Smithsonian Associates June 2024 program guide

Dear Friends and Members,

Otters and tigers and bees, oh my! Offerings this month spotlight the often-hidden worlds of the many different creatures with which we share the planet—and that play vital roles in sustaining its biodiversity.

Honeybees, the very social cover subjects, create complex colonies and fill a myriad of specialized roles to keep them humming. A biologist reviews how he and his colleagues are working to solve mysteries about their nature (p. 30). From the air to the oceans, join a journalist so captivated by great white sharks she accompanied scientists in their research observing this powerful and predatory species. She recounts her experiences in a program that’s part adventure tale and part natural history lesson (p. 30).

Closer to home, the links between a cuddly house cat and a tiger on the prowl might surprise you. Learn how they’re connected as a biologist examines the evolution of wild cat species (p. 31). And while cuddling up with a cephalopod might not be as appealing, octopuses and their close relations demonstrate surprising cognitive capacities (p. 31).

Animal keepers with the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute reveal intriguing details about the natural history of otters and why these furry, semi-aquatic mammals are essential to the health of freshwater ecosystems (p. 31). Animals of all kinds rely on highly developed connections for support and survival. An evolutionary biologist describes social networks in the animal kingdom that existed long before the dawn of human social media (p. 32).

We hope these insider programs pique your curiosity about some amazing creatures and inspire you to consider animals in new and exciting ways.

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TERRY GOSS

ASHLEY GRAHAM

Smithsonian Associates In Person

We invite you to join us for selected in-person programs, concert series, and studio arts classes and workshops in our nation’s capital, as well as walking tours, full-day study tours, and overnight tours.

Please visit SmithsonianAssociates.org to view the FAQ on Health & Safety guidelines for in-person programs

Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra

Sat., June 1

The ensemble closes their season with a salute to the centennial year of "The Divine One," Sarah Vaughan. (see p. 19)

A Lebanese Lunch at ilili DC

Wed., June 5

HAIR

Enjoy a three-course lunch designed exclusively for Smithsonian Associates. Executive chef Satinder Vij is on hand to introduce the menu, which includes mezze, an entrée, and dessert. (see p. 17)

Thurs., June 20 | FREE PROGRAM

Discussing the ongoing relevance of HAIR is a panel including theater critic Peter Marks, original Broadway cast members Shelley Plimpton and Dale Soules, and longtime HAIR publicist Merle Frimark, moderated by arts journalist Patrick Pacheco. Attendees have the opportunity to see objects from the National Museum of American History’s HAIR collection that are not on public display. (see p. 23)

Read more about these

An Italian Lunch at Alta Strada

Thurs., July 11

Executive chef Matt Smith introduces the menu and guides participants through a tortellini-folding lesson before the meal. Enjoy a three-course lunch specially designed for Smithsonian Associates at Alta Strada in Fairfax’s Mosaic District. (see p. 19)

Kathy Reichs

Studio Arts

Kathy Reichs: Fire and Bones

Mon., Aug. 5

Forensic anthropologist Kathy Reichs is known for her crime novels chronicling the adventures of Temperance “Bones” Brennan, a forensic anthropologist at the fictional Jeffersonian Institute. Join her as she discusses the inspiration behind her latest, Fire and Bones, which centers on a Washington arson investigation that produces a surprising link to the notorious Depression-era Foggy Bottom Gang. (see p. 25)

Let your creative side shine in a wide variety of hands-on classes led by professional artists. (see pp. 44–46)

Tours

Our expert-led tours offer one-of-a-kind travel experiences. (see pp. 55–61)

Unless noted, all programs are presented on Zoom; listed times are Eastern Time. Online registration is required.

Eisenhower and the Planning of Operation Overlord

In the months leading up to D-Day, General Dwight D. Eisenhower’s attention was in relentless demand, whether he was negotiating, rallying troops, or solving crises from his headquarters in Bushy Park, London. He projected optimism throughout, but after a rousing speech to troops on the day of the invasion he drafted a resignation letter in case of its failure.

Drawing on his new book The Light of Battle: Eisenhower, D-Day, and the Birth of the American Superpower, author Michel Paradis discusses the strategic planning of Operation Overlord—which led to D-Day and the liberation of France—focusing on the six months preceding the mission when Dwight Eisenhower grew from a widely respected general into one of the singular figures of American history.

Copies of The Light of Battle (Mariner Books) are available for purchase.

Mon., June 3, 6:45 p.m.; CODE 1L0-577; Members $20; Nonmembers $25

The Axis Powers and the Buildup to World War II

The Battle of Remagen

A Pivotal Moment in WWII

To America, it was a day that would live in infamy. But for Japan, the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 was merely an attempt to protect its flank from the U.S. Navy while it pursued a decades-long plan to conquer China.

But the move proved to be a colossal losing bet by the Axis that unleashed the U.S. and its mighty military arsenal as the decisive war machine in World War II. Hitler’s High Command had not focused their intelligence on America as an enemy and were left with little intelligence to assess its war policy—which cost Germany the war.

Military historian Harry Yeide studied original documents from Axis powers to understand how and why they underestimated America. He identifies the points in time when Axis leaders realized America and its American-supplied allies were on the path to victory. Yeide is the author of Betting Against America: The Axis Powers’ Views of the United States (Casemate), which is available for sale.

Thurs., June 13, 6:30 p.m.; CODE 1H0-818; Members $20; Nonmembers $25

General Dwight D. Eisenhower called the March 7, 1945, capture of the bridge at Remagen “one of those bright opportunities of the war.” The Rhine River was the last natural barrier left open to Germany’s heartland. As Allied troops advanced, the only bridge still spanning the river was the Ludendorff railroad bridge at Remagen.

The 9th U.S. Armored Division took control of the strategically vital bridge only minutes before German forces had planned to destroy the Rhine crossing. What followed was an intense and extended battle: Could American troops cross and thwart the German efforts to blow up the bridge? Military historian Mitch Yockelson examines how this pivotal action ultimately shortened the war in Europe.

Mon., July 29, 6:30 p.m.; CODE 1H0-822; Members $20; Nonmembers $25

All Smithsonian Associates online programs are closed captioned

Adolf Hitler during a conference with officers on the Eastern Front

9th Armored Division with the original sign they posted on the Ludendorff Bridge, 1945

After 1177 B.C.

The Survival of Civilizations

At the end of 1177 B.C., many of the Late Bronze Age civilizations of the Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean lay in ruins, undone by invasion, revolt, natural disasters, famine, and the demise of international trade. An interconnected world that had boasted major empires and societies, relative peace, robust commerce, and monumental architecture was lost and the so-called First Dark Age had begun. But what happened over the next four centuries?

Classicist and anthropologist Eric Cline, author of 1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed, surveys this dramatic period and examines how the demise of powerful civilizations created circumstances to which people and societies had to adapt. Those who failed to adjust disappeared from the world stage, while others transformed, resulting in a new world order that included Phoenicians, Philistines, Israelites, Neo-Hittites, Neo-Assyrians, and Neo-Babylonians. Far from being the First Dark Age, says Cline, it was one that ushered in new inventions and new opportunities.

After 1177 B.C. (Princeton University Press) is available for purchase.

Wed., June 5, 6:45 p.m.; CODE 1D0-051; Members $20; Nonmembers $25

The Architects of “Toxic Politics”

With the 2024 presidential race in full swing, many Americans are troubled by the caustic nature of today’s campaigns. The reality is vitriol has been at play from the beginning of the Republic, reflected in character assassin J.T. Callender; the vicious 1800 presidential battle of Thomas Jefferson and John Adams; and Andrew Jackson's no-holds-barred campaigns in the mid-1800s.

Today, the same phenomenon is undermining our public life again. The political climate has been intensified over the years by the news media and social media—inherently attracted to conflict and outrage—and by a variety of political provocateurs, merchants of discord, and peddlers of anger.

