At the Smithsonian | January 15, 2025 3:00 p.m.

Nineteen New and Revamped Smithsonian Shows to See in 2025—Plus One Bonus That Will Make You Go Wild for Nature

This year, the Institution’s museums are bringing to the public everything from the flair of state fairs to the artwork of Grandma Moses

Black Horses, Grandma Moses, oil on pressed board, 1945, featured in the exhibition "Grandma Moses: A Good Day's Work" at the Smithsonian American Art Museum Smithsonian American Art Museum, © Grandma Moses Properties Co., NY

Roger Catlin

Museums Correspondent

The new year is upon us, and with it, a whole new roster of planned exhibitions across the Smithsonian’s numerous museums and National Zoo, where the public can glimpse its two newest pandas, Bao Li and Qing Bao, on January 24.

Here’s what else viewers and visitors can look forward to, including lowriders and a new Nick Cave installation, retrospectives of painters from Grandma Moses to Amy Sherald, and a new fall start for the juried triennial Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition at the National Portrait Gallery.

“Entertainment Nation” at the National Museum of American History

2022 Entertainment Nation — "Entertainment Nation" at the National Museum of American History Jaclyn Nash

Meant as a revolving showcase of pop culture when it opened in 2022, the museum’s popular “Entertainment Nation” exhibition changes again by adding such new artifacts as the hazmat suit worn by actor Bryan Cranston in TV’s “Breaking Bad,” Harrison Ford’s hat and jacket from the Indiana Jones film series, popular painter Bob Ross’ homemade easel, and four new Muppets, including Bert, Ernie and Fozzie Bear. Judy Garland’s costume from the 1946 film The Harvey Girls will be added alongside her iconic footwear from The Wizard of Oz, Dorothy’s famed ruby slippers. (Reopens February 1, 2025)

“We Gather at the Edge: Contemporary Quilts by Black Women Artists” at the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s Renwick Gallery

The history of Black American women’s quilting traditions dates back before the Civil War. This year, an exhibition of quilts by contemporary artisans from the Women of Color Quilters Network, founded by Carolyn Mazloomi in 1985, addresses key moments in American history from the 18th century to the present day, including abolition, nonviolent direct action and environmental justice. (February 21, 2025, through June 22, 2025)

“Delighting Krishna: Paintings of the Child-God” at the National Museum of Asian Art

*Jal Vihar: Water Play*, Pichwai, opaque watercolor, tin and gold on cotton, featured in the exhibition "Delighting Krishna: Paintings of the Child-God" at the National Museum of Asian Art National Museum of Asian Art

For the first time in nearly half a century, 14 monumental paintings on cotton cloth known as pichwais, dating from the 18th to the 20th century, will be on view together for the public. The works, measuring eight by eight feet on average, were mostly painted in Nathdwara, a city in the Indian state of Rajasthan, the global epicenter of the Pushtimarg community. The pichwais will serve as backdrops for an array of displays, including music and scents, all depicting the efforts to engage Krishna, the child-god. (March 15, 2025, through August 24, 2025)

“The Winston Red Diamond and the Winston Fancy Color Diamond Collection” at the National Museum of Natural History

Natural red diamonds are among the rarest gems on the planet, but the Winston red diamond is even more special. At 2.33 carats, it’s one of the largest examples of a diamond with a “fancy red” color grading. A gift of Ronald Winston in 2023, it will be on exhibit in the National Museum of Natural History’s Winston Gallery, named after Ronald’s father, Harry Winston, alongside 40 other diamonds from the Winston Fancy Color Diamond Collection. (Opens April 1)

“Adam Pendleton: Love, Queen” at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden

New and recent works from contemporary artist Adam Pendleton will feature in his first solo show in Washington, D.C. Known for drippy paintings of words, phrases and geometric shapes, Pendleton will show his new paintings Composition and Movement, as well as a new single-channel video work, Resurrection City Revisited (Who Owns Geometry Anyway?). The video was inspired by the Resurrection City encampment that was the culmination of Martin Luther King Jr.’s 1968 Poor People’s Campaign and held on the National Mall that is steps away from the museum. (April 4, 2025, through January 3, 2027)

“First Do No Harm” at the National Museum of American History

Liotta-Cooley artificial heart — The Liotta-Cooley artifical heart, featured in the exhibition "First Do No Harm" at the National Museum of American History Courtesy of the National Museum of American History

