The Smithsonian American Art Museum is reopening its newly renovated modern and contemporary galleries this weekend after two years. The third-floor galleries have been closed since 2021 and are the first phase of the museum’s efforts to revitalize permanent collection spaces.

“Our modern and contemporary spaces have been actually closed for the past two and a half years,” says Sarah Newman, curator of contemporary art and deputy head curator at the Smithsonian American Art Museum. “They shut down during the pandemic, and also during that time, we took the opportunity to really rethink the spaces and what they could be.”

The opening marks the first milestone in the museum’s efforts to reinstall its permanent collections in time for the nation’s 250th birthday in 2026. The exhibit spaces haven’t been renovated since 2006. Next to close will be second-floor galleries, which contain works from the 18th, 19th, and early 20th century. While the exact date for their closure is still to be announced, those galleries should reopen in 2026, according to Newman.

The renovation also comes with a new vision to showcase new works along with a wider diversity of American art from Black, Latinx, Asian American, LGBTQ+, Indigenous and women artists.

“Most times you go to a historical American art gallery, and the standard narrative is a white colonial settler narrative,” Newman says. “We are hoping to introduce perspectives of African Americans, of Native Americans, of artists that haven’t really been represented that well.”

“American Voices and Visions: Modern and Contemporary Art” displays an expanded array of American art and brings together nearly 100 artworks in various mediums. The reinstalled galleries feature 42 artworks recently added to the museum’s collection, including pieces from Kay WalkingStick, Jeffrey Gibson, Tiffany Chung, and Carrie Mae Weems.

“We’re aiming to tell a fuller story and a more diverse story, so that is artists from different backgrounds telling stories from their own personal experience, but it’s also different practices,” Newman says. “So, in addition to painting and sculpture, we are featuring video and photography, but also craft and self-taught art.”

The museum is also spotlighting painter Alma Thomas, a member of the Washington Color School, as it reopens. Thomas is known for her mix of patterns and vibrant colors to evoke the senses. In addition to showing Thomas’s work in the permanent collection, the museum is hosting a temporary exhibit, “Composing Color: Paintings by Alma Thomas,” featuring work from her most prolific period, 1959 to her death in 1978. The exhibit opened last week and will be on view through June 2, 2024.

“I think immediately [the space] puts you in mind between artists and history, thinking about what artists learn from history, what they might be commenting on,” Newman says. “We’re thinking about its injustices and its absences, so you really get the sense of artists engaging with these sort of larger ideas.”

The new modern and contemporary galleries open on Sept. 22.

The Smithsonian American Art Museum is located at 8th and G streets NW, and open daily from 11:30 a.m.‑7 p.m. Admission is free.