Veteran White House correspondent, historian, and author Ken Walsh explores the history of poison politics in America and highlights the figures who helped shape the modern landscape.

His book The Architects of Toxic Politics in America: Venom and Vitriol (Routledge) is available for purchase.

Mon., June 10, 6:45 p.m.; CODE 1D0-055; Members $20; Nonmembers $25

Henry VIII: The Man Behind the Royal Image

The image of Henry VIII is immediately recognizable—hands on hips, lips curled into a sneer, eyes piercing and unrelenting. He has been portrayed as a large, buffoonish womanizer by Charles Laughton, a slender athletic lover by Jonathan Rhys Meyers, and a stern, powerful monarch by Damian Lewis.

Was he a tyrant seeking wealth and power willing to destroy a thousand years of spiritual and cultural tradition in the process? Or a true reformer, seeking to rid the church of years of corruption? An egomaniacal misogynist who used and disposed of women, or a dedicated king putting his kingdom’s need for an heir ahead of his own desires?

The real Henry VIII is all these men, a complex king who built a dynasty that changed England and Europe. Tudor scholar Carol Ann Lloyd-Stanger explores how Henry continues to resist efforts to be reduced to a one-dimensional character and how he seized on the challenges and opportunities of a changing world to become a monarch who fascinates us more than 450 years after his tumultuous reign.

Tues., June 11, 6:30 p.m.; CODE 1M2-327; Members $30; Nonmembers $35

Portrait of Henry VIII after Hans Holbein the Younger, c. 1537–1562

1932: FDR, Hoover, and the Dawn of a New America

In 1932, the country was experiencing a broken economy, natural disaster, bubbling political radicalism, and a rise of dangerous forces ushering in an era of global conflict. Amid this turmoil loomed a choice in the presidential election between two men with different visions of America. Republican President Herbert Hoover embraced small government and a largely unfettered free market, while New York Democratic Governor Franklin Delano Roosevelt believed that the path out of the economic crisis required government intervention and a national sense of shared purpose.

Author Scott Martelle places that campaign in the context of Americans’ daily lives and the significant political and social issues of the day in his book

1932: FDR, Hoover and the Dawn of a New America (Kensington), available for purchase.

Thurs., June 13, 6:30 p.m.; CODE 1CV-041; Members $25; Nonmembers $30

Inside Georgetown

Rags to Riches in Washington’s Oldest Neighborhood

Founded 50 years before the federal capital of Washington, D.C., Georgetown got its start as a gritty port city on the banks of the Potomac River. Despite very modest beginnings, the area eventually came to have some of the most expensive and desirable property in the District. Carolyn Muraskin, founder of DC Design Tours, reveals the highlights and secrets of one of the city’s most exclusive neighborhoods, home to palatial mansions, notable cemeteries, stately churches, and a world-class university.

Fri., June 14, 12 p.m.; CODE 1NV-085; Member $25; Nonmembers $30

The Wars of the Roses

Family Feud, Plantagenet Style

Long before royal exploits were splashed across the tabloids, England’s ruling family played out their dramas on the national stage during the mid-to-late 15th century. The heirs of Edward III fought a series of battles that came to be known as the Wars of the Roses. With cousins challenging cousins, brothers turning against brothers, and an uncle locking nephews in the Tower of London, this clan seems tailor-made for peak television.

Tudor and Renaissance scholar Carol Ann Lloyd-Stanger looks at the battles between the houses of Lancaster and York from the inside out, revealing the truth behind Shakespeare’s warning in Henry IV, Part 2, “Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown.”

Tues., July 30, 6:30 p.m.; CODE 1M2-332; Members $30; Nonmembers $35

What time does the program end? Unless noted, Smithsonian Associates programs run 1 hour 15 min.–2 hours, including Q&A

Georgetown University

Franklin Delano Roosevelt Herbert Hoover

Miniature of the Battle of Tewkesbury, late 15th century

The Normal Women of England

900 Years of Making History

What did women do to shape England’s culture and traditions in nine centuries of turmoil, plague, famine, religious reform, and the rise of empire and industry? Author Philippa Gregory offers the answer as she draws on her new book, Normal Women.

In conversation with Ali Vitali, NBC News Capitol Hill correspondent, Gregory shares her radical retelling of her nation’s story—not of the rise and fall of kings and the occasional queen but of social and cultural change, powered by the determination, persistence, and effectiveness of women from 1066 to modern times.

Copies of Normal Women: Nine Hundred Years of History (HarperOne) are available for purchase.

Sat., June 15, 1 p.m.; CODE 1L0-579; Members $25; Nonmembers $30

The Last Island

In November 2018, a young American missionary kayaked onto a remote beach in the Indian Ocean and was killed by Indigenous islanders wielding bows and arrows. News of that fatal encounter on North Sentinel Island—a small patch of land in the Andaman archipelago—fascinated people around the world. Most were unaware such a place existed in our time: an island whose hunter-gatherer inhabitants still live in near-total isolation.

Author and historian Adam Goodheart, who has also traveled to the waters off North Sentinel, tells the stories of others drawn to the island and its surrounding archipelago through the centuries, from imperial adventurers to an eccentric Victorian photographer to modern-day anthropologists. He also discusses other Andaman tribes’ encounters with the outside world and how the modern age is drawing closer to North Sentinel’s shores.

Goodheart’s book The Last Island: Discovery, Defiance, and the Most Elusive Tribe on Earth (Godine) is available for purchase.

Thurs., June 20, 6:45 p.m.; CODE 1K0-483; Members $20; Nonmembers $25

The Women of the Wars of the Roses

The Wars of the Roses, a series of 15th-century battles between the houses of York and Lancaster for the crown of England, was a domestic drama that saw the Plantagenet family locked in years of in-fighting over control of the country. Though the story usually focuses on the men who fought, died on the battlefield, or survived to take the crown, some of its main personalities were queens, princesses, and duchesses—remarkable women who publicly and privately exerted the influence and wielded the power that shaped the conflict.

Tudor and Renaissance scholar Carol Ann Lloyd-Stanger introduces seven wives, mothers, and sisters who helped spin and shred the web of conspiracies that blanketed the English throne: Margaret of Burgundy, Marguerite of Anjou, Margaret Beaufort, Cecily and Anne Neville, Elizabeth Woodville, and Elizabeth of York.

Thurs., Sept. 26, 6:30 p.m.; CODE 1M2-344; Members $30; Nonmembers $35

Read more about programs in this guide on our website. Search by code or date. Expanded program descriptions, presenters’ information, and more at SmithsonianAssociates.org.

Philippa Gregory

Adam Goodheart

Saying “I Do” at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue

Author Coleen Christian Burke looks at weddings of presidential family members that reflected a mix of the private, the public, and the political—as well as traditional romantic spectacle. She talks about these nuptials through history and focuses on three presidential daughters: Tricia Nixon and Lynda Byrd and Luci Baines Johnson. Sharing details of the grandly elegant style of these celebrations through photos and memorabilia, she examines how the high-profile events played out against the changing cultural and political mores of the day.

Fri., June 21, 12 p.m.; CODE 1J0-376; Members $20; Nonmembers $25

The Last Kings of Shanghai

The

Jewish Dynasties

That Shaped Modern China

At the height of World War II, two rival Jewish families in China—the Sassoons and the Kadoories—joined together to rescue and protect 18,000 Jewish refugees fleeing Nazism. But that was only one chapter in a remarkable 175-year-long story of survival, ambition, and political intrigue that connects the families, both originally from Baghdad, who dominated Chinese business and politics and whose lavish buildings define Shanghai and Hong Kong to this day.

