Featured Stories
Virtual Reality Experience Brings Iconic Peacock Room to Life at Smithsonian's National Museum of Asian Art
WASHINGTON, Oct. 30 -- The Smithsonian Institution issued the following news release:
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Virtual Reality Experience Brings Iconic Peacock Room to Life at Smithsonian's National Museum of Asian Art
Museum's First VR Experience Celebrates Peacock Room's 150th Anniversary
October 29, 2026
"A Gorgeous Surprise: The Peacock Room in VR," an interactive and immersive virtual reality (VR) experience of the National Museum of Asian Art's renowned Peacock Room, will open at the museum early next year in celebration of the room's 150th anniversary. The digital experience of American artist James McNeill
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WASHINGTON, Oct. 30 -- The Smithsonian Institution issued the following news release:
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Virtual Reality Experience Brings Iconic Peacock Room to Life at Smithsonian's National Museum of Asian Art
Museum's First VR Experience Celebrates Peacock Room's 150th Anniversary
October 29, 2026
"A Gorgeous Surprise: The Peacock Room in VR," an interactive and immersive virtual reality (VR) experience of the National Museum of Asian Art's renowned Peacock Room, will open at the museum early next year in celebration of the room's 150th anniversary. The digital experience of American artist James McNeillWhistler's only surviving intact interior will premiere Friday, Feb. 12, 2027, and will run as a long-term installation. Named after Whistler's description of the Peacock Room while it was in progress, "A Gorgeous Surprise" integrates a variety of visual and audio storytelling features that allow visitors to experience and interact with the space in ways not possible in the physical room.
The VR experience will complement the sole U.S. debut of the landmark retrospective "James McNeill Whistler," also opening Feb. 12, 2027, following stints at London's Tate Britain and Amsterdam's Van Gogh Museum. The exhibition will feature artworks shown exclusively in Washington, D.C. Together, "A Gorgeous Surprise" and "James McNeill Whistler" will offer visitors a deep dive into Whistler's techniques and artistic vision, as well as the profound influence of Japanese and Chinese art on his work.
The VR project connects art and technology to share the room with a wider audience. While much of the National Museum of Asian Art's holdings can be lent to other institutions, the original collection of museum founder Charles Lang Freer--including the Peacock Room--must physically remain within the museum due to the terms of his bequest. Later in the year, the museum will announce opportunities to experience "A Gorgeous Surprise" at select partner institutions internationally. The full VR experience will ultimately be available online on the museum's website.
"Digital experiences such as 'A Gorgeous Surprise: The Peacock Room in VR,' enhance how we understand and relate to art," said Chase F. Robinson, director of the National Museum of Asian Art. "We're especially pleased that our Peacock Room virtual reality experience will travel, advancing our goal of reaching audiences around the world."
Stepping into "A Gorgeous Surprise," visitors can enjoy video previews of the experience before putting on the VR headset. When entering the VR space, various features will allow for interactive and close-up exploration of the room's architecture, wall designs, Japanese and Chinese ceramics and Whistler's famous painting, "The Princess from the Land of Porcelain," whose subject moves beyond the canvas.
"This project brings together some of the newest tools in 3D capture and animation--all made possible by a remarkable spirit of collaboration," said Sonia Coman, the museum's associate director of brand and communications strategy, who also oversees digital innovation at the museum. "Our ambition was not only to make the Peacock Room accessible to those who cannot visit in person, but also to bring it to life in ways that further spark the imagination and create a personal, memorable experience."
Audio overlay will detail the many stories behind the room, from the notorious clash between Whistler and his patron, British shipowner Frederick Leyland (1831-1892), depicted as dueling fowl in the room's central mural, to the room's evolution as it travelled to America. Interactive voiceovers describe its move to Freer's Detroit home in 1904 and its eventual installation at its permanent home at the museum, where it has been open to the public since 1923.
