In June 2026 the MFA opened eight new galleries of 18th-century art on the first floor of the Art of the Americas Wing. The new display includes a silver bowl that is an early piece of American protest art, a Wampanoag woman’s outfit adorned with beads and quills, a towering mahogany desk and bookcase, as well as paintings, sculpture, decorative arts, works on paper, and so much more. 

Join Erica Hirshler, Croll Senior Curator of American Paintings, to take a deeper look at the new spaces, discover the interconnectedness of the Americas—its history, institutions, and people—and explore how artists have contributed to and resisted ideas of nationhood and identity.