Shanghai Bund, 1930

Denmark’s Defiance

Protecting

a Nation’s Jews During WWII

Author Jonathan Kaufman, director of the Northeastern University School of Journalism, opens the rarified world these dynasties encountered and examines how their members helped transform China during pivotal years of growth, responded to revolutions that changed the future, and reluctantly had to leave it all behind with the advent of communism.

Mon., June 24, 6:30 p.m.; CODE 1H0-819; Members $20; Nonmembers $25

In 1943, most of occupied Europe was hunkered down against the Nazis. The people of Denmark—led by King Christian X—dared to stand up for their Jewish citizens in one of the largest actions of collective resistance to aggression in the countries occupied by Germany. Hitler ordered the arrest and deportation of Denmark’s 8,200 Jews on October 1, which coincided with Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. Remarkably, when the Nazis arrived to collect them, virtually all were “gone.” Amazingly, the Danish people hid, protected, and then smuggled most of the country’s Jewish population out of the country, using anything that floated to ferry them to safety in Sweden. Ultimately, over 95% of Danish Jews survived the Holocaust. Historian Ralph Nurnberger recounts this extraordinary act of courage on the part of an entire nation under severe duress.

Mon., Aug. 5, 6:45 p.m.; CODE 1D0-057; Members $25; Nonmembers $30

All Smithsonian Associates online programs are closed captioned

Wedding of Lynda Bird Johnson and Captain Charles Robb, 1967

YOICHI R. OKAMOTO, LYNDON BAINES JOHNSON

The daily ride through Copenhagen by King Christian X became a symbol of Danish sovereignty during the German occupation

The Wide Awakes

The Forgotten Force that Spurred the Civil War

At the start of the 1860 presidential campaign, a handful of fired-up young Northerners appeared as bodyguards to defend anti-slavery stump speakers from frequent attacks. The group called themselves the Wide Awakes. Soon, hundreds of thousands of young white and Black men and a number of women were organizing boisterous, uniformed, torch-bearing brigades of their own.

Drawing on his new book, Wide Awake: The Forgotten Force That Elected Lincoln and Spurred the Civil War, Smithsonian historian Jon Grinspan examines exactly how the nation crossed the threshold from a political campaign into a war. He traces how the Wide Awakes—whose members were mostly working-class and in their 20s—became one of the largest, most spectacular, and most influential political movements in our history. Within a year, the nation would be at war with itself—and many on both sides would point to the Wide Awakes as one of the mechanisms that got them there.

Copies of Wide Awake (Bloomsbury Publishing) are available for purchase.

Wed., June 26, 6:45 p.m.; CODE 1L0-580; Members $20; Nonmembers $25

Visions of Cuba: A Photographic Tale

Pulitzer Prize–winning photojournalist Essdras M Suarez leads a visual tour of two of Cuba’s most captivating cities: Havana and Trinidad. Suarez’s street photos document Havana’s rich history and resilient spirit, while his shots of Trinidad evoke its charm through cobblestone lanes and pastel adobes. In photographs that reveal the cultural tapestry of Havana and the timeless allure of Trinidad, Suarez captures the deep connection between their inhabitants and their environments.

Tues., July 2, 7 p.m.; CODE 1NV-090; Members $25; Nonmembers $30

Ships of State: Presidents at Sea

The allure of the sea has long captivated some of America’s most notable leaders. Whether aboard naval vessels or exploring wild coastal landscapes, Theodore Roosevelt found solace and inspiration in the vast waters. Franklin D. Roosevelt, facing the challenges of the Great Depression and World War II, sought respite aboard his beloved presidential yacht, the USS Potomac John F. Kennedy, a seasoned sailor and keen strategist, embraced the sea as a recreational escape, a source of comfort, and an incubator of his ideas and policies. And George H.W. Bush, a decorated Navy pilot and lifelong enthusiast of maritime pursuits, cherished moments spent sailing along the rugged Maine coast. Veteran White House correspondent and historian Ken Walsh traces the history of presidents and their relationships to the sea and considers how it served as a backdrop for reflection and decision-making.

Thurs., July 11, 6:45 p.m.; CODE 1D0-056; Members $20; Nonmembers $25

The Great Hunger: The Irish Potato Famine

The potato famine of 1845–1849 led to the death of a million people and the emigration of a million more, reducing the population of Ireland by roughly one quarter. Historian Jennifer Paxton explores the origins of the famine in the difficult economic and political circumstances in which many people in the countryside were dependent on the potato for subsistence.

She also examines the controversy over the degree to which the British government can be held responsible for the disaster and the impact of the famine on the Irish landscape and culture; the Irish diaspora that spread resentment of British rule to North America and beyond; and the legacy of the famine in Ireland and around the world today.

Thurs., July 18, 6:30 p.m.; CODE 1M2-330; Members $25; Nonmembers $30

President Kennedy at the wheel of the U.S. Coast Guard yacht Manitou

Engraving of emigrants leaving Ireland by Henry Doyle, 1868

Cities of the Bible

From Athens to Jerusalem to Babylon, understanding the Bible means understanding the cities and cultures that produced it. The story of these centers—their history, their archaeology, their mysteries, the inhabitants, and the people who later excavated there—is also the story of the Bible itself.

Weaving together biblical archaeology, history, and personal experience, Robert Cargill, assistant professor of classics and religious studies at the University of Iowa, leads a fascinating tour through Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Qumran, Babylon, Athens, Alexandria, and Rome to reveal how their stories shed new light on the Bible.

Thurs., July 18, 6:30 p.m.; CODE 1H0-820; Members $20; Nonmembers $25

The Dead Sea Scrolls: Why They Matter

The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in the late 1940s and early 1950s forever changed the study of ancient Judaism and early Christianity. As additional documents surfaced and archaeological fieldwork continued, the understanding of these religious traditions came into greater focus.

Dead Sea Scrolls scholar Gary Rendsburg describes the discovery of these precious manuscripts, what we know about their origins, the controversies surrounding them, and their influence on the development of both ancient Judaism and early Christianity.

Tues., Aug. 27, 6:30 p.m.; CODE 1M2-334; Members $30; Nonmembers $35

Court Life in 17th-Century London

A Visitor’s Guide

For centuries, the royal court in London was the political, social, and cultural headquarters of the nation. Anybody who was anybody—or who wanted to see somebody or be somebody—attended court. And at its center was the sought-after figure who could make or break the great and the good: the sovereign.

Historian Robert Bucholz evokes the experience of being present in a drawing room at Hampton Court Palace at the end of the Stuart Age. A formal gathering there was a glittering stage where guests could increase their power, consolidate their families’ importance, and share gossip and tales of palace intrigues—all with the goal of capturing the eye of the ruler.

Thurs., July 25, 6:30 p.m.; CODE 1H0-821; Members $20, Nonmembers $25

Daily Life in Tudor London

The Tudor dynasty (1485–1603) spanned just three generations of monarchs, but each left an indelible mark on the character of London. The city on the Thames bustled with the daily life of common people living in a rapidly evolving world simultaneously shaped by— and conforming to—the revolutionary changes in government, culture, and religion that ushered in early-modern England and left a legacy for the entire English-speaking world.

Historian Cheryl White examines the role that London played in securing the Tudor dynasty and illuminates this extraordinary era by looking through the lens of the ordinary Londoners who worked its docks and shops, paid taxes to the Crown, and spent their everyday lives in one of the greatest cities of the world.

Thurs., Aug. 15, 6:30 p.m.; CODE 1M2-333; Members $30; Nonmembers $35

Inside the Jaffa Gate, Jerusalem

The ceiling of the Great Hall of Hampton Court Palace

Temple Scroll, column 23, one of the longest of the Dead Sea Scrolls, 2nd century B.C.E.

Live

from Poland

Krakow: Off the Beaten Path

Home of two UNESCO World Heritage Sites, Krakow is also known for beautiful, ancient architecture, tempting restaurants, and fun festivals. But tour guide and author Christopher Skutela leads you off the beaten path in the city, revealing sites where tourists don’t tend to go. Explore historic neighborhoods, one of the hidden health resorts in Poland, and a former socialist utopia district. Then get a breath of fresh air at Kosciuszko Mound and Bielany Hermitage and Woods.

