Short answers, pulled from the story.
The Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM) is a museum in Washington, D.C., part of the Smithsonian Institution, that holds one of the world's largest collections of art made in the United States from the colonial period to the present. More than 7,000 artists are represented in its holdings. Its main building is the historic Old Patent Office Building, shared with the National Portrait Gallery.
The museum, then called the National Collection of Fine Arts, opened in the Old Patent Office Building on the 6th of May, 1968. Renovation work on the building had begun in 1964, and the combined building with the National Portrait Gallery reopened after a second major renovation on the 1st of July, 2006.
The renovation that began in January 2000 was originally planned at $60 million. The scope expanded significantly, and the project ultimately took six years and cost $283 million before the building reopened in 2006.
The Luce Foundation Center for American Art is a visible art storage and study center that opened in July 2000 on the third and fourth floors of the museum, covering 20,400 square feet. It displays more than 3,300 objects in 64 secure glass cases, quadrupling the number of artworks from the permanent collection on public view.
SAAM holds the world's largest collection of New Deal art, along with American impressionist paintings, Gilded Age masterpieces, photography, jewelry, modern folk art, works by African American and Latino artists, images of western expansion, and contemporary craft. Artists represented include Georgia O'Keeffe, Edward Hopper, Winslow Homer, John Singer Sargent, Edmonia Lewis, and Nam June Paik.
The name was changed from the National Museum of American Art to the Smithsonian American Art Museum in October 2000 so the museum and its traveling exhibitions could benefit from the Smithsonian's brand recognition during the building's closure for renovation.