"We wanted our visitors to understand this room's complex history," said Diana Greenwold, the museum's associate director for curatorial affairs and the Lunder Curator of American Art. "Visitors can now step into the room's journey--absorbing not just an exceptional work of art as it stands today, but how it evolved in three distinct contexts and homes, in London, Detroit and Washington, D.C."
To develop the VR project, the museum collaborated with various international organizations, including Gedeon in France; TOPPAN in Japan; and Aperio, NVIDIA and Unit9 in the United States. The museum also partnered with the Smithsonian's Digitization Program Office under the Office of Digital and Innovation, working toward the shared aim to increase the quantity, quality and impact of digitized Smithsonian collections.
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About the Peacock Room
The Peacock Room is American artist James McNeill Whistler's (1834-1903) greatest and only surviving interior. He famously covered the room--originally intended as a dining room--with floor-to-ceiling peacock-inspired designs, including a mural depicting himself and his patron Frederick Leyland (1831-1892) as dueling fowl. Whistler envisioned variations of the peacock and its plumage in blue, green and gold.
In 1904, National Museum of Asian Art founder Freer acquired the Peacock Room and installed it in a purpose-built space in his Detroit home. He helped design the Freer Gallery of Art--now part of the National Museum of Asian Art--with this room as its cornerstone. Since the museum's opening in 1923, various Japanese and Chinese ceramics inside the room are rotated regularly to reflect the different ways the room was organized in history.
Credit
Support for "James McNeill Whistler" is provided by Jacqueline B. Mars, Ms. Gretchen Welch and Ambassador David Welch, The Edward Smart Charitable Trust, Pamela Hyde Smith, and Hallie and David Swanson.
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About the Smithsonian's National Museum of Asian Art
The Smithsonian's National Museum of Asian Art opened in 1923 as the United States' first national art museum and the first Asian art museum in the country. It now stewards one of the world's most important collections of Asian art, with works dating from antiquity to the present. The museum also hosts an unparalleled collection of 19th- and early 20th-century American art.
Through an ambitious program of collecting, conservation, exhibitions, programming and research--both on-site and online--the museum serves as a global and national resource for understanding the arts and cultures of Asia and their interaction with America, past and present. By presenting the arts and cultures of Asia in their extraordinary richness, the museum furthers cross-cultural understanding and aims to exemplify foundational ideals of curiosity, creativity and respect.
Located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., the museum is free and open 364 days a year (closed Dec. 25). The Smithsonian is the world's largest museum, education and research complex and welcomes millions of visitors yearly. For more information about the National Museum of Asian Art, visit asia.si.edu.
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Original text here: https://www.si.edu/newsdesk/releases/virtual-reality-experience-brings-iconic-peacock-room-life-smithsonians-national
NASA-funded Study Details One of Oldest Mars Meteorites Ever Found
PASADENA, California, Oct. 30 (TNSjou) -- NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory issued the following news:
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NASA-funded Study Details One of Oldest Mars Meteorites Ever Found
Oct. 29, 2026
Called Teghaza 001, the rock is from a piece of Mars that formed more than 4.1 billion years ago.
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When a rose-colored meteorite was found in the Sahara Desert in 2022, no one knew how old it was or where it came from. Not until NASA-funded scientists age-dated its minerals did they realize the nearly 2-pound (800-gram) rock was a piece of Mars that formed more than 4.1 billion years ago, making it one of
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PASADENA, California, Oct. 30 (TNSjou) -- NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory issued the following news:
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NASA-funded Study Details One of Oldest Mars Meteorites Ever Found
Oct. 29, 2026
Called Teghaza 001, the rock is from a piece of Mars that formed more than 4.1 billion years ago.
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When a rose-colored meteorite was found in the Sahara Desert in 2022, no one knew how old it was or where it came from. Not until NASA-funded scientists age-dated its minerals did they realize the nearly 2-pound (800-gram) rock was a piece of Mars that formed more than 4.1 billion years ago, making it one ofthe oldest Martian meteorites ever found. Named Teghaza 001 after the salt plain in Mali where it was discovered, the meteorite is one of roughly 435 from the Red Planet.