The history of American health care, from a sample of penicillin mold in discoverer Alexander Fleming’s lab, to the first successfully implanted artificial heart, to a vial that held the inaugural Covid-19 vaccine doses, will be highlighted in an ongoing exhibition about how healing practices have evolved in this country. Artifacts include a mosquito net, HIV drugs, supplements from earlier this century and a pack of Ortho-Novum birth control pills, circa 1963. (Opens April 11, 2025)

“Artxclimate: Artists Reflect on Climate Change” at the National Museum of Natural History

To illustrate the United States’ Fifth National Climate Assessment in 2023, artists from across the country contributed their own visions for this exhibition. One came from an eighth grader named Ritika S., who said, “In my art, I try to convey that we can help reverse the effects of climate change. … I hope people learn from my art that they can help change the world by just doing simple things.” (Opens April 22, 2025)

“Little Beasts: Art, Wonder and the Natural World” at the National Gallery of Art, in collaboration with the National Museum of Natural History

While this is not an exhibition at a Smithsonian museum, its National Museum of Natural History has provided some 60 objects, specimens and taxidermy, to supplement a show of nearly 75 prints, drawings and paintings from the nearby National Gallery of Art. “Little Beasts” will illustrate the intersection of art, science and the natural world. It was largely through art that knowledge about creatures big and small was shared in the 16th and 17th centuries by artists such as Joris and Jacob Hoefnagel and Jan van Kessel. This first-time collaboration between the museums will provide specimens (and helpful magnifying glasses) to compare the real critters with their artistic representations. A new film by contemporary artist Dario Robleto will also be part of the project. (May 18, 2025, through November 2, 2025)

“Barron Hilton Pioneers of Flight” at the National Air and Space Museum

The eight-year renovation at the Air and Space Museum won’t be complete until 2026, but in the meantime, individual spaces and galleries will continue to be unveiled, each with a special individual emphasis. The “Barron Hilton Pioneers of Flight” show will examine the dynamic period of aviation in the 1920s and ’30s, considered to be the Golden Age of Flight. Hands-on displays, important aircraft and stories, and Art Deco design are to be part of the new display. (Opens summer 2025)

“Boeing Milestones of Flight Hall” at the National Air and Space Museum

The first aircraft to break the sound barrier, the Bell X-1, will join astronaut John Glenn’s Friendship 7, the spacecraft in which he orbited the Earth and became the first American to do so, when the new “Boeing Milestones of Flight Hall” opens in the National Air and Space Museum’s Washington building. Meant to collect and display the museum’s best-known holdings, the hall will also gather artifacts such as the 1928 Goddard Hoopskirt Rocket and the studio model of the Enterprise from “Star Trek.” (Opens summer 2025)

“Climate Change” at the National Air and Space Museum

How can space travel help foster understanding of climate change back on Earth? A new exhibition at the Air and Space Museum, titled “Climate Change,” will look at how aerospace innovations may help mitigate and adapt to a changing climate through new technologies. It will be presented in the “Holt Innovations Gallery,” where rotating exhibitions will continue to explore ways aerospace innovations have transformed contemporary life on Earth. (Opens summer 2025)

“Here: Pride and Belonging in African Art” at the National Museum of African Art

*Stitched to You*, Sola Olulode, oil, acrylic, thread, indigo, batik and oil pastel on canvas, 2022, featured in the exhibition "Here: Pride and Belonging in African Art" at the National Museum of African Art Brad Simpson / National Museum of African Art

Artists across Africa and the diaspora whose artworks connect to their identities and experiences as LGBTQ+ people are featured in what’s being billed as the first continental and diasporic survey of its scale and scope outside of Africa, as well as the largest exhibition on the subject to date. The show assembles artists whose work has implicitly or explicitly challenged local and global legacies of homophobia and bigotry, offering imaginings of alternative futures as well as celebrations of intimacy, faith, family and joy. (May 25, 2025, through August 30, 2026)

“Amy Sherald: American Sublime” at the National Portrait Gallery

*A God Blessed Land (Empire of Dirt)*, Amy Sherald, oil on linen, 2022, featured in the exhibition "Amy Sherald: American Sublime" at the National Portrait Gallery Joseph Hyde / Tymure Collection, © Amy Sherald, courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth

