Archives Show Traces How Postwar American Craft Was Made
The Reynolds Center's Fleischman Gallery holds about 70 objects from 30 craft professionals, with a new monthly podcast to follow.
Updated on Nov. 13, 2026 in Fine Art
Washingtonians can now see roughly 70 original objects from 30 artists and craft professionals at the Smithsonian's Archives of American Art, on view at the Lawrence A. Fleischman Gallery in the Donald W. Reynolds Center for American Art and Portraiture. The exhibition, "Materials, Methods, and Meanings: Craft in the Archives of American Art," opened this month.
Why it matters
For anyone who lives here and likes to see how things get made, the show puts the working life of American craft in front of you, from sketches and tools to clippings and photographs. It is also a contribution to the Smithsonian's celebration of the United States' 250th anniversary, which gives the city's museums a national theme to lean on this year.
The show brings together about 70 original objects from 30 artists and craft professionals, most drawn from the postwar period and spanning five materials. The stub gives no run length or admission details, so check the Smithsonian's own listing before you go.
The players
Smithsonian's Archives of American Art
The Smithsonian unit that organized the exhibition and runs the monthly United States of Craft podcast.
Chyna Bounds
Archives associate curator who organized the exhibition.
Glenn Adamson
Co-host of the United States of Craft podcast alongside Sarah Archer.
Sarah Archer
Co-host of the United States of Craft podcast alongside Glenn Adamson.
Henry Luce Foundation
Provided initial funding for the project.
The details
The exhibition is on view at the Lawrence A. Fleischman Gallery in the Donald W. Reynolds Center for American Art and Portraiture in Washington, D.C., and was organized by Archives associate curator Chyna Bounds. It draws on the collections of Toshiko Takaezu, Lia Cook, Edris Eckhardt, George Nakashima and Joyce J. Scott, plus newly acquired collections of Otto and Gertrud Natzler, Jan Yager, Cheryl Riley and Paul J. Smith. The displays include material samples, artists' tools, preparatory sketches, notes, news clippings and photographs that show how creative work was experimented with and planned.
Timeline
Monthly: a new episode of the United States of Craft podcast is released each month.
The exhibition opened this month, with the stub recording November 13, 2026 as the core event date.
The District View
The show is one of the Smithsonian's contributions to its celebration of the United States' 250th anniversary, which puts a Washington museum at the center of a national observance. It also gives the Reynolds Center, home to the Smithsonian's American art holdings, a craft-focused show drawn from the Archives' own collections.
If you're planning a visit, the Fleischman Gallery sits inside the Reynolds Center, so you can see the craft show alongside the building's other American art galleries. The monthly podcast gives you a way to follow the Archives' craft work from home between visits.
The takeaway
Materials, tools and sketches usually stay out of sight, and this show puts them on the wall where you can read how the work was made. Catch a new episode of the United States of Craft each month to hear the Archives' curators and hosts trace craft across several states.
Further reading
For more on the city's museum scene, browse our Fine Art coverage.
