Long the city’s go-to venue for lovers of American decorative arts, traditional and modern crafts, and architectural design, the museum in the past few years has morphed into a funhouse showcasing room-size installations of innovative, immersive artworks. A highlight is Janet Echelman’s colorful fiber and lighting installation 1.8 Renwick, which will be on view until April 2023. Hanging suspended from the Grand Salon’s ceiling, the installation, inspired by the Japanese earthquake and tsunami in 2011, dynamically changes light and projects shadow drawings in vivid colors that move from wall to wall. 

The Renwick’s galleries also showcase Connections, highlighting more than 80 objects “celebrating craft as a discipline and an approach to living differently in the modern world.” The artworks span 90 years and numerous media.

On view in other rooms of the museum are objects from the permanent collection, such as Wendell Castle’s Ghost Clock. A showcase in the elegant Octagon Room uses photos, documents, and art objects to chronicle the building's history.

Designed by and named for James W. Renwick, Jr., architect of the Smithsonian Castle , the Renwick was built in 1859, an example of French Second Empire–style architecture. A 2015 renovation restored the original 19th-century window configurations, and turned up some surprises, like long-concealed vaulted ceilings on the second floor. Located directly across the street from the White House, the Renwick originally was built to house the art collection of William Wilson Corcoran. The collection quickly outgrew the space, which led to the opening of the Corcoran Gallery of Art (currently closed to the public) just down the street, in 1874.