The first major museum survey of the work of the celebrated Baltimore artist Amy Sherald, who drew crowds to the National Portrait Gallery when her portrait of former first lady Michelle Obama was unveiled in 2018, will feature new and rarely seen work from 2007 to the present. It will also include the return of her 2014 work Miss Everything (Unsuppressed Deliverance), which won first prize in the Portrait Gallery’s 2016 Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition. Organized by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, where it is currently on display, the exhibition is accompanied by the artist’s first comprehensive monograph. (September 19, 2025, through February 22, 2026)

“State Fairs: Growing American Craft” at the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s Renwick Gallery

This exhibition of homemade, blue-ribbon crafts since the 19th century celebrates the tradition of state fairs, highlighting women’s centrality in the works, overlooked labor histories and the founding of fairs by Indigenous communities. Some of the works depict the attractions and promise of the fairs themselves. It’s one of several Smithsonian exhibitions meant to lead up to the upcoming 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence being signed, in 2026. (August 22, 2025, through September 7, 2026)

“Corazón y Vida: Lowrider Culture” at the National Museum of American History

The creatively customized world of lowrider culture, arising from post-World War II Mexican American communities, will be represented in a bilingual exhibition that boasts two classic Chevrolet Impalas—a 1963 model known as “El Rey,” built by three generations of the same family, and the 1964 “Gypsy Rose,” credited with helping introduce lowrider culture into the public imagination. They’ll be accompanied by posters, photos, car club clothing, trophies and pin-striping tool kids. (Opens October 3, 2025)

“The Outwin 2025: American Portraiture Today” at the National Portrait Gallery

The seventh juried competition, held every three years, will feature 35 portraits by 36 artists drawn from more than 3,300 entries from 14 states, Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C. The competition’s winner, who will receive $25,000 and a commission to portray a notable living American for the National Portrait Gallery collection, will be announced at the show’s opening. The exhibition is being moved from its traditional spring start to the fall to allow for installation in upgraded galleries. (October 18, 2025, through August 30, 2026)

“Grandma Moses: A Good Day’s Work” at the Smithsonian American Art Museum

She didn’t begin painting in earnest until the age of 78. But when she did, the paintings of Anna Mary Robertson Moses, better known as Grandma Moses, captured the imagination of the world. Reaching a crest of popularity in the 1950s, her work adorned magazine covers and museum walls. She continued to paint at 100, a year before she died in 1961. This exhibition hopes to introduce her to a younger generation. (October 24, 2025, through July 12, 2026)

“Water’s Edge: The Art of Truman Lowe” at the National Museum of the American Indian

The first major retrospective of the late Ho-Chunk artist Truman Lowe will feature his elegant, minimalist sculptures made of willow branches, feathers and other natural materials that evoke the rivers, streams and waterfalls of Wisconsin, where he grew up. The sculptures will be accompanied by his pastel and charcoal drawings from public and private collections. Of the 50 works, 28 originate from the collection of the National Museum of the American Indian, where he served as curator of contemporary art at the museum before his death in 2019 at 75. (October 24, 2025, through January 2027)

“Korean Treasures: Collected, Cherished, Shared” at the National Museum of Asian Art

After the October 2020 death of Lee Kun-hee, the chairman of Samsung, his heirs donated 23,000 artworks and antiquities from his vast collection to museums across his country, South Korea. Some of the collection’s highlights, drawn from the National Museum of Korea and the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul, will make their U.S. debut in Washington, D.C. at the National Museum of Asian Art, before moving on to the Art Institute of Chicago. The works span roughly 1,000 years of Korean art, and the exhibition will feature reflections of the natural world and cultural narratives that inspired artists. (November 8, 2025, through February 1, 2026)

“Nick Cave: Mammoth” at the Smithsonian American Art Museum

The renowned contemporary artist behind the Soundsuit series moves to the natural world with his new body of work, Mammoth, an immersive landscape marked by the hides and bones of woolly mammoths, as well as a video projection bringing the extinct behemoths to life, and a beaded curtain depicting the Missouri farm where he grew up. With Mammoth, Cave, 65, hopes to also dig up long-buried stories of land and race in America, and our own relationship with the present environment. (November 21, 2025, through January 3, 2027)