Mon., July 29, 12 p.m.; CODE 1J0-381; Members $20; Nonmembers $25

Thomas Jefferson and the Nuances of Leadership

Thomas Jefferson, primary author of the Declaration of Independence and our third president, has been called the architect of American democracy. However, his legacy has been seriously questioned in large part because he participated in the foul institution of American slavery, owning over 600 people during his lifetime. John Ragosta of the Robert H. Smith International Center for Jefferson Studies at Monticello examines the question of what a wealthy, white, slave-owning aristocrat has to teach us about the nature of American leadership, especially political leadership.

Wed., July 31, 6:45 p.m.; CODE 1J0-377; Members $20; Nonmembers $25

Making the Presidency

The Leadership and Legacy of John Adams

The United States of 1797 faced enormous challenges. George Washington left his vice president, John Adams—who had never held an executive position—with relatively little guidance and impossible expectations to meet. As president, Adams was confronted with intense partisan divides, debates over citizenship, fears of political violence, potential for foreign conflict with France and Britain, and a nation unsure that the presidency could even work without Washington at the helm.

Drawing on her new book, Making the Presidency: John Adams and the Precedents That Forged the Republic, historian Lindsay M. Chervinsky explores the critical second U.S. presidency, illustrating the unique challenges faced by Adams and examining how he shaped the office for his successors.

Making the Presidency (Oxford University Press) is available for purchase.

Mon., Sept. 16, 6:45 p.m.; CODE 1K0-498; Members $20; Nonmembers $25

Our programs...your time

Registered for a Smithsonian Associates online program but missed it because of a schedule conflict? Wish you could take a second look at a presentation you loved? Associates Encores offers the answer to these questions—and more.

Kosciuszko Mound monument in Krakow

Lindsay M. Chervinsky

The Hidden History of America’s First Ladies

The role is unpaid and undefined, yet many women serving as First Lady made pivotal contributions that helped shape the United States. From early trailblazers, like Dolley Madison, to those in the role who are less well-known, like Harriet Lane, explore how first ladies can be the definition of persistence and perseverance. Uncover forgotten legacies, such as that of Helen Taft, who helped bring the iconic Japanese cherry trees to the Tidal Basin.

Join staff from A Tour Of Her Own to hear stories of America’s first ladies, not often recognized with physical monuments but ingrained in the fabric of history.

Tues., Aug. 6; 7 p.m.; CODE 1CV-045; Members $25; Nonmembers $30

The Mysterious Mrs. Nixon

Pat Nixon was voted Most Admired Woman in the World in 1972 and made the Gallup Poll’s top 10 list of most admired women 14 times. And yet the media often portrayed her as elusive and enigmatic. Drawing on new interviews with Nixon family members, friends, and staff for her new book, The Mysterious Mrs. Nixon, Heath Hardage Lee examines a figure who bore little resemblance to the woman so often described in the press.

Lee discusses the essential nature of this first lady, an empathetic, adventurous, self-made woman who wanted no power or influence but who connected warmly with both ordinary Americans and people from different cultures she encountered worldwide.

Copies of The Mysterious Mrs. Nixon: The Life and Times of Washington’s Most Private First Lady (St. Martin’s Press) are available for purchase.

Tues., Aug. 20, 6:45 p.m.; CODE 1L0-589; Members $20; Nonmembers $25

Unique Memorials of Washington

Sitting in the long shadow of the Washington Monument is one of the oddest and most obscure landmarks on the National Mall. The Jefferson Pier, a 3-foot-tall stone marker, stands due west of the monument in the middle of a grassy field. This diminutive structure marks what our third president hoped would be the center of the world.

Just to the south, nestled among cherry trees is a small 170-year-old Japanese stone pagoda. And hidden among the grand neoclassical buildings and government offices along Pennsylvania Avenue is a longneglected fountain, a testament to the sordid past of a neighborhood once known as “Murder Bay.” Carolyn Muraskin, founder of DC Design Tours, surveys the capital’s most distinctive, surprising, and little-known monuments, memorials, and landmarks.

Wed., Aug. 7, 7 p.m.; CODE 1NV-096; Members $25; Nonmembers $30

What time does the program end? Unless noted, Smithsonian Associates programs run 1 hour 15 min.–2 hours, including Q&A

Mrs. James Madison by Bass Otis, 1817

Pat Nixon, 1972

Japanese pagoda on the Potomac River Tidal Basin

The Borgias

A Scandalous Family Portrait

The Borgias—a family synonymous with murder, rape, incest, and torture—have been immortalized by historians, authors, and a pair of dueling series on Showtime and Sky. But was it all sex, simony, and scandal?

Art historian Elizabeth Lev frames their story in the context of a society rife with artistic highs and the lows of such notable figures as Savonarola and Machiavelli. She highlights the family’s political aspirations, religious conflicts, and particularly their fascinating artistic commissions—which, despite their extraordinary beauty, could not redeem the reputation of the Borgias—as well as the surprising epilogue to the clan’s inevitable downfall.

Wed., Aug. 7, 12 p.m.; CODE 1H0-824; Members $20; Nonmembers $25

The California Gold Rush

The Gold Rush radically altered the development and course of history for California, the United States, and the world. Sparked by the discovery of gold at Sutter’s Mill in early 1848, it was the impetus behind one of the largest voluntary migrations of people in U.S. history. It accelerated industrial and agricultural development, provided routes to personal and economic freedom, and facilitated California’s rapid transition into statehood.

But the discovery of gold also had severe negative impacts: The Indigenous population and non-white immigrants faced severe abuse and discrimination, and many forms of mining compromised the environment. Katy Bartosh of California’s Gold Rush Museum examines the period and discusses how the zeitgeist of the Gold Rush in many ways epitomizes what came to be known as the American Dream.

Thurs., Aug. 8, 6:45 p.m.; CODE 1L0-587; Members $20; Nonmembers $25

The Presidio of San Francisco

The Presidio encompasses more history than any other site within San Francisco. It was also the longest-operating Army base in the country when it shuttered in 1994. Historian John Martini unfolds its story that encompasses Spanish colonial settlers, 1906 earthquake refugees, more than 140 years of U.S. Army history, and the dizzying variety of military architecture found throughout the post. He also offers insights into its ongoing preservation efforts and why the Presidio’s 30-year transition “from post to park” has become a model for the conversion of former military sites into public spaces.

Thurs., Aug. 8, 7 p.m.; CODE 1NV097; Members $25; Nonmembers $30

The Spice Race

The West’s Enduring Obsession with Asia

Starting in the 15th century, Europeans embarked on dangerous maritime voyages to reach Asia. The Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch, French, and British competed to acquire spices like pepper, cinnamon, and cardamom, as well as porcelain, silks, tea, and other treasures from Asia. The great names of Western exploration were driven to find new and faster routes to India, China, and other Asian sources of alluring commodities.

In this quest to obtain goods from abroad, Europe built empires, established colonies, and left virtually no corner of the globe untouched. Writer and former foreign correspondent Adam Tanner examines why this historic Western focus on Asia is essential to understanding our world today.

Thurs., Aug. 8, 12 p.m.; CODE 1NV-095; Members $25; Nonmembers $30

Afonso de Albuquerque, viceroy of Portuguese India, 16th century

A Glass of Wine with Caesar Borgia by John Collier, 1893

Soldiers parade before the Montgomery Steet barracks in the Presidio as officers look on

The Rise and Fall of Agrippina

Empress of Rome, Mother of Nero

Agrippina the Younger emerges from history as an ambitious political strategist and a ruthless killer. Her rise to power is remarkable: Her mother and father were murdered when she was a child and her own brother, the emperor Caligula, abused and exiled her. And yet, Agrippina developed an impressive web of political alliances— securing a return to the center of Roman politics by her early 30s. Ancient sources seem to both admire Agrippina’s power and guile and question her methods, expressing suspicion at the many convenient deaths that paved the way for her ascendance as Roman empress. Historian Colin Elliott leads a fascinating exploration of Agrippina and the complexities of her legacy— forever intertwined with the rise and fall of Nero—and her impact on the history of ancient Rome.

