Visit Smithsonian American Art Museum with Stephen

Your guided art tour includes both the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Portrait Gallery Museum, and the Lunder Conservation Center. On this two-hour walking tour, your guide has curated a well-rounded tour that focuses on the art history and stories behind each painting and artist.

About the Museum's Collection

The Smithsonian American Art Museum, the nation’s first collection of American art, is an unparalleled record of the American experience. The collection captures the aspirations, character, and imagination of the American people throughout three centuries. The museum is the home to one of the largest and most inclusive collections of American art in the world. Its artworks reveal key aspects of America’s rich artistic and cultural history from the colonial period to today.

The museum has been a leader in identifying and collecting significant aspects of American visual culture, including photography, modern folk and self-taught art, African American art, Latino art, and video games. The museum has the largest collection of New Deal art and exceptional collections of contemporary craft, American impressionist paintings and masterpieces from the Gilded Age. In recent years, the museum has focused on strengthening its contemporary art collection, and in particular media arts, through acquisitions, awards, curatorial appointments, endowments, and by commissioning new artworks.

Duration: 2 Hours.

Group Size 1 - 20 people.

Location:

The Smithsonian American Art Museum: 950 Independence Ave SW, Washington, DC 20560

Group Meets: 

Corner of F Street N.W. and 7th Street. Across the street is the Hotel Monaco. The Museum does not have a parking garage.

How to Get to the Museum: 

The address for the Museum is 8th and G Streets, NW Washington, D.C. The Museum is open seven days a week from 11:30 am to 7:00 pm. The closest metro station to the Museum is the Gallery Place Station. When exiting the station make a left towards F Street. 

Your Guide:

Stephen lived in London until ten years ago, where he was invited to lead tours of exhibitions at the Victoria and Albert Museum and give talks for the National Arts Collection Fund (UK) and worked for many educational institutions in Britain. Since moving to the DC area, he has led many tours of the capital’s museums and monuments for tourists, student groups and adults. Stephen is also a professional storyteller and brings his skills in storytelling to the historical and artistic areas he covers in his tours, providing both an educational and enjoyable experience.