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At the Smithsonian / Exhibitions

Of Gods and Heroes by Jeffrey Veregge, 2018 (detail featuring Colleen Wing and Misty Knight)

This Artist Reenvisioned Marvel Superheroes in a Traditional Native American Style

Jeffrey Veregge uses formline, more typical of paintings and totem poles, to create a heroic mural

Thanksgiving tells the story of a landmark moment of coexistence, multiculturalism and even neighborliness (above: The First Thanksgiving, 1621, Jean Leon G. Ferris) when Native Americans taught Pilgrims to farm, and shared a meal with them after a successful harvest in 1621.

How an Unremarkable ‘Brunch in the Forest’ Turned Into the Thanksgiving We Know

A new Sidedoor podcast dives into the holiday’s origins

The centerpiece is a cast of the reconstructed remains of Prognathodon kianda, which make up the most complete skeleton of this species found to date.

Prehistoric Angolan “Sea Monsters” Take Up Residence at the Natural History Museum

The new fossil exhibition spotlights the majestic marine predators that swept into the South Atlantic shortly after it formed

In the five generations since the treaty was signed and broken, the Sioux Nations have steadily lost reservation lands to white development.

In 1868, Two Nations Made a Treaty. The U.S. Broke It, and Plains Indian Tribes Are Still Seeking Justice

The American Indian Museum puts the 150-year-old Fort Laramie Treaty on view in its “Nation to Nation” exhibition

Pulse Tank by Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, 2008

This Art Show Is Taking the Literal Pulse of America

Artist Rafael Lozano-Hemmer uses biometrics to make breathtaking spectacle

With elaborate coiffures and scarves and ceremonial garb, all the way down to beautifully designed sandals and the tinkling of gold bracelets, Senegalese women usefashion for sociopolitical and economic ends as well as celebrating their own history.

In Senegal, Female Empowerment, Prestige and Wealth Is Measured in Glittering Gold

The African Art Museum’s new exhibition delves into a tradition that is both ravishingly beautiful and hauntingly fraught

The dozen or so cameras watching the musicians sent live video from the performance to a rack of computers, which used off-the-shelf artificial intelligence algorithms to create the eerie visuals.

The Musical Performance “Sight Machine” Reveals What Artificial Intelligence Is “Thinking” About Us

Like artist Trevor Paglen’s other work, the show asked viewers to reexamine the human relationship to technology

Bull Moose, Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming, USA by Isaac Spotts (Youth Photographer of the Year): "Cautiously, I slid into the water to be eye-level with them."

Peer Through the Lens of the World’s Best Nature Photographers

Sixty images, including the winners, from the 23rd annual Nature’s Best Photography Windland Smith Rice Awards go on view

Simmon: A Private Landscape (#1), by Hosoe Eikoh, 1971

How Japanese Artists Responded to the Transformation of Their Nation

Two new exhibitions at the Freer|Sackler vividly illustrate Japan’s arrival to the modern age

Untitled (Wash Day: Scrubbing the Clothes) by Clementine Hunter, ca. 1965

Self-Taught Artist Clementine Hunter Painted the Bold Hues of Southern Life

On view at NMAAHC, Hunter’s colorful artworks depict work in the field, church on Sundays, and laundry on the line

“I knew we had the work cut out for us,” says Richard Barden, the Preservation Services manager. “When you really start looking at the slippers, you see how many different materials they are."

The Return of Dorothy’s Iconic Ruby Slippers, Now Newly Preserved for the Ages

The unprecedented conservation of the Wizard of Oz shoes involved more than 200 hours, and a call from the FBI

Traylor's works (above: Man with Yoke, detail) are drawing fans worldwide for their exuberant modern composition and design.

Bill Traylor Depicted His Brutal Lifetime With Vibrant Art

A new Smithsonian show, seven years in the making, takes a deep dive into the life of a self-taught artist and former slave

Artist rendering of the National Mall entrance following the seven-year renovation

What’s Open and What’s Not During the National Air and Space Museum’s Seven-Year Renovation

Visitors might be inconvenienced, but the much-loved Washington, D.C. museum is undergoing a massive revitalization

In the installation, astronaut Mae Jemison appears as a 3D rendering (above, left) and discusses her career and those of other women involved in the space program.

A Hologram of the First Woman of Color in Space Debuted on Museum Day

An installation at the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum featuring Mae Jemison highlights diversity in space exploration

Haile Gerima’s 1993 classic film Sankofa envisions an African-American model visiting present-day West Africa mystically thrust into the life of a slave.

Smithsonian Film Festival Examines African-American Life Through Dozens of Distinct Lenses

The first of its kind, the late-October event brings together perspectives both historical and contemporary

Billie Jean King is the fifth recipient of the Smithsonian “Great Americans” medal.

Smithsonian Names Billie Jean King One of Its ‘Great Americans”’

The tennis icon chatted about her life and legacy in a wide-ranging conversation at the National Museum of American History

Before He Was a Musician, John Lennon Was a Philatelist

Marking the arrival of a new postage stamp, the musician’s boyhood collection is on view at the National Postal Museum

Land Sea Sky by Sean Scully, 1999

Sean Scully’s Artworks Are a Study in Color, Horizon and Life’s Sorrows

With a return to the Hirshhorn following his 1995 retrospective, Scully presents his sublime Landlines series

Interpreters of the artwork (above: four of the eight from left to right: Jahnel Daliya Slowikowski, Sadie Leigh, Briona Jackson, Lara Supan.) are “people that can hold space and have a connection” with the passersby, says the curator.

Don’t Be Surprised if a Woman Sings to You in the Hirshhorn’s Sculpture Garden

The Smithsonian’s first purchase of a performance art piece is happening now, but the artist requests no photos, please

These wrinkly rodents continually surprise researchers.

How Eating Poop Makes These Mole-Rats More Motherly

New research suggests a colony’s queen stimulates babysitters by transferring a type of estrogen through her feces

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