Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

Fine Arts

None

Poetry Matters: Phillis Wheatley, The Slave Girl Who Became a Literary Sensation

Enslaved at age 8, America’s first black woman poet won her freedom with verse

An unfinished portrait of Mozart, from 1782.

Experts Are Weeding Out Impostor Portraits of Mozart

Experts want to do away with the romanticized conceptions of what Mozart looked like, or those of a white-wigged, red-jacketed young man at the piano

The sister-in-law of a Chinese farm owner in Zambia. China’s growing presence in Africa is documented in the 2010 film “When China Met Africa,” showing on Wednesday at the Freer Gallery.

Events February 12-14: Women in Sustainability, China’s Investment in Africa and an Emancipation Proclamation Theater Performance

This week, hear from a panel of sustainability rock stars, see a documentary on China’s presence in Africa and watch a Black History Month celebration

Leila Hatami in her latest film, The Last Step.

Events Feb 8-10: Foreign Film, Valentine’s Workshop and Russian Chamber Music

This weekend, catch Iranian star Leila’s Hatami’s latest, craft a little love and hear from the National Chamber Ensemble

Barack and Michelle Obama walk down Pennsylvania Avenue together on Inauguration day, 2013.

Bangs, Bobs and Bouffants: The Roots of the First Lady’s Tresses

Michelle Obama’s modern look has a long history

Syrian landscape. In “Up Close from Afar: Photographic Records of the Middle East,” two curators discuss how Western media’s depictions of the Middle East affect our perception of the region’s culture.

Events February 5-7: Tachyons, Middle Eastern Landscape and Ai Weiwei

Hear about the one thing in the world that may be faster than light, consider Western media’s depictions of the Middle East and discuss Ai Weiwei’s art

Andy Warhol’s Having a Really Big Few Months

None

The Uncertain Promise of Freedom’s Light: Black Soldiers in The Civil War

Sometimes treated as curiosities at the time, black men and women fighting for the Union and organizing for change altered the course of history

The watercolor above is an East African myth: Juok the Creator (shown twice) molding Egyptians from reddish brown clay and Southern Sudanese from the black earth. MacMillan says this image came faster than any of the others, "I literally did the entire thing in an hour and a half, just at home with no prior planning or sketching."

An Illustrated Guide to the World’s Creation Myths

Each culture has its own version of how the universe began. Artist Noah MacMillan brings this “visual vocabulary” to life

None

New X-Ray Technology To Reveal Secrets Beneath a Rembrandt Masterpiece

By 1984, conservators had discovered that there was, indeed, another figure hidden beneath the Old Man in Military Costume, but they haven’t been able to see who it is

None

The Making of a Millennial Jazz Musician: Elijah Jamal Balbed

After being put in “baby jazz” in high school, Balbed has made a name for himself in the Washington, D.C. scene

World-famous poet and civil rights activist Maya Angelou talks about her life at the American Indian Museum on Friday.

Events February 1-3: Maya Angelou, Black History Month Festivities and a Teen Poetry Slam

Meet world-renowned Civil Rights poet Maya Angelou, celebrate Black History Month and watch Washington D.C.’s most articulate teens battle in rhyme

If you can name these dashing gentlemen, you’re off to a good start for Thursday’s rock-and-roll trivia night at the National Portrait Gallery.

Events January 29-31: Ancient Chinese Artifacts, Opera Masters and Rock-and-Roll Trivia

This week, see chinese artifacts once collected in a New Jersey apartment, learn about two of opera’s greatest composers and show off your rock knowledge

Let your horse sleep in today. Smithsonian museums don’t open until noon due to weather.

Museums Delay Opening Due to Weather

Smithsonian museums in the Washington, D.C. area as well as the National Zoo will open at noon Monday, due to inclement weather

None

Very Seinfeld: A Museum Exhibit about Visiting Museum Exhibits

“A Day at the Museum” examines documents that tell the stories of artists’ trips to museums over the past two centuries

None

Q+A: How To Save the Arts in Times of War

From Iraq to Libya, Corine Wegener works to preserve priceless objects of human history

Painting of an Inuit woman with face tattoos, 1654. See a film by an Inuit director attempting to reclaim this tradition in “Tunniit: Retracing the Lines of Inuit Tattoos.” Author unknown.

Events January 25-27: Persian Drama, Inuit Face Tattoos and Schubert’s Fantasy

None

These Models Probably Never Thought They’d Be Shooting Fashion Photos With Whale Sharks

A journalist and a photographer juxtaposed beautiful women with whale sharks in order to raise awareness about the species’ plight

None

Origami: A Blend of Sculpture and Mathematics

Artist and MIT professor Erik Demaine makes flat geometric diagrams spring into elegant, three-dimensional origami sculptures

Today, President Barack Obama will take the oath of office for his second term.

Inauguration Day 2013

All you need to know for the day: where to eat, rest and what to see

Page 10 of 48