In a paper published (https://www.science.org/eprint/6FRMXEUFASPRPAFJRZ64/full?activationRedirect=/doi/full/10.1126/science.adz5646) Thursday in Science, researchers offered an initial characterization of Teghaza 001, providing a rare snapshot of Mars' ancient crust and formation. What scientists learn from future studies could help answer many questions, including how water and rocks interacted on ancient Mars. A separate paper published in Science Advances in June detailed the meteorite's water content, offering a look at how water shaped the early planet's surface.
"It was only after we started looking closely that we realized this meteorite is really unique," said the paper's lead author, Yang Liu of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. "One of the paper's reviewers called it a Rosetta Stone for Mars."
Rose-colored stone
What sets Teghaza 001 apart from other Martian meteorites is its texture and age as well as the uniqueness of its igneous, or volcanic, minerals. It is one of the three most ancient Martian meteorites found on Earth. While invaluable, the others provide more limited glimpses of Mars' geological history. They include ALH84001, which is composed almost entirely of one mineral and is similar in age to Teghaza 001. The other meteorite, nicknamed "Black Beauty," formed about 2.1 billion years ago and is composed of small, volcanic rock fragments.
Unlike its ancient peers, Teghaza 001 has a mix of igneous minerals that tells a story about how the planet's crust formed from cooling magma before it was eventually altered by subsurface water. The meteorite's distinctive mineralogy matches what NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has observed in the planet's cratered southern highlands. No one will ever know exactly where the meteorite originated on Mars, but the paper identifies several potential locations that match Teghaza 001's mineralogy and chemistry.
"This is really our first piece of Martian crust from a part of Mars we've never had a sample of before," said the new paper's second author, Lee Saper, who conducted the research while at JPL as a postdoctoral scholar. Lee now is a scientist at NASA's Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley. "It records interactions of water and rock and maybe even an imprint of the Martian atmosphere as it was losing water."
Although the Mars meteorites found on Earth differ from one another, they share a common history, having been blasted off the Red Planet's surface by an impact, followed by a trajectory that eventually placed them on Earth and into the hands of scientists. Meteorites are often found by collectors in deserts or snowy plains, where they stand out from the rest of the barren landscape. Scientists can verify a meteorite as Martian by matching its mineral and chemical components to data collected by NASA's Mars missions, including the Viking landers as well as the Curiosity and Perseverance rovers.
Signs of water
When Liu was first asked to look at Teghaza 001, she almost passed on the opportunity.
Researchers at the University of New Mexico had already identified it as Martian based on its oxygen isotopes, which serve as geochemical fingerprints for different planetary bodies. In this case, the researchers matched the meteorite's oxygen isotopes to those seen in other Martian meteorites. Teghaza 001 appeared to be a shergottite which is the most common class of meteorite from the Red Planet. As an expert in planetary samples, Liu has seen plenty of those, but she decided to take a peek, anyway.
At the very least, there were odd textures and unusual minerals she hadn't seen before. Liu and her colleagues discovered zircon crystals in Teghaza 001, which record clues to a rock's formation and can be used by geologists to precisely age-date a sample. Further analysis revealed when Teghaza 001 formed and when certain changes, like water alteration, occurred.
Caltech coauthor Francois Tissot helped the researchers utilize a novel age-dating method pioneered by his team. Compared with bulk-analysis techniques, where a sample is entirely dissolved and analyzed, Tissot's in-situ rubidium-strontium age-dating used a piece of Teghaza 001 that was smaller than a fingernail, analyzing single mineral grains on its surface. Besides its extreme precision and speed, the technique preserves rare samples like Martian meteorites for future studies.
"Right now, we are one of very few labs in the world able to perform this kind of age-dating, and the first to date such an ancient Martian meteorite," Tissot said. "Our hope is to pave the way for dating even more Martian meteorites, or samples returned from other planets, their moons, and asteroids."
When the age-dating results came back, Liu was shocked: This rock had been altered by Martian water sometime around 4.1 billion years ago, suggesting it originally formed even earlier. Clues within the oxygen isotopes, texture, and chemistry of Teghaza 001 minerals point to a much more dynamic water cycle on early Mars.