Grant’s Overland Campaign

A Portrait in Command

Ulysses S. Grant’s rise during the four years of the American Civil War was nothing less than meteoric, and a critical part of his successes was his ability to communicate his strategic vision to his subordinates.

Historian Christopher Hamner uses Grant’s often-overlooked 1864 Overland Campaign as a window into his special gift for clear communication. As commander of a team of officers spread across multiple theaters, including the Wilderness and Spotsylvania, he provided his lieutenants with plans that outlined precise goals for their operations while also affording them the latitude to exploit opportunities as they arose. Grant’s effectiveness as a commander and communicator proved crucial in driving the Union toward its overall victory the following year.

Wed., Aug. 14, 6:45 p.m.; CODE 1K0-500; Members $25; Nonmembers $30

Mon., Aug. 12, 6:45 p.m.; CODE 1D0-060; Members $20; Nonmembers $25

The Maya of Yucatan

Ancient Monuments, Modern Lives

The Classic Maya city-states of Central America that flourished from the 3rd through the 9th centuries famously “collapsed” in the 9th and 10th. However, in the distinctive environment of the Yucatan Peninsula the Maya experienced a greater continuity, and a resurgent Post-Classic Maya culture arose that persisted uninterruptedly until the incursion of the Spanish in the 16th century. Cultural historian George Scheper leads a virtual excursion to the most storied ancient Maya sites of Yucatan and considers the historical persistence of Maya cultural life through the impacts of the Spanish colonial period, Mexican sovereignty, and contemporary international tourism.

Tues., Aug. 13, 6:30 p.m.; CODE 1M2-335; Members $30; Nonmembers $35

In the Footsteps of St. Paul

As the chief persecutor of believers in Jesus as the Messiah, Saul of Tarsus seemed the most unlikely candidate to become the lynchpin in establishing and shaping the early days of Christianity. But as the apostle Paul, he and his associates both spread and shaped the emerging theology and began to attract gentiles, or pagans, as well.

Ori Z. Soltes, a professor of Jewish civilization, focuses on the largely urban shape of Paul of Tarsus’ missionary activity and his evolving theology and examines this remarkable transformation against the backdrop of the pagan, Greek, Roman, and Judaean worlds in which he lived and worked.

Thurs., Aug. 15, 6:30 p.m.; CODE 1H0-825 Members $20; Nonmembers $25

Castillo at Chichen Itza

Bust of Agrippina the Younger

General Grant at his headquarters in Cold Harbor, Virginia, June 1864

Saint Paul Preaching in Athens by Raphael, 1516

How Museums Got Their Treasures

It has become increasingly common for Western museums to be portrayed not as sites of preservation and education but rather as homes of works stolen by imperialist Westerners.

Drawing on his upcoming book, Plunder? How Museums Got Their Treasures, historian

Justin M. Jacobs challenges that perspective, providing an overview of the five primary channels through which Western museums acquired their artifacts: military plunder, diplomatic gifts, antiquity dealers, stationary excavations, and mobile expeditions. Only by better appreciating the historical context that informed the transfer of art and antiquities from the source country to a Western museum, Jacobs argues, can calls for cultural restitution be properly assessed.

Tues., Aug. 20, 6:45 p.m.; CODE 1J0-382; Members $20; Nonmembers $25

Railroads and the National Parks

Partners in Western Preservation

The conservationists who worked to create the National Park Service found willing partners in the nation’s railroads. In the golden age of rail travel people rushed to see what they considered to be a vanishing frontier, and Union Pacific and other railroads worked to preserve its landscape. When that goal became a reality with the Park Service’s founding in 1916, a mutually beneficial relationship began and extended through most of the 20th century.

Patricia LaBounty, a curator at the Union Pacific Museum, draws on archival photographs to illustrate the surprising role railroads played in the development of Western national parks and examines the history of some of their most beloved sites.

Wed., Aug. 21, 7 p.m.; CODE 1NV-098; Members $25; Nonmembers $30

Emperor Justinian Savior or Destroyer of the Roman Empire?

Emperor Justinian (527–565) is one of history’s greatest and most controversial rulers. During his reign, the Eastern Roman, or Byzantine, empire reached its largest extent since the last Western Roman emperor was deposed in 476. In addition, Justinian and his wife, Theodora, oversaw a wide-ranging series of reforms that laid the foundation for later Western law and saw the construction of the magnificent church of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople.

Yet Justinian’s attempts to impose religious unity on his empire failed, and his wars caused widespread devastation. Historian David Gwynn explores contradictory assessments of Justinian, from the judgments of contemporary sources to those of modern scholars.

Thurs., Aug. 22, 12 p.m.; CODE 1J0-383; Members $20; Nonmembers $25

Alexander Hamilton Man, Myth, Musical , Mensch

Founding Father Alexander Hamilton fought at General George Washington’s side in the American Revolution, aided in the passage of the Constitution, and helped save the United States from financial ruin. A great leader, writer, soldier, and lawyer, Hamilton did not let his poor birthright stop him from achieving greatness.

Historian Robert P. Watson surveys the intriguing story of Hamilton’s life, including his difficult and little-known upbringing and war service. He also includes highlights of his meteoric rise to power, his many contributions to the nation, and his legacy. Do you think you already know everything there is to know about Hamilton? Along the way, Watson fact-checks the hit Broadway musical biography.

Thurs., Aug. 22, 6:45 p.m.; CODE 1K0-497; Members $25; Nonmembers $30

Trestle at New Castle, Placer County, California, ca. 1860s

Emperor Justinian I, Basilica of San Vitale, Ravenna, Italy

Alexander Hamilton by John Trumbull, 1806

ALFRED HART

Medical Practices of the Civil War

Civil War medicine often suggests squalid environments, excruciating amputations, ignorance, and chaos. According to historian Kelly Hancock, these conditions were more prevalent during the first two years of the war, when the Union and the Confederacy were unprepared to deal with the magnitude of casualties. By the end of the conflict great strides had been made as surgeons, administrators, and military professionals learned on the job.

Hancock, director of programs at the American Civil War Museum in Richmond, explores the tragedy and triumph of Civil War medical practices, discussing why disease was the deadliest foe; the treatment of the wounded; field surgery; the development of the hospital system; and the advancements that came out of the war, including the growth of nursing schools.

Wed., Aug. 28, 7 p.m.; CODE 1NV-099; Members $25; Nonmembers $30

The Troubles

The Past and Future of Northern Ireland

In 1998, the Good Friday Agreement ended a 30-year period of violence in the north of Ireland known as “the Troubles,” but the difficult legacy of that era still overshadows politics in Ireland north and south to this day.

Amsterdam in the 17th Century

The Golden Age from Tulip Mania to the New World

Historian Jennifer Paxton explores the origins of the Troubles in the partition of Ireland into the nationalist, majority-Catholic Republic of Ireland and the Unionist, majority-Protestant province of Northern Ireland resulting from the Irish War of Independence. She also discusses the impact of Brexit on Northern Ireland and the prospects for Irish unity now that the United Kingdom’s territory has its first-ever nationalist first minister.

