May is here 🌸🌻🍓 Swipe to see what we have waiting for you at the Museum this month.
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🖼️Credit:
1. Paul Nash, Flight of the Magnolia, 1944. Pencil, pen and ink, and watercolor on paper. SBMA, Gift of Wright S. Ludington. 1947.13.5
8. Photo courtesy of Kat McDowell
9. Eleni Sikelianos
10. T.C. Boyle
11. Elliott Hundley, Collection, 2025. Collage, graphite and ink on paper. SBMA, Museum purchase with funds from the General Acquisition Fund. Photo: Brian Forrest
12. Photo: Brian Forrest
So much to see, so many reasons to visit. 🎨✨
Whether you're a first-timer, a regular, or a member, there are so many new things waiting for you right now. Swipe to see everything currently on view ➡️ Which exhibition are you most excited to see?
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🖼️Credits:
1. Installation photography: Brian Forrest.
We all need a little color in our lives—not just to be seen, but to remember who we are. Through water, air, fire, and earth, we return to our roots, our rhythm, our spirit. This is more than fashion—this is culture, this is identity. And now, it’s time to see the world again. Live Music by @monkfishband Design graphic by @duncan.matz
“Before trends, there were elements. Before style, there was spirit. Water that carries memory, air that breathes life, fire that fuels transformation, earth that grounds our being. In every color, a story. In every step, a legacy. Through every look, we invite you into the world.”
On May 23, @sbccfashionclub is back on SBMA’s front steps with another stunning fashion show. 💫 Student designers each chose an element that spoke to them — water, air, fire, or earth — and brought it to life through their own personal and cultural lens. The finale looks are inspired by works from As if in a Dream: History, Fantasy, Future.
📍 Front Steps, SBMA
📆 Saturday, May 23 | 4 - 5 PM
🎟️ Free
Hurry, only a few spots left in SBMA’s summer art camp for kids ages 5–6! 🎨 Carlos, one of SBMA’s teaching artists, is giving us a sneak peek at what young artists will create in Printmaking & Textiles, running July 6–10. Come make something wonderful this summer!
Available sessions:
📅June 15–19 · Ceramics & Re-Made Workshop
📅July 6–10 · Printmaking & Textiles
📅July 13–17 · Painting & Printmaking
🔗Register via the link in bio.
Behind every great story, there’s a mama. 🥹❤️🩹Happy Mother’s Day to all the incredible moms out there, you deserve the world! Swipe to see some of the artworks from SBMA’s collection that celebrate all of the people who play maternal roles in our lives.🤱
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🖼️Credit:
1. Alfredo Ramos Martínez, Virgen y niño, 1935. Charcoal and gilt paint on paper. Gift of Mrs. John M. Case in memory of John Hopkins Denison, Jr., 1952.22
2. Nursing Mother and Child, India, 19th-20th century. Ink, color and gold on glass. Gift of Pratap and Chitra Pal, 1995.57.2.
3. Utagawa Hiroshige 歌川 広重, Act VIII: Konami Traveling with Her Mother Tonase to Meet Rikiya, n.d. Color woodblock print on paper. Gift of the Frederick B. Kellam Collection, 1971.3.15
4. Julia Margaret Cameron, Madonna and Child (Mary Hillier), ca. 1870. Albumen print. Gift of Howard Stein, 1999.10.2
Tag a mom who deserves a little opera this Sunday. 🎶🥹We’re teaming up with @operasantabarbara (once again!) for a free Mother’s Day Pop Up Opera performance right on our front steps. Whether you’re stopping in to see some art or strolling down State Street, come say hi on Sunday afternoon!
📍 Front Steps, SBMA
📆 Sunday, May 10 | 1 PM
🎟️ Free & open for all
🖍️Don’t forget to stop by ALL for a special Mother’s Day art activity inspired by Henri Rousseau’s Castle in Moonlight (Le Donjon), now on view as part of As if in a Dream. Art Learning Lab is free & open for all, 12 – 4 PM, every weekend!
Mother’s Day is a week away, and SBMA has you covered! Check out our gift guide and shop at sbmastore.net.
Join us for Pop Up Opera on May 10 with a special Mother’s Day performance on the front steps at 1 PM. Free and open to all!
Everything deserves a second chance (even that old ceramic piece you’ve been too afraid to throw away) 🥣.
Join us for an upcoming Kintsugi workshop and learn the Japanese art of restoring broken ceramics with gold, transforming cracks into something worth celebrating. Your guide: Kat Kusumori-McDowell, a certified Kintsugi instructor trained in Japan, who’ll share the tradition’s history and lead you through a hands-on modern restoration.
📍 Luria Activities Center, SBMA 📆 Sunday, May 17 | 1 - 3:45 PM 🎟️ $275 for SBMA Members / $300 for Non-Members
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🖼️: Artist and Instructor Kat Kusumori-McDowell
Meet Diego Lopez 👋 One of the guardians of our galleries, and now, one of our curators.
SBMA’s recently opened exhibition, A Few of Our Favorite Things: Staff Selects from the Permanent Collection, puts the spotlight where it truly belongs: on the people who make this Museum come alive every day.
Every work on view was chosen, and every label written, by the people who know this collection best: educators, security guards, store associates, curators, Museum leadership, facilities managers, and more. This show is on view through September 6, 2026, so come take a look and get to know us. 👀
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🖼️ Credits:
Installation images: Brian Forrest
Catch a piece of SBMA in D.C.! 🎉
Our very own “A Storm is on the Water” by Grandma Moses is now on view at the @americanart as part of Grandma Moses: A Good Day's Work.
The exhibition will be on view through July 12, 2026, before traveling to the @crystalbridgesmuseum from September 12, 2026, through March 29, 2027.
