National Portrait Gallery
Smithsonian Events Week of 5/18-22: Art, Gardens and Butterflies
Monday, May 18: Docent's Choice TourTake a little risk at the art gallery today and let the docent lead you wherever they will! Will it be America's President's exhibition? Will it be one of the special shows on display? You won't know until you come over here and enjoy the unexpected pleasures of ...
May 18, 2009 |
By Jesse Rhodes
Smithsonian Events Week of 5/11-15: Portraits, Presents, Star Trek and Sailing
Monday, May 11: Gallery Talk: June Wayne's Self PortraitIn tonight's gallery talk, National Gallery paper conservator Rosemary Fallon and Smithsonian American Art Museum curatorial associate Ann Prentice Wagner discuss June Wayne's technique in this self-portrait. While in the museum, be sure to ch...
May 11, 2009 |
By Jesse Rhodes
Tony Bennett and Duke, Together at the Portrait Gallery
Today is the 110th anniversary of Duke Ellington's birth here in Washington, D.C., and to commemorate it, Tony Bennett presented the National Portrait Gallery this morning with his painting of the jazz great. Ellington, who Bennett says was "so gregarious" when they first met at the Rainbow Room in...
April 29, 2009 |
By Megan Gambino
Smithsonian Events Week of 4/27-5/1/09: Vietnam, Jazz, Cabaret and Eudora Welty
Monday, April 27: Operation Babylift: Saving Children from the Vietnam WarIn April 1975 American humanitarian workers in South Vietnam worked to evacuate orphaned children to North America, Europe and Australia just as North Vietnamese were sweeping through the region. Operation Babylift transferre...
April 27, 2009 |
By Jesse Rhodes
Smithsonian Weekend Events: Opera, Jazz and Photography
Friday, April 17: Take Five!Enjoy an evening of live jazz. Tonight, it's the Thad Wilson Jazz Orchestra, a 12-piece big band that is sure to bring the house down. Free. Light refreshments will be available for purchase. American Art Museum, 5-8:00 PMSaturday, April 18: Photographer Alec Soth: In th...
April 17, 2009 |
By Jesse Rhodes
Smithsonian Events Week of 4/13-17: A Little Jazz, a Glass of Wine and a House of Gorillas
Monday, April 13: Easter Monday: Celebrating the African American FamilyEaster Monday has been a long standing multicultural tradition in Washington, DC—and why not celebrate at the National Zoo? The day is rife with food and activities, which include an Easter egg hunt, crafts, live musical entert...
April 13, 2009 |
By Jesse Rhodes
New Self-Portraiture Exhibition at National Portrait Gallery
When organizing the National Portrait Gallery’s exhibition "Reflections/Refractions: Self-Portraiture in the Twentieth Century," opening tomorrow, Wendy Wick Reaves, curator of prints and drawings, made it her goal to take something that seems so simple—self-portraiture—and show its complexities.In...
April 09, 2009 |
By Megan Gambino
Smithsonian Events Week of 4/6-10: Samuel Morse, Satellites and Bunnies
Monday, April 6: Book SigningCorkey Hay DeSimone will be available to sign copies of her children's book Cherry Blossom Friends, a book written especially for this year's Cherry Blossom Festival. Free. National Air and Space Museum, 12:00-3:00 PM Tuesday, April 7: Quilting DemonstrationVolunteers f...
April 06, 2009 |
By Jesse Rhodes
The Portraiture of Marcel Duchamp
In the five years that Anne Collins Goodyear, assistant curator of prints and drawings at the National Portrait Gallery, and James McManus, professor emeritus of art history at California State University, Chico, prepared the Portrait Gallery’s new exhibit "Inventing Marcel Duchamp: The Dynamics of...
March 27, 2009 |
By Megan Gambino
Portrait Talk: Martha Washington
In light of March being Women’s History Month, the National Portrait Gallery has devoted its Thursday night Face-to-Face portrait talks to first ladies—first, Dolley Madison, then Lady Bird Johnson and last week was Martha Washington, with senior historian Sidney Hart speaking about Gilbert Stuart’...
