet complicated symbol of faith

Banksias, 2014

Art Meets Science

Dornith Doherty’s Mesmerizing Photos Capture the Contradictions of Seed Banking

“Archiving Eden,” now at the National Academy of Sciences, shows how guarding against an ecological catastrophe is both optimistic and pessimistic

In a new Smithsonian Sidedoor episode, Cheech Marin talks about his dedication to elevating Chicano art, especially the kind that reflects an inventive and survivalist attitude.

Why the Chicano Underdog Aesthetic ‘Rasquachismo’ Is Finally Having Its Day

Next up for the podcast Sidedoor, actor and director Cheech Marin opines on the Chicano art sensibility that is defiant, tacky and wildly creative

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