This year's papers are just the start. Liu and her co-authors are eager to see what the rest of the scientific community can learn from Teghaza 001.
"We've only scratched the surface," Liu said.
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Original text here: https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasa-funded-study-details-one-of-oldest-mars-meteorites-ever-found/
Inter-American Development Bank: 'Understanding the Evolution of Agricultural Productivity in Colombia'
WASHINGTON, Oct. 30 (TNSLrpt) -- The Inter-American Development Bank issued the following white paper on Oct. 30, 2026, entitled "Understanding the Evolution of Agricultural Productivity in Colombia."
Here are excerpts:
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Colombia has favorable agroecological conditions but continues to face low agricultural productivity. This paper examines total factor productivity (TFP) between 2015 and 2023 using stochastic frontier analysis on household- and municipal-level panel data. We decompose productivity growth and assess the effects of climate shocks, access to credit, rural public investment,
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WASHINGTON, Oct. 30 (TNSLrpt) -- The Inter-American Development Bank issued the following white paper on Oct. 30, 2026, entitled "Understanding the Evolution of Agricultural Productivity in Colombia."
Here are excerpts:
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Colombia has favorable agroecological conditions but continues to face low agricultural productivity. This paper examines total factor productivity (TFP) between 2015 and 2023 using stochastic frontier analysis on household- and municipal-level panel data. We decompose productivity growth and assess the effects of climate shocks, access to credit, rural public investment,and the peace agreement with FARC. Results show that output growth has been driven mainly by input expansion, with TFP increasing by less than 1% annually. Rural road infrastructure and low-interest credit are consistently linked to productivity gains, while input delivery and service programs show no measurable impact. Climate variability remains a major source of productivity fluctuations, highlighting sectoral vulnerability. The 2014 ceasefire with FARC produced heterogeneous effects: household-level productivity rose in previously affected areas, but municipal-level averages declined possibly due to land expansion into less productive zones. Findings underscore the need to shift from input-based support to connectivity, rural finance, and climate-resilient investments.
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View full text here: publications.iadb.org/en/understanding-evolution-agricultural-productivity-colombia
[Category: IADB]
Inter-American Development Bank: 'Skill Certifications and Migrant Labor Market Integration: Experimental Evidence From Colombia'
WASHINGTON, Oct. 30 (TNSLrpt) -- The Inter-American Development Bank issued the following white paper on Oct. 30, 2026, entitled "Skill Certifications and Migrant Labor Market Integration: Experimental Evidence from Colombia."
Here are excerpts:
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This paper studies whether government-issued skill certification improves labor market integration when workers skills are hard to verify. We evaluate a randomized offer of access to an occupation-specific certification program in Colombia to locals and migrants, two groups with different ex ante signaling capacity. The program certifies existing
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WASHINGTON, Oct. 30 (TNSLrpt) -- The Inter-American Development Bank issued the following white paper on Oct. 30, 2026, entitled "Skill Certifications and Migrant Labor Market Integration: Experimental Evidence from Colombia."
Here are excerpts:
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This paper studies whether government-issued skill certification improves labor market integration when workers skills are hard to verify. We evaluate a randomized offer of access to an occupation-specific certification program in Colombia to locals and migrants, two groups with different ex ante signaling capacity. The program certifies existingskills rather than providing training. Among locals, the offer increases employment by reducing inactivity and raises hours worked. The effects persist unevenly over time and are robust to attrition bounds and alternative outcome measures. Among migrants, estimates are less precise and provide no evidence of effects in employment, hours, or wages. The results show that a common skill certification generates different patterns of labor market adjustment among locals and migrants.
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View full text here: publications.iadb.org/en/skill-certifications-and-migrant-labor-market-integration-experimental-evidence-colombia
[Category: IADB]
Inter-American Development Bank: 'How Shocks Travel: The Cross-Border Impact of Natural Disasters in Firm Networks'
WASHINGTON, Oct. 30 (TNSLrpt) -- The Inter-American Development Bank issued the following white paper on Oct. 30, 2026, entitled "How Shocks Travel: The Cross-Border Impact of Natural Disasters in Firm Networks."
