Four exciting and stimulating new exhibitions will open on June 14 in the American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center. Please refer to the museum’s website for the most up-to-date information on visiting the museum. 

Exhibitions open from June 14 through August 10, 2025:

David A. Douglas: Intersections

Presented by the Alper Initiative for Washington Art, Intersections showcases the poetic vision of Northern Virginia artist David A. Douglas. His large-scale works blend drawing, painting, and photography to explore memory and place. The exhibition explores what it means to be a human being on this planet—connected to home, landscape, memory, and other people. At the heart of Douglas’s work are vital questions: Who are we, and how do we fit into the places we inhabit? What makes a place meaningful? What does it mean to belong? What do we notice, and why?

Douglas’s art reflects a deep engagement with the natural world, yet always with traces of human presence—benches, houses, clotheslines, and quiet figures—that hint at stories unfolding across time. The result is a body of work that feels timeless, introspective, and emotionally resonant. 

Soaring (Narsha)

Presented by the Han-Mee Artists Association of Greater Washington (HMAAGW) in honor of its 50th anniversary, Soaring (Narsha) is a landmark exhibition that features works by 31 artists across a wide range of mediums and styles. Soaring (Narsha) highlights the richness of Korean cultural traditions and the lived experiences of Korean immigrants in the United States and celebrates five decades of artistic achievement, cultural resilience, and the evolving spirit of Korean-American identity.

Anarchy Loosed Upon the World: Vintage Photographs of the War in Vietnam

This spring marks the 50th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War, which at the time was the most photographed war in history. Anarchy Loosed Upon the World presents a rare and powerful selection of vintage "wire transmission" photographs assembled over a decade by Jo C. Tartt that offer a visceral, firsthand experience of what it meant to be at war, through the lenses of those who were there.

Sourced from the archives of major newspapers including The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Los Angeles Times, these prints represent the courageous work of combat photojournalists who risked—and often lost—their lives to document the conflict. This exhibition is not a chronological history of the war. It is a meditation on the human cost of conflict and the unique power of photography to bear witness.

The Teen Experience

What is it like to be a teen today? The Teen Experience is a show about teenagers, by teenagers that offers a raw and honest glimpse into the realities of teen life through drawings, paintings, mixed media, and large-scale, interactive environments by artists from the Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) Visual Art Center. The exhibition explores identity, mental health, social and digital pressure, school, family, and the unspoken moments in between. Part of the Museum of Contemporary American Teenagers’ Totally Teen Summer.

Museum Information:  

The American University Museum is a three-story public museum and sculpture garden located within the university’s Katzen Arts Center. The region’s largest university facility for exhibiting art, the museum has a permanent collection that highlights the donors’ holdings and AU’s Corcoran Legacy Collection, Watkins Collection, and Rothfeld Collection. Rotating exhibitions emphasize thought-provoking local, national, and international contemporary art.    

The Katzen Arts Center, named for Washington-area benefactors Dr. and Mrs. Cyrus Katzen, brings all the visual and performing arts programs at AU into one space. Designed to foster interdisciplinary collaboration in the arts, this center includes the museum, the Abramson Family Recital Hall, the Studio Theatre, a dance studio, an electronics studio, artists’ studios, rehearsal space and classrooms.   

Media Contact: Natasha Abel, AU Communications, nabel@american.edu, 202-885-5950  

Hours and Location:  

Wednesday through Sunday from 11a.m. to 4 p.m., 4400 Massachusetts Ave NW, Washington, D.C. 20016.