Fresh from a major renovation of its interiors, the Freer|Sackler reopens on October 14 with a weekend celebration of Asian art, food and culture. Four special exhibitions also kick off—including one that examines Buddhism in Asian art through objects and immersive spaces.
This seminal exhibit highlights the artistic diversity of Asia, showcasing an array of objects from India, Nepal, Tibet Korea, Japan, Myanmar, Thailand and Cambodia.
Featuring nearly 350 objects and images, from a Tomahawk missile to a can of baking powder, this exhibit demonstrates the ways in which Indian words and images have become ingrained in American culture. It also examines how four Indian narratives—Pocahontas, Thanksgiving, the Trail of Tears and the Battle of Little Bighorn—have engendered enduring fascination and conflict.
More than 300 works of art from the museum’s permanent collection are on display, including sculpture, painting, photography, ceramics, costumes
and jewelry from some 25 nations. This ongoing exhibit explores perspectives in order to make thematic connections across
the spectrum of time, place and
medium.
This exhibit reveals the many ways cultures throughout the Americas expressed power and identity by decorating and venerating the head. Spanning 2,500 years, 20 objects on display range from shaman headdresses to finely crafted ceramics.
Born in Charleston, South Carolina, and based in Baltimore, Stephen Towns explores African American cultural issues in murals and mixed-media art. This exhibit includes a series of quilts that tells the story of Nat Turner’s 1831 slave rebellion, also depicted in the 2016 film, The Birth of a Nation.
This show explores the modern architectural roots of
the three unmapped cities built from scratch to support the creation, development and execution of the Manhattan Project. “Secret Cities” examines the architecture and construction of Hanford, Washington; Oak Ridge, Tennessee; and Los Alamos, New Mexico, and also focuses on the daily life of their inhabitants, exploring social hierarchical norms and segregation.
This exhibit details the collision of myriad cultures on the Swahili coast in East Africa—a historic crossroads for peoples not only from Africa but also from the Arabian Peninsula, Asia and Europe. Objects on view from a variety
of places and time periods allow viewers to trace the influences of trade and cross-cultural pollination on artistic forms and motifs.
This exhibit features some 60 works created by nine female Aboriginal artists living in remote communities across Australia. The pieces on view—some specially commissioned for the exhibit—encourage viewers to contemplate humanity’s role in light of the powers of nature. phillipscollection.org
Originally woven by women in Turkey’s nomadic communities as adornments for tents and caravans, kilims represent intricate examples of abstract art and artistic ingenuity. This exhibit marks the debut of the museum’s collection of Anatolian kilims from the 18th and 19th centuries.