Here are excerpts:
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Do the boundaries of the multinational firm shape how shocks propagate through global production networks? We link U.S. Bill of Lading microdata, geocoded natural disaster records, and cross-border ownership data to trace the transmission of exogenous supply disruptions from foreign suppliers to U.S. importers. Exploiting the quasi-random timing and location
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WASHINGTON, Oct. 30 (TNSLrpt) -- The Inter-American Development Bank issued the following white paper on Oct. 30, 2026, entitled "How Shocks Travel: The Cross-Border Impact of Natural Disasters in Firm Networks."
Here are excerpts:
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Do the boundaries of the multinational firm shape how shocks propagate through global production networks? We link U.S. Bill of Lading microdata, geocoded natural disaster records, and cross-border ownership data to trace the transmission of exogenous supply disruptions from foreign suppliers to U.S. importers. Exploiting the quasi-random timing and locationof natural disasters in a staggered event-study design, we document that disasters abroad generate sharp, persistent export declines at affected suppliers, shocks that propagate downstream, reducing the growth rate of U.S. importers total purchases by up to 25 percentage points. Transmission, however, is far from uniform: non-MNC buyers contract roughly twice as much as importers belonging to global corporations, and intra-firm relationships contract about a third less than arms-length ones. These patterns point to the internal networks of multinational firms as shock absorbers that attenuate and redirect supply-side disruptions, suggesting that firm boundaries are not merely organizational choices but also determinants of macroeconomic resilience.
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View full text here: publications.iadb.org/en/how-shocks-travel-cross-border-impact-natural-disasters-firm-networks
[Category: IADB]
Inter-American Development Bank: 'Does Generative AI Narrow Education-based Productivity Gaps? Evidence From a Randomized Experiment'
WASHINGTON, Oct. 30 (TNSLrpt) -- The Inter-American Development Bank issued the following white paper on Oct. 30, 2026, entitled "Does Generative AI Narrow Education-based Productivity Gaps? Evidence from a Randomized Experiment."
Here are excerpts:
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Does generative artificial intelligence (AI) reinforce or reduce productivity differences across workers? Existing evidence largely studies AI within firms and occupations, where organizational selection compresses educational heterogeneity, leaving unclear whether AI narrows productivity gaps across individuals with different levels of education.
... Show Full Article
WASHINGTON, Oct. 30 (TNSLrpt) -- The Inter-American Development Bank issued the following white paper on Oct. 30, 2026, entitled "Does Generative AI Narrow Education-based Productivity Gaps? Evidence from a Randomized Experiment."
Here are excerpts:
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Does generative artificial intelligence (AI) reinforce or reduce productivity differences across workers? Existing evidence largely studies AI within firms and occupations, where organizational selection compresses educational heterogeneity, leaving unclear whether AI narrows productivity gaps across individuals with different levels of education.A related question is whether the productivity gains from AI reflect productive use of the tool or mere delegation, fading once AI is unavailable, and whether the answer differs across education groups. We address both questions using a randomized online experiment outside firms, in which 1,174 adults aged 2545 complete an incentivized, workplacestyle business problem-solving task with or without a generative-AI assistant, followed by a non-AI-assisted follow-up module. AI increases performance for all participants, with substantially larger gains for lower-education individuals. In the control group without AI, higher-education participants outperform lower-education participants by 0.548 standard deviations; with AI, this gap falls to 0.139 standard deviations, closing about three-quarters of the initial gap. Chat-log measures explain both why this gap narrows and why it does not disappear: lower-education participants successfully obtain substantial assistance from AI, while higher-education participants use the tool somewhat more effectively across several margins. The follow-up results showthat these gains are not purely driven by delegation; treated participants do not perform worse than controls once AI is removed, and lower-education participants retain part of their gain, although a sizable education gap re-emerges. Consistent with this interpretation, intensive use of the assistant produces strong task performance regardless of how much time and effort participants devote themselves, but follow-up performance is substantially higher only when intensive AI use is combined with sustained effort on the task. We interpret these findings as evidence that generative AI narrows effective productivity differences in task execution while underlying human-capital differences continue to shape unassisted performance and effective use of the tool.
