March 10, 2006 - December 31, 2007

I Can’t Stop Loving You: Ray Charles and Country Music

An overview of Ray Charles’s career with special emphasis on his country music, featuring instruments, song manuscripts, costumes, photographs, rare music scores, and an ongoing schedule of live performances, panel discussions, and video screenings.

July 1, 2006 - October 9, 2007

Eye Contact: Modern American Portrait Drawing

Showcasing masterpieces of twentieth-century portraiture from the collection, including watercolors, drawings, and pastels.

September 23, 2006 - September 23, 2008

Beauty Surrounds Us

Seventy-seven artifacts from the Smithsonian’s extensive collection includes children’s clothing, games, musical instruments, a Northwest Coast chief’s staff with carved animal figures and crest design, Seminole turtle shell dance leggings, and a Navajo saddle blanket. The exhibit in the new 6,000-square foot pavilion also includes two interactive media stations with in-depth descriptions and close-ups of each object in the show.

October 10, 2006 - October 10, 2007

Two Tiffany Windows

On view, after extensive conservation, a 1908 six-foot-landscape window panel from the Richard Beatty Mellon house in Pittsburgh, and a 33-inch-high work, circa 1890-1900, from the home of Tiffany’s friend and studio manager Joseph Briggs, of New Jersey.

November 11, 2006 - October 31, 2007

Soul Soldiers: African-Americans and the Vietnam Era

An examination of the African-American experience during both the Vietnam War and the Civil Rights Era through artifacts, poetry, fiction, art, personal recollections, and a number of audio stations that feature music from the soul, jazz, rock, and gospel genres of the 1960s and 1970s.

February 2, 2007 - February 8, 2008

A Piece of My Soul: Quilts by Black Arkansans

Ninety quilts, from the museum’s unique collection including examples made by mothers, daughters, sisters and cousins, as well as one quilt made by three generations from one family, date from the 1880s to the present. They represent almost a century of black quilt-making in southern Arkansas

February 12 - December 30, 2007

Alabama Folk Art

Celebrating the history of folk art in conjunction with the state’s Year of Alabama Arts, the exhibit includes paintings, drawings, pottery, sculpture, and quilts.

March 11 - October 28, 2007

States and Variations: Prints by Jasper Johns

Focusing on lst Etching, 2nd State a portfolio of 13 prints published in 1969. Also featured are prints and two sculpture reliefs made before and after the portfolio, as well as annotated working proofs recently acquired from John’s personal collection.

March 24 - December 31, 2007

Full Steam Ahead: Robert Fulton and the Age of Steamboats

Commemorating the 200th anniversary of Fulton’s first steamboat voyage of the Clermont in 1807, the exhibition includes images, artifacts, and the bellowing sounds of steamboats from a bygone era.

March 24, 2007 - January 8, 2008

Identity by Design: Tradition, Change, and

Bringing together a vast array of dresses and accessories from the Plains, Plateau, and Great Basin regions of the United States and Canada, the exhibition highlights Native American women’s identity through traditional dress and its contemporary evolution, also explores how women with artistic skills benefited not only their families, but the entire community.

April 1 - December 30, 2007

America’s Ancient Past: Art of the Mounds and Canyon People

Featuring pottery from the Thaw Collection of American Indian Art, the Peabody Collection of Archaeology and Ethnology (Harvard), and private collections from Colorado and New York. Special attention is given to pieces that incorporate images of the cosmos and the animal realm, themes that inspired Southwestern and Southeastern potters.

April 1 - December 30, 2007

Panoramas of Pride: 19th-Century Bird’s-Eye Views of the Empire State

Lithographs from the 1850s to the 1890s include images of Utica, Rochester, Syracuse, Oswego, New York City, and Cooperstown.

April 12 - November 10, 2007

The Look! Doris Duke’s Day & Evening Wear

Featuring 26 outfits including a 1978 trimmed white satin cape by Tam, a 1959 Christian Dior white satin suit, an Yves St. Laurent white quilted dress with rhinestones from the 1960s, and a blue beaded pant suit by Halston from 1981.

April 12 - November 10, 2007

After the Gilded Age: The Well Dressed House in Newport

Tours of Rough Point, the heiress Doris Duke’s Newport home, include access to public and private spaces and showcase her diverse and extravagant collection of art and antiques. Items on display include a sixteenth-century silk rug from Persia, a wine cup made in 1580 in Nuremberg, porcelain dinner and tea sets from England, France, Russia, and Czechoslovakia, pieces by Tiffany, Baccarat, and Limoges, and Rhode Island-made Gorham silver.

April 12, 2007 - March 30, 2008

Jacqueline Kennedy Entertains: The Art of the White House Dinner

The exhibit includes gowns worn by the First Lady, examples of table settings, Mrs. Kennedy’s handwritten memos and letters regarding entertainment, guest lists, seating plans, menus, and flower arrangements, along with notes written by President Kennedy.

April 20, 2007 - April 20, 2010

How the West is One: The Art of New Mexico

Featuring popular works from the early twentieth century including Marsden Hartley’s El Santo and John Sloan’s Ancestral Spirits.

April 29 - October 14, 2007

Between Taste and Travesty: Costume Designs by William Ivey Long

An exhibit of sketches and costumes by Long, a native of North Carolina and recipient of five Tony awards, created for Broadway productions including The Producers, Crazy for You, Hairspray, and Cabaret.

May 1 - October 28, 2007

Frank Stella on the Roof

An installation of recent works in stainless steel and etched aluminum. Set in an outdoor space, the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Roof Garden offers dramatic views of Central Park and the Manhattan skyline.

May 18 - October 8, 2007

The Prints of Sean Scully

A selection of 50 prints, portfolios and artists’ books from the master set of prints Scully gave to the Smithsonian in 2001.

May 20 - October 21, 2007

Andrew Wyeth at 90

Paintings that span the artist’s 70-year career document some of the places and people that have been most important in his life. Photographs and personal commentary by the artist give an inside look at the enigmatic painter.

May 20 - October 28, 2007

Stars and Bars: A Gift of Amish Quilts

Ten striking and unusual quilts made in the first half of the twentieth century by anonymous Amish quilters from Pennsylvania and the Midwest.

May 20 - October 28, 2007

Chandelirious! The Dazzling World of Contemporary Chandeliers

Twenty-five unconventional chandeliers, including examples made of ping pong balls and neon lights.

May 20 - October 28, 2007

John James Audubon: The Prints

Selections from the museum’s collection of 120 prints and illustrations for Audubon’s seminal work Birds of America.

May 25 - December 31, 2007

Form, Function and Finery: Silver from 300 Years of Newport History

Highlights include examples of colonial-era silver and commemorative and presentation pieces honoring historic events and deeds , such as the silver service presented to Commodore Matthew Perry for his role in opening trade relations with Japan.

May 26 - November 23, 2007

Edward Ruscha: Stains

The Stains portfolio, produced and published in 1969, features a series of 75 sheets of white paper each bearing a single stain from one of a spectrum of common materials, including products such as Liquid Drano, egg yolk, red wine, and chocolate syrup.