What does it take to bring an art exhibition to life? When an artist and a museum collaborate, what happens behind the doors marked “private”? Come inside!
Welcome to Studio Hirshhorn: The Work behind the Work.
To demystify museum-making, the Hirshhorn presents a first-of-its-kind video series made—like our exhibitions—in partnership with some of the most exciting artists of our time and featuring the people who make it happen. The artists and our experts explain the whole process, from planning the layout in their studio to the big reveal inside our circular galleries.
We’re kicking off this initiative with a series featuring OSGEMEOS as they prepare for Endless Story, their first US museum survey and largest US exhibition to date, which opened Sept. 29. Watch on our YouTube and Instagram channels and exhibition webpage. Hirshhorn visitors will encounter these shorts integrated into our exhibition design and inside the the exhibition’s catalogue, served to smartphones using Hirshhorn Eye, our award-winning museum guide.
The Hirshhorn is the national museum of modern and contemporary art, home to the voices of artists and their artworks and ideas on the National Mall. It’s our job to share these treasures with the broadest possible audience. Studio Hirshhorn is who we are.
The Hirshhorn is located on the National Mall. There is no admission; all are free to enter. The Hirshhorn is open noon–5:30 PM Monday and 10 AM–5:30 PM Tuesday–Sunday, 364 days a year. Still, millions of curious people are unable to visit in person. To share the nation’s treasures broadly, the Hirshhorn partners with artists and art-world experts, sometimes in unexpected ways like these:
Connect with work by women artists with Katy Hessel, an art historian, author, curator, and broadcaster whose ongoing Great Women Artists podcast and Instagram account foreground women artists of the present and past. We partnered with Hessel to create an audio guide for Revolutions: Art from the Hirshhorn Collection, 1860–1960, an exhibition exploring the origins of Modernism, including works from our permanent collection and throughlines to the present. Hessel provides a engaging narrative inviting up-close study of work by the likes of Mary Cassatt, Lee Krasner, and Georgia O’Keeffe in 11 narratives, part of her work to invite closer consideration of the artwork of underrepresented artists. This tour streams universally on Soundcloud and inside the galleries on Hirshhorn Eye.
Watch rising artists conquer art-making challenges in The Exhibit: Finding the Next Great Artist, a six-episode television series streaming on Paramount+. The result of a partnership among the Hirshhorn, the Smithsonian Channel, and MTV networks, this experience welcomed seven American artists from across the country to the Museum: Jamaal Barber, Frank Buffalo Hyde, Misha Kahn, Clare Kambhu, Baseera Khan, Jillian Mayer, and Jennifer Warren. Week after week, they were challenged by art-world experts to respond to contemporary themes like the impact of social media. The resulting series captured art-making in real time across the disciplines of painting, sculpture, printmaking, and mixed-media work.
One of our most important audiences is children. They are often the first to embrace bold abstract art. We want to return the favor, make art part of their lives, and encourage creativity, museum-going, and museum manners. Welcome to a place where we touch with our minds and hug with our hearts. We have a library of more than 30 videos that each use an artwork in our collection as a jumping-off point for creative exploration at home. Take a spin with Marcel Duchamp or paint with paper like Mark Bradford or with felt in the spirit of Alma Thomas. We want you to watch, then put those screens away!
During the pandemic, we worked with artist Theaster Gates to connect artists sequestered in their studios with audiences at home to remind one another that the drive to create is irrepressible—even at a distance. The resulting video diary series, Artists in Quarantine, serves as an archive of the impact of COVID-19 on the lives of artists, their art-making practices, and their views of the world.