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View full text here: publications.iadb.org/en/does-generative-ai-narrow-education-based-productivity-gaps-evidence-randomized-experiment
[Category: IADB]
Hiroshi Sugimoto's Site-Specific Commission "Passage of Reflectance" Reconnects Hirshhorn Campus
WASHINGTON, Oct. 30 -- The Smithsonian Institution issued the following news release:
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Hiroshi Sugimoto's Site-Specific Commission "Passage of Reflectance" Reconnects Hirshhorn Campus
Artist-Architect Reopens Long-Closed Underground Passageway as Immersive, Site-Responsive Artwork To Broaden Public Access to National Collection
October 28, 2026
The Smithsonian's Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden has revealed the commissioned artwork "Passage of Reflectance" (2026) by artist-architect Hiroshi Sugimoto, a site-specific installation that transforms the long-closed underground passageway
... Show Full Article
WASHINGTON, Oct. 30 -- The Smithsonian Institution issued the following news release:
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Hiroshi Sugimoto's Site-Specific Commission "Passage of Reflectance" Reconnects Hirshhorn Campus
Artist-Architect Reopens Long-Closed Underground Passageway as Immersive, Site-Responsive Artwork To Broaden Public Access to National Collection
October 28, 2026
The Smithsonian's Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden has revealed the commissioned artwork "Passage of Reflectance" (2026) by artist-architect Hiroshi Sugimoto, a site-specific installation that transforms the long-closed underground passagewaybetween the Sculpture Garden and museum plaza into a light-filled, reflective pedestrian tunnel. At once a functional enhancement and an immersive artistic reimagining, "Passage of Reflectance" is a key element of Sugimoto's wider revitalization of the Sculpture Garden, which opens to the public at 11 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 31.
"'Passage of Reflectance' is emblematic of the vision we share with Sugimoto," said Hirshhorn Acting Director Aaron Seeto. "In this work, Sugimoto reveals his decades-long understanding of both mathematics and Gordon Bunshaft's original architecture for the Hirshhorn. Our shared history began in 2006 with Sugimoto's midcareer survey at the museum and deepened in 2018 with his highly successful redesign of our lobby. His new site-responsive artwork reunifies the Hirshhorn campus to underline Joseph H. Hirshhorn's foundational vision and gifts to the nation."
"Passage of Reflectance" embodies Sugimoto's practice of translating mathematics into sculptural form, emphasizing that the principles dictating the physical world often remain unseen in daily life. Composed of two parabolic stainless-steel "wings" that line each side of the tunnel connecting the garden with the plaza, each approximately 90 feet long and 8 feet high, it has an imagined meeting point: the center of Bunshaft's distinct cylindrical building. Sugimoto has manipulated the walls' mirrored surfaces so as visitors walk through the passageway, their reflections are exaggerated and repeated, an effect reminiscent of an Impressionist painting. Viewed from the garden's new "front door" at the National Mall, "Passage" reflects the Central Garden's water feature and sculpture, welcoming visitors to the Hirshhorn.
"My aim was to realize Bunshaft's original conception at a deeper level," Sugimoto said. "His architectural philosophy was based on ideas of geometry: it was these that led him to create a cylindrical gallery. 'Passage of Reflectance' is both a functional pathway and an immersive artwork defined by two curving lines gradually converging inward to the center of the museum's circular building and theoretically continuing to infinity. I selected polished stainless-steel sheeting for the walls, which creates a unique, wavelike mirrored finish. Hirshhorn visitors are drawn through to experience the garden's greenery, artworks and their own forms reflected in facets. The visual experience of 19th-century Impressionism--itself a prelude to Modernism--welcomes visitors from the National Mall or the Hirshhorn plaza into the world of modern and contemporary art."