Wed., Sept. 11, 6:30 p.m.; CODE 1M2-337; Members $30; Nonmembers $35

As the wealthiest city in Europe in the 17th century, Amsterdam transformed itself into a thriving center for great artists, scientists, writers, and scholars, as well as a hub of banking and finance. Once the city rid itself of Spanish rule and set up a society based on capitalism and world trade, it also became a metropolis that was philosophically enlightened and religiously tolerant. Amsterdam encouraged the growth of art, philosophy, science, new universities, publishing, and the beginnings of international law.

Historian Ralph Nurnberger explores the many facets of this capital city, from its heady rise to the collapse of tulip futures—capitalism’s first “bubble.” He also highlights how the city’s religious tolerance enabled Dutch Jews to modernize and practice their religion openly, as well as engage in trade in Europe and the New World.

Mon., Sept. 23, 6:45 p.m.; CODE 1D0-059; Members $20; Nonmembers $25

Read more about programs in this guide on our website. Search by code or date. Expanded program descriptions, presenters’ information, and more at SmithsonianAssociates.org.

Ambulance crew collecting wounded soldiers (field demonstration, 1860)

A republican mural commemorating the 25th anniversary of the 1981 hunger strikes

A loyalist mural, 2007

Still Life with Flowers by Hans Bollongier, 1639 (Semper Augustus tulip)

Lafayette: The Hero of Two Worlds Revisited

Few figures in history can match the career of Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier de Lafayette. It spanned over half a century during the tumultuous Revolutionary era that ushered in the modern world. Historian Alexander Mikaberidze traces Lafayette’s journey from a young nobleman to a seasoned revolutionary, from the salons of Versailles to the battlefields of the New World and back to the halls of the National Assembly in Paris.

He explores Lafayette’s famous 1824 farewell tour of the United States and what it can tell us about the man and the myth that shrouds him, as well as his contrasts: an idealist who was a glory-seeking opportunist and an ardent proponent of American republican tenets who eagerly supported monarchy.

Tues., Sept. 17, 6:30 p.m.; CODE 1M2-339; Members $30; Nonmembers $35

Ancient Israel and Its Neighbors

A Biblical Connection

The Shakers

Pursuing “a New Heaven and a New Earth”

The United Society of Believers in Christ’s Second Appearing, also known as the Shakers, was one of the most fascinating religious groups in America from the late-18th through the early-20th centuries. During an era of widespread secular and religious reform initiatives, Shakers sought to embody a purity of life, re-make human relations, and fulfill a utopian vision of a “New Heaven and a New Earth.”

Pacifists who lived celibate communal lives, Shakers accepted the divinity of a female God; embraced expectations of a millennium foretold in the New Testament; and practiced a form of primitive communism. Lecturer William Dinges examines the Shaker movement’s origins; theological worldview; community life; relations with the outside world; and the broader social, cultural, and historical factors that both contributed to the sect’s longevity and led to its demise.

Tues., Sept. 24, 6:30 p.m.; CODE 1M2343; Members $25; Nonmembers $30

Two centuries of archaeological excavation and exploration have revealed that ancient Israel’s neighbors— Egypt, Canaan, Aram, Assyria, and Babylonia—all contributed significantly to its history, from its origins through the Babylonian exile and beyond. Biblical narratives reflect connections to these ancient cultures. In an illustrated all-day program, biblical scholar Gary Rendsburg explores how the people who left us the Bible were informed by other civilizations and how these influences are reflected in its books.

10 a.m. Egypt and Israel

11:30 a.m. Egypt and the Book of Exodus

12:45 p.m. Break

1:15 p.m. Canaan and Aram

2:45 p.m. Assyria and Babylonia

Sat., Sept. 21, 10 a.m.–4 p.m.; CODE 1M2-342; Members $80; Nonmembers $90

Portrait of the Marquis de Lafayette by Ary Scheffer, 1824

Ishtar Gate, ca. 4 B.C.E., Pergamon Museum, Berlin

Baal with thunderbolt stele, ca. 15th–13th century B.C.E., Louvre Museum

Unless noted, all programs are presented on Zoom; listed times are Eastern Time. Online registration is required.

Spring Wine Adventures

A TOP SOMMELIER'S GUIDE TO WINE

Spend a fascinating evening expanding your knowledge of wine as you travel the world with sommelier Erik Segelbaum in a delectable wine-tasting adventure. The immersive program includes a curated personal tasting kit to enhance the experience.

JUN 28 Wines of the Southern Hemisphere Part 2: New Zealand Wine

Despite producing only 1% of the world’s wine, New Zealand has had a commanding presence in the international wine market. For years, bright and tropical Sauvignon Blanc was the cornerstone of New Zealand’s vinous reputation. However, the modern New Zealand winescape has much more complexity and depth. This delicious exploration spotlights New Zealand’s commitment to viticultural sustainability and the country’s distinctive fusion of traditional and modern winemaking.

Fri., June 28, 6 p.m.; CODE 1L0-564; Members $70; Nonmembers $80

Wine-tasting kit information: The cost includes a curated personal tasting kit with enough wine for one person to sample the full lineup of wines. Additional participants must register individually to receive their own tasting kit, which is an essential component of the workshop. Kits are available during two scheduled pick-up times the day before the program and the day of the program, 12–5 p.m., at Shilling Canning Company (360 Water Street SE, Washington, DC; Metro: Navy Yard-Ballpark station, Green line). Patrons receive additional wine tasting kit pick-up information by email prior to the program.

Due to state and federal laws, Smithsonian Associates cannot ship wine kits. However, SOMLYAY may be able to provide kits to participants outside the Washington, D.C., area (who must cover shipping costs). Please contact erik@thesomlyay.com for more information.

In Person

A Lebanese Lunch at ilili DC

In colloquial Lebanese Arabic, “ilili” means “tell me.” A casually intimate phrase, “ilili” tempts the listener to share whatever’s in their heart: a joke, a secret, a desire, or just the daily gossip. It’s always an invitation.

Take advantage of your invitation to visit The Wharf in Southwest Washington and break fresh pita at ilili DC in a three-course lunch designed exclusively for Smithsonian Associates. A culinary expression of Lebanon, ilili offers both traditional Mediterranean plates and their creative contemporary inspirations. Executive chef Satinder Vij is on hand to introduce the menu, which includes mezze, an entrée, and dessert.

Please note: The price includes meal and gratuities; drinks are not included and may be purchased separately at the restaurant.

Wed., June 5, 12 p.m.; CODE 1L0-578; ilili DC at The Wharf, 100 District Square, SW (Metro: L’Enfant Plaza, Orange, Silver, Blue, Yellow, and Green lines); Members $100; Nonmembers $130

Please visit SmithsonianAssociates.org to view the FAQ on Health & Safety guidelines for in-person programs

Summer Vacation

Wine Adventures

JULY 26 Under the Tuscan Sun

Spend three fascinating evenings expanding your knowledge of wine as you travel the world with sommelier Erik Segelbaum in a series of delectable wine-tasting adventures. Each immersive program includes a curated personal tasting kit to enhance the experience.

Tuscany may very well be the emotional epicenter of Italian wine. With the region’s gently rolling hills, rich soils, cool breezes and plentiful sunshine, no wonder its wines are in high demand. In addition to offering long-established appellations such as Chianti and Brunello di Montalcino, many winemakers have enjoyed exploring the freedom to make wines outside of the stringent appellation laws. These wines, unofficially designated “Super-Tuscans,” represent some of the best of the region. Beyond the classics, Tuscany has so much more to offer than meets the eye including compelling, fresh white wines and lighter versions of full-bodied varieties. This virtual tasting trip is guaranteed to surprise and delight.

AUG 23 Wines of the Mediterranean Coast

Imagine lying on the beach with waves gently lapping at your feet, a gentle fresh breeze in the air, and, naturally, a glass of exciting wine to sip. Enjoy this quintessential vacation experience from your own home without the cost and hassle of airline travel. The shores of the Mediterranean coast offer myriad incredible wines and appellations to explore—from fresh, light reds to tantalizing, mineral-driven whites, and, of course, dazzling rosés. Sip these coastal Mediterranean wines as if you’re on the deck of your own private yacht.

