New York City, New York
“Somewhere to Roost”
Where: American Folk Art Museum
When: Through January 26, 2025
Why It’s Worth a Look: An interrogation of the static idea of “home,” this show meditates on the relationship between refuge and stability across 60 paintings, textile works, photographs, and sculptures.
Know Before You Go: In “Somewhere to Roost,” thematic explorations of home range from more literal interrogations of immigration, incarceration, and housing security to more experimental interpretations.
“Making Home—Smithsonian Design Triennial”
Where: Cooper Hewitt
When: Through August 10, 2025
Why It’s Worth a Look: Going home for the holidays can be a turbulent affair—but this series of 25 site-specific installations reminds us that home can be a space of constant remaking and reinterpretation.
Know Before You Go: The Smithsonian’s Design Triennial series explores some of the most pressing issues of our time through design. This seventh edition is broken into three thematic floors: Going Home, Seeking Home, and Building Home.
Wainscott, New York
“20th Annual Thanksgiving Collective: Breaking Bread”
Where: Tripoli Gallery
When: November 30 - February 24, 2025
Why It’s Worth a Look: As part of its annual Thanksgiving group exhibition, Tripoli Gallery presents work by a whopping 144 artists. The show's title was suggested by artist Lola Montes (whose work is featured within it).
Know Before You Go: The show is dedicated to founder Tripoli Patterson's godmother, Lisa de Kooning (daughter of Willem). "She is an angel who’s shed the restraints of time, a teacher who makes the misfits feel wanted and cared about, a mother to three stunning and consciously attuned daughters, an animal whisperer of all breeds, a fighter, and my godmother," Patterson wrote.
Bentonville, Arkansas
"Best in Show: Pets in Contemporary Photography"
Where: The Momentary, Crystal Bridges Museum of Fine Art
When: Through April 13, 2025
Why It’s Worth a Look: Hear us out… pets should be invited to the Thanksgiving dinner table. In this show, featuring 25 artists from around the globe (including the world’s first professional cat photographer) pets are foregrounded for their pivotal role in human lives.
Know Before You Go: In a true celebration of all things animal, the museum is inviting visitors to bring their furry friends to the exhibition. There's just one rule: all pets must keep their paws (or talons) to themselves.
Los Angeles, California
“House Party”
Where: GGLA
When: Through December 7, 2024
Why It’s Worth a Look: The result of a literal house party—or what happens when artists exhibit in one community-based auxiliary space all year—this showcase features a colorful array of work centered on themes of intimacy and interiority.
Know Before You Go: Included in the exhibition are a coterie of West Coast artists, such as San Francisco’s Joe Roberts and Rachel Simon Marino, as well as Los Angeles’s Hubert Schmalix, Umar Rashid, and Hilary Pecis.
“Complete Reality” by Anna Freeman Bentley
Where: Anat Ebgi
When: Through January 11, 2025
Why It’s Worth a Look: In her debut solo exhibition with Anat Ebgi, Anna Freeman Bentley paints the same room again and again—only subtle changes differentiate each painting, from altered lighting to shifted furniture. Void of human occupants, these scenes are instead littered with the accumulated remnants of life, imposing a sense of distance between the viewer and an otherwise intimate glimpse at personal space.
Know Before You Go: Also visible in these scenes are the signs of a film crew—the corner of a camera, scattered water bottles, or a bit of lighting equipment. As inspiration for her staged scenes, the artist visited a film set in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Dallas, Texas
“Homecoming” by Hugh Hayden
Where: Nasher Sculpture Center
When: Through January 5, 2025
Why It’s Worth a Look: In this exhibition, artist Hugh Hayden examines the darker, more disquieting realities of the American Dream through re-contextualized wooden furnishings, including a dining table bristling with thorny pencils and a child’s playhouse replete with a church steeple.
Know Before You Go: This is Hayden’s first exhibition in his hometown of Dallas, and it's sure to be a family affair.
San Francisco, California
“Mary Cassatt at Work”
Where: Legion of Honor
When: Through January 26, 2025
Why It’s Worth a Look: In this retrospective of Mary Cassatt’s work, femininity and motherhood take on monumental significance. Here, the unrelenting care and unacknowledged labors of women are given a platform unlike any that Cassatt anjoyed during her lifetime. Then—and even today—she was often dismissed as overly sentimental.
Know Before You Go: Like much of Cassatt's work, the pieces selected for the exhibition zero in on the notion of "women's work."
Jackson, Mississippi
"Of Salt and Spirit: Black Quilters in the American South"
Where: Mississippi Museum of Art
When: Through April 13, 2025
Why It’s Worth a Look: Curated by Dr. Sharbreon Plummer to reflect a Black feminist perspective, this exhibition pulls pieces from the MMA’s impressive collection of quilts—the largest in the American South—which includes selections from Gwendolyn Ann Magee, the Crossroads Quilters, and photographer Roland Freedman’s archive.
Know Before You Go: Roland Freedman, previously a Time magazine and White House photographer, collected quilts while capturing African-American quilters and guilds across the South. In 2022, 131 of the quilts he collected along the way were donated to the museum, many made in Mississippi.
Seattle, Washington
“Walk a Mile in My Dreams” by Joyce J. Scott
Where: The Seattle Art Museum
When: Through January 19, 2025
Why It’s Worth a Look: Prolific. Humorous. Confrontational. Any of these words could be used to describe Joyce J. Scott's sprawling body of work, which has been winnowed down for this latest survey. The artist is best known for her work with beading and glass, a disruption of the traditional craft-fine art hierarchy and a medium she uses to interrogate pressing issues of race, class, and sexual violence.
Know Before You Go: In the spirit of community bonding, one room will be devoted to an interactive weaving project in which visitors are invited to take part.
Detroit, Michigan
“The Art of Dining: Food Culture in the Islamic World”
Where: Detroit Institute of Art
When: Through January 5, 2025
Why It’s Worth a Look: What to do at a feast with no food? Imbibe via your other senses. In this show, more than 200 works accumulated from across the Middle East, Egypt, and Central and South Asia serve to underscore the cultural crossovers in our culinary and dining traditions. As Director Salvador Salort-Pons points out, even the churro has a network of unexpected origins, from China to Spain.
Know Before You Go: Visitors to the gallery will be invited to smell some scents that were historically used to set the scene and tempt the senses ahead of mealtime.
