Installation Piece by Piece February 24, 2006

The works installed in this particular case are: Keith McDaniel’s On The Wharf; Howard Hack’s Window Number 22, Parenti’s Market; George Ault’s Bright Light at Russell’s Corners; an unidentified artist’s (Underpass—New York); and Ralston Crawford’s 1961—Number 3. Click on the image to begin the video (Quicktime, 2.4 MB).

This timelapse video shows SAAM staffers Caroline Little and Dale Hunt installing one of the first cases in our new Luce Foundation Center for American Art.

At most museums, only a fraction of the art is on view in the galleries, but in our Luce Foundation Center we get to display an extra 3,300 pieces—paintings, sculptures, craft objects, and small things like miniatures and jewelry—that would otherwise be in deep storage.

The efficiency and calm in the video isn’t a trick of editing: it comes from long practice. For the past two years Caroline and Dale have been performing mock installations of each work of art.

• Luce Foundation Center for American Art, Keith McDaniel, Howard Hack, George Ault,
  Ralston Crawford, Smithsonian American Art Museum