SEPT 20 Virginia Is for Wine Lovers

The vineyards and wineries of Virginia have much to offer. Dating as far back as Thomas Jefferson’s (not so successful) attempts to recreate some of his favorite European wines, Virginia has a storied history of viticulture. Now, new generations of winemakers are pushing Virginian wine to even greater heights. This session introduces some of the newest and most exciting wines the state has to offer.

3-session series: Fri., July 26, Aug. 23, and Sept. 20, 6 p.m.; CODE 3WINE2024 Members $180; Nonmembers $210

Individual sessions: Fri., July 26 (CODE 1L0-590); Fri., Aug. 23 (CODE 1L0-591); Fri., Sept. 20 (CODE 1L0-592); 6 p.m.; Members $70; Nonmembers $80

Wine-tasting kit information: The cost includes a curated personal tasting kit with enough wine for one person to sample the full lineup of wines. Additional participants must register individually to receive their own tasting kit, which is an essential component of the workshop. Kits are available during two scheduled pick-up times the day before the program and the day of the program, 12–5 p.m., at Shilling Canning Company (360 Water Street SE, Washington, DC; Metro: Navy Yard-Ballpark station, Green line). Patrons will receive additional wine tasting kit pick-up information by email prior to the program.

Due to state and federal laws, Smithsonian Associates cannot ship wine kits. However, SOMLYAY may be able to provide kits to participants outside the Washington, D.C., area (who must cover shipping costs). Please contact erik@thesomlyay.com for more information.

In Person

Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra 2023–2024 Concert Series

Under the artistic direction of maestro Charlie Young, the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra has celebrated some of the greatest jazz music throughout its 33-year history as one of the crown jewels of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History. The 2023–2024 SJMO season adds new excitement and luster to that musical tradition.

The concert’s musical program is subject to change.

In Person

Sat., June 1 | Sarah Vaughan: The Divine One

Sarah Vaughan’s colorful vocal tone, unparalleled range, elastic stylized phrasing, and all-around dynamic musical interpretation earned her the moniker “The Divine One.” Also known as “Sassy,” Vaughan became one of the greatest jazz vocalists in the history of the music. The SJMO features singer Sharón Clark in celebration of the centennial year of NEA Jazz Master Sarah Vaughan. Songs like “After You’ve Gone,” “It Don’t Mean a Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing)” and “The Lady’s in Love with You” rekindle the Vaughan spell. (Full Orchestra)

Sat., June 1, 8 p.m.; CODE 1P0-837; Baird Auditorium in the National Museum of Natural History; Members $25; Nonmembers $30

An Italian Lunch at Alta Strada

James Beard Award–winning chef Michael Schlow opened the first Alta Strada in Wellesley, Massachusetts, in 2005. The restaurant was born from his wish to share his love and passion for Italian food, reflected in the menu’s handmade pastas and other authentic classics.

Enjoy a three-course lunch specially designed for Smithsonian Associates at Alta Strada in Fairfax’s Mosaic District. Executive chef Matt Smith introduces the menu and guides participants through a tortellini-folding lesson before the meal.

Please note: The price includes meal and gratuities; drinks are not included and may be purchased separately at the restaurant.

Thurs., July 11, 12 p.m.; Alta Strada Mosaic District, 2911 District Ave #150, Fairfax, Virginia; CODE 1L0-584; Members $100; Nonmembers $130

More Stories from the American Songbook

The Great Forget-me-nots: Songs That Stand Alone

Explore and enjoy glorious songs from the Great American Songbook with stories about their long, often unexpected lives. This spring session covers songs that are considered “simply the best”—ageless and favorite beauties, many by songwriters unmet in prior sessions of this popular series.

Combining a lively lecture with a wide variety of film clips, filmmaker and cultural historian Sara Lukinson traces how these songs came to be and how different artists, unexpected arrangements, and changing times transformed them into something new but still the same.

Wed., June 12, 12 p.m.; CODE 1K0-471; Members $20; Nonmembers $25

Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra in concert

The Golden Age of Hollywood

From the late 1920s through the end of World War II, Hollywood studios including MGM, Warner Bros., 20th Century Fox, Paramount, and RKO dominated film production throughout the world. Despite the economic problems posed by the Depression, the studios became virtual entertainment factories, with each studio producing more than 50 movies a year.

The results of these years of frenzied activity are among the best-loved and most significant films ever made.

Media historian Brian Rose examines the forces that made Hollywood the giant of global filmmaking, studio politics and economics, the star system, and the nature of the movie-going experience.

Tues., June 4, 6:30 p.m.; CODE 1J0-367; Members $20; Nonmembers $25

Baseball in the Movies

Baseball has always been a symbol as much as a sport, offering a sunny rendering of the American Dream—both the hard work that underpins it and the rewards it promises. Film, which magnifies and mythologizes all it touches, has long been the ideal medium to canonize this aspirational idea. Washington City Paper film critic Noah Gittell sheds light on well-known classics and overlooked gems while exploring how baseball cinema creates a stage upon which the American ideal is born, performed, and repeatedly redefined. Gittell’s new book, Baseball: The Movie (Triumph), is available for purchase.

Wed., June 12, 6:45 p.m.; CODE 1J0-372; Members $20; Nonmembers $25

Alfred Hitchcock

Behind the Curtain of Suspense

Legendary master of screen tension Alfred Hitchcock shocked, thrilled, amused, and delighted moviegoers and TV viewers throughout his half-century directing career. The meticulous planning that went into his productions resulted in more than 50 tension-filled films—among them Shadow of a Doubt, Notorious, Vertigo, To Catch a Thief, Rear Window, North by Northwest, and Psycho—that continue to grip audiences in the 21st century.

Signature Hitchcockian moments are among the most famous in film history: ominous crows gathering on a playground jungle gym to await the exodus of schoolchildren; repentant embezzler Janet Leigh taking a fateful shower in a dreary motel; James Stewart spying from a wheelchair on one neighbor too many in his Greenwich Village apartment; Cary Grant facing off with a crop-dusting biplane; emotionally damaged police detective Stewart making the fatal mistake of falling in love with mysterious Kim Novak; and Grace Kelly defending herself with scissors.

Film historian Max Alvarez traces Alfred Hitchcock’s professional and artistic development from silent filmmaker in 1920s England to a Hollywood commercial force to be reckoned with during the 1940s and ’50s. He includes electrifying selections from the director’s filmography and rare behind-the-scenes archival material illustrating how key Hitchcock productions evolved from page to screen.

Wed., June 26, 6:30 p.m.; CODE 1K0-484; Members $30; Nonmembers $35

Read more about programs in this guide on our website. Search by code or date. Expanded program descriptions, presenters’ information, and more at SmithsonianAssociates.org.

Alfred Hitchcock, 1955

Milton’s Paradise Lost

John Milton’s Paradise Lost from 1667 is generally considered to be the greatest epic poem in the English language. Joseph Luzzi, a professor of literature at Bard College, examines the literary elements and cultural contexts that make Milton’s writing essential reading, exploring such issues as Milton’s relation to ancient literature, his rewriting of religious doctrine, and his role in major political and social struggles. Attention is also given to Milton’s dramatic personal circumstances, including his blindness and his role as one of the major pamphleteers of the times.

10 a.m. John Milton: An Inimitable Life and Its Literary Innovations

11:15 a.m. War in Heaven and Free Will

12:15 p.m. Break

12:45 p.m. Questions of Creation and Cosmic Battles

2 p.m. Human Disobedience and the Fate of Humankind

Sat., June 8, 10 a.m.–3 p.m.; CODE 1J0-368; Members $80; Nonmembers $90

Broadway’s Beginnings

Pull back the curtain on show-biz history to explore Broadway’s early years: an era of roofgarden theaters, tap shoes, theatrical con artists, and a ghost or two. Tim Dolan, an actor and owner of Broadway Up Close tours in New York City, leads a virtual stroll down the Great White Way as he shares rare photos and stories of the theater district’s past and shines a spotlight on some of its most intriguing secrets.