March 26, 2009 |
By Megan Gambino
Rachel Carson: A Life That Inspires a Sense of Wonder
For the past sixteen years, actress Kaiulani Lee has been performing her one-woman show A Sense of Wonder that depicts the final months of environmentalist Rachel Carson. Lee’s beautifully riveting performance has been captured on film and is making the rounds around the nation. It premièred in DC ...
March 24, 2009 |
By Jesse Rhodes
Smithsonian Events Week of 3/23-27: Marcel Duchamp, The Peacock Room and more!
Monday, March 23: Historic Theater: Letters HomeDeliver the letter, the sooner the better. During times of war, correspondence is of critical importance to the service-people who are far away from home. See how the art of letter writing has evolved over the years in this dramatic presentation that ...
March 23, 2009 |
By Jesse Rhodes
Smithsonian Events Week of 3/9-13: Bones and Lady Bird
Monday, March 9: Written in Bone Forensic LabAfter reading Joe Caputo's piece on the new Written in Bone exhibit, how would you like to try your hand at forensic science? Come to the Natural History Museum where you can get your hands on bona-fide bones and learn how to tell the stories they hide. ...
March 09, 2009 |
By Jesse Rhodes
Smithsonian Events Week of 2/17-20: Lady Day and Civil Rights Heroes
Tuesday, February 17: Reel Portraits: Billie Holiday and Lady Sings the BluesAfter leaving the Supremes, Diana Ross not only launched a solo career, but she also tried her hand as an actress. Lady Sings the Blues, a slightly true biopic about jazz legend Billie Holiday, featured Ross and Billy Dee ...
February 16, 2009 |
By Jesse Rhodes
Tour the Portrait Gallery's Hall of Presidents on Presidents' Day
It's Presidents' Day—come out to the National Portrait Gallery and pay your respects to the guys who garnered us three days of discount shopping. (And once you're done looking at all the awesome artwork, go out and boost the economy as best you can.) Senior historian Sid Hart shows you a few highli...
February 16, 2009 |
By Jesse Rhodes
Smithsonian Weekend Events: Snarf Chocolate and Dish on Lincoln
Friday, February 13: Reading: Toronto at Dreamer's RockContemporary storyteller and playwright Drew Hayden Taylor will read from his play, Toronto at Dreamer's Rock, which tells the tale of a young Native American boy who finds it difficult to reconcile ancestral traditions with modern living. Free...
February 13, 2009 |
By Jesse Rhodes
Poll: Did Shepard Fairey Break the Law?
So just when we thought our favorite bad boy street artist was settling down a bit, playing nice in support of a political candidate for the first time and going mainstream with his work now in the National Portrait Gallery and the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston, Shepard Fairey, the artist...
February 10, 2009 |
By Megan Gambino
Smithsonian Events, 2/2-6: Buddy Holly and Black History Month
Monday, February 2: Nothing SpecialThere's nothing special planned for you today, so come on out and enjoy the collections at any of the museums. Just please, keep off the grass and don't feed the volunteers working the Information Desk.Tuesday, February 3: Buddy Holly: The Day the Music DiedBuddy ...
February 02, 2009 |
By Jesse Rhodes
Weekend Events: African Pearls, Another Inaugural Ball, and a String Quartet
Friday, January 30: A Scattering of Pearls: Architecture of the Gold Road and the Mali-Spain DiasporaAfter completing a pilgrimage to Mecca in 1324, Mansa Musa, emperor of Mali, returned with architect Al-Saheli. With Mansa's support, Al-Saheli constructed palaces and mosques—notably the Djingareyb...
January 30, 2009 |
By Jesse Rhodes
Smithsonian Events, 1/26-30: Michael J. Fox and Mali's Architectural Treasures
Monday, January 26: Tibetan Gifts: 10 percent off at the Freer/Sackler Shops!The Dropenling Handicraft Development Center in Tibet is a nonprofit organization that works to preserve and promote Tibetan culture and their offerings—which include clothing, toys and other handcrafts—are now 10 percent ...
January 26, 2009 |
By Jesse Rhodes