Alongside the transformation of the tunnel beneath Jefferson Drive--closed since the 1980s--key enhancements by Sugimoto include expanded entrances and sightlines from the National Mall and East and West Overlooks, accessible entrances on the north and south, and increased shade from native plantings. The artist-architect's design also introduces stacked stone walls, additional seating and flexible space for interactive installations, performance and time-based art, public programming and art education. These modifications encourage a fluid experience for visitors as the Hirshhorn fulfills its mission as the national museum of modern and contemporary art for broad audiences.
"The selection of an artist to remake the garden for other artists has resulted in a flexible spatial arrangement," Seeto said. "We will reopen with almost 50% more sculpture from our global collection on view outside."
The revitalized Sculpture Garden opening installation includes artworks by Hans (Jean) Arp, Huma Bhabha, Max Bill, Andrea Cascella, Willem de Kooning, Elmgreen & Dragset, Lucio Fontana, Elisabeth Frink, Theaster Gates, Alberto Giacometti, Mark Grotjahn, Raven Halfmoon, Lauren Halsey, Barbara Hepworth, Richard Hunt, Izumi Kato, KAWS, Jeff Koons, Gaston Lachaise, Liz Larner, Henri Laurens, Jacques Lipchitz, Aristide Maillol, Henri Matisse, Joan Miro, Henry Moore, Yoshitomo Nara, Yoko Ono, Woody De Othello, Pablo Picasso, Chatchai Puipia, Pedro Reyes, Germaine Richier, Auguste Rodin, David Smith, Tony Smith, Tomonori Toyofuku and Sugimoto. Artists with work installed on the Hirshhorn plaza include Juan Munoz, Sterling Ruby, Arlene Shechet and Lee Ufan, with sculptures by Barry Flanagan, Ellsworth Kelly and Beverly Pepper to come.
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About Hiroshi Sugimoto
The artist-architect has held major exhibitions in museums and galleries throughout the world, including the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; the Metropolitan Museum of Art; and the Serpentine Gallery. His work is held in leading collections, including the Museum of Modern Art, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the Centre Georges Pompidou and the National Gallery, London. Sugimoto has had a long relationship with the Hirshhorn, beginning with his first major U.S. retrospective in 2006 and his innovative redesign of the museum's lobby in 2018. He has designed a variety of indoor and outdoor spaces that create beautiful linkages between art and architecture, including a series of installations at Versailles (2019); the Atrium Garden for the Japan Society, New York (2017); and the Enoura Observatory for the Odawara Art Foundation, Japan (2017). In the revitalization of the Hirshhorn Sculpture Garden, Sugimoto led his design team from New Material Research Laboratory Co. Ltd., Tokyo, in association with YUN Architecture, Brooklyn; Quinn Evans Architects, Washington, D.C., architect of record with Eiko Tomura Landscape Architecture, Tokyo; and Rhodeside & Harwell Inc., Alexandria, Virginia, associate landscape designer and licensed landscape architect for the local adaptation and implementation.
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About the Hirshhorn
The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden is the national museum of modern and contemporary art and a leading voice for 21st-century art and culture. Part of the Smithsonian, the Hirshhorn is located prominently on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. Its holdings encompass one of the most important collections of postwar American and European art in the world. The Hirshhorn presents diverse exhibitions and offers an array of public programs on the art of our time--free to all. The Hirshhorn Museum is open Mondays noon-5:30 p.m. and Tuesdays-Sundays 10 a.m.-5:30 p.m. (closed Dec. 25). The Hirshhorn Sculpture Garden reopens Oct. 31, 2026, revitalized by Hiroshi Sugimoto to share more artwork, welcome more visitors and replace aging infrastructure. For more information, visit hirshhorn.si.edu. Follow the Hirshhorn on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.
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Original text here: https://www.si.edu/newsdesk/releases/hiroshi-sugimotos-site-specific-commission-passage-reflectance-reconnects