Dolan’s itinerary includes landmarks like Keens Steakhouse and Times Square and the sites of today’s Nederlander, New Amsterdam, New Victory, Lyric, and Todd Haimes theaters. Along the way, learn the difference between Broadway theaters and their off-Broadway counterparts, find out how a Broadway show is put together, and explore the spirits that may still be lurking in the backstage shadows

Tues., June 11, 7 p.m.; CODE 1NV-087; Members $25; Nonmembers $30

Related program: Summer at the Theater, p. 56

“Beauty and the Beast”: A Tale as Old as Time

Few stories capture the imagination like “Beauty and the Beast,” the romantic tale of a beautiful girl who sees past appearances to fall in love with a hideous monster. One of the oldest fairy tales, it has existed in countless forms. Folklorists Sara Cleto and Brittany Warman explore “Beauty and the Beast,” discussing what the tale looks like around the world, how it has been retold in contemporary times, and what kinds of reactionary, rebellious, and revolutionary points it has allowed tellers and authors to make. They explain why it has had such staying power and why many people count it as their favorite fairy tale. The lecture also includes a few prompts for audience interaction.

Mon., June 17, 6:45 p.m.; CODE 1J0-373; Members $20; Nonmembers $25

What time does the program end? Unless noted, Smithsonian Associates programs run 1 hour 15 min.–2 hours, including Q&A

New Amsterdam Theatre, New York City, 1905

Sara Cleto and Brittany Warman

At the Gilded Age Table

Dining and Entertaining

Whether their fortunes were old or new, members of Gilded Age society reveled in hosting and attending teas, cotillions, lawn parties, luncheons, and formal dinners—all of which had their own codes of dress and manners. Even picnics were served on fine china. Food historian Francine Segan highlights the variety of foods, elaborate etiquette, and entertainments enjoyed by the period’s upper crust.

Uncover the favored toasts of that era and discern the etiquette surrounding glove removal and hat tipping. Decode the calling card equivalent of unfriending someone and find out why the nutmeg grater was the must-have accessory of the 1890s. And enjoy a trivia contest on the uses for dozens of unique but now-obsolete objects from the era, as well as period recipes to recreate at home.

Mon., June 17, 6:45 p.m.; CODE 1D0-054; Members $20; Nonmembers $25

Fiddler on the Roof: To Life!

A fiddler on the roof. Sounds crazy, no? Yet this musical about a poor Jewish milkman, his wife, and five daughters who live in a tiny village in a corner of Eastern Europe captivated the entire world. From Paris to Beijing to Baltimore, whatever their background, audiences see themselves in the stories and songs. How did this happen? The songwriters Jerr y Bock and Sheldon Harnick juggled love with tears and laughter with melancholy, mixed it with loving parents, hopeful children, and colorful friends all trying to survive in a precarious world to create a joyous, tearful celebration of life, music, and love unlike any other.

Documentary filmmaker and cultural historian Sara Lukinson shares film clips and stories that trace the show’s improbable beginnings in Yiddish short stories by Sholem Aleichem and its journey to the stage led by the best—often squabbling— Broadway talents who created a miracle of a musical.

Tues., June 18, 6:45 p.m.; CODE 1K0-478; Members $25; Nonmembers $30

World Art History Certificate elective: Earn 1 credit

The Gilded Age: Art, Architecture, and Society

The words Gilded Age capture it all: a golden era of opulent architecture, extravagant fashions, stunning art, and above all, the wealth that made it possible. America in the booming post-Civil War decades was a place of contradictions and dichotomies. This was a world ruled by robber barons, magnates who accumulated tremendous fortunes in railways, communications, and industries. But it was also one in which serious societal ills—such as those documented by photographer and journalist Jacob Riis—were hidden by a gilt façade.

Art historian Bonita Billman examines the art, architecture, fashion, and interior design of the upper crust between 1870 and 1912 and explores the dramatic distance between their lives and those on the other end of the social and economic scales.

10 a.m. How the Other Half Lives

11:30 a.m. Gilded Gotham

12:45 p.m. Break

1:15 p.m. The “Cottages” of Newport

2:45 p.m. Idle Hours

Sat., July 20, 10 a.m.–4 p.m.; CODE 1M2-331; Members $80; Nonmembers $90

Performance of Fiddler on the Roof at Otterbein University, 2016

The mansion of Cornelius Vanderbilt II at the corner of 5th Avenue, 57th Street, and Grand Army Plaza, New York, 1908

Presented in partnership with the National Museum of American History and Online Program

HAIR

The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical

In 1968, HAIR not only changed the face of the American musical theater but also proved that a Broadway musical could be a powerful form of protest and free speech, exploring the ideas of rebellion and challenging the political, social, and theatrical norms the creators observed around them. Discussing the ongoing relevance of HAIR is a panel including theater critic Peter Marks, original Broadway cast members Shelley Plimpton and Dale Soules, and longtime HAIR publicist Merle Frimark, moderated by arts journalist Patrick Pacheco

Following the panel discussion, attendees have the rare opportunity to see objects from the National Museum of American History’s HAIR collection that are not on public display and hear from curators Ryan Lintelman and Krystal Klingenberg about collecting the objects. The program also includes a special performance by members of the cast of Signature Theatre’s current production of the musical.

Roadside Attractions

Reasons to Stretch Your Legs

Thurs., June 20, 12 p.m.; CODE 1J0-375; in person at the National Museum of American History’s Warner Bros. Theater and online via Zoom Free, registration required

In Search of America

Travels with Charley (and Clay)

What do a giant rocking chair, a field of spray-painted Cadillacs, and a 15-foot-tall Superman all have in common? Nothing much, except that they’re all examples of the thousands of unique, amusing, and sometimes-bizarre sights that travelers across America visit each year. From Houston’s Beer Can House to South Dakota’s Corn Palace, many of these quirky tourist magnets have interesting stories behind them, or at the very least make for a great photo opportunity.

Travel expert and author Bill Clevlen shares some of those tales, including how a loving Oklahoma husband built the giant Blue Whale of Catoosa; why travelers routinely spray-paint the cars in Amarillo’s Cadillac Ranch; and who the world’s largest wind chime— the pride of Casey, Illinois—celebrates.

Wed., July 10, 7 p.m.; CODE 1NV-091; Members $25; Nonmembers $30

Historian Clay Jenkinson is a John Steinbeck scholar who is retracing Steinbeck’s 1960 driving tour chronicled in his book Travels with Charley: In Search of America Though Steinbeck finally admitted that America was too big to know, Jenkinson intends to explore the mood and face of the country on the eve of our 250th birthday.

Beginning this spring, he’ll cover the perimeter of the United States and along the way read all of Steinbeck’s works and file daily posts about his travels. Jenkinson examines Steinbeck’s extraordinary account of his road trip and his own attempt to make sense of what the author called “this monster country” by traveling less-visited byways, taking time to see America with fresh eyes, and listening to—and reporting on—the many voices of its past, present, and future.

Tues., July 16, 6:30 p.m.; CODE 1K0-487; Members $35; Nonmembers $40

Smithsonian Associates’ Digital Digest is a lively monthly e-newsletter filled with information about programs and experiences that are entertaining, informative, eclectic, and insightful. Be sure to see the current issue at: smithsonianassociates.org/digital-digest

Clay Jenkinson

The Jazzmen

The longtime kings of jazz—Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, and Count Basie—were born within a few years of one another and battled poverty and prejudice to become some of the most popular entertainers on the planet. Larry Tye, author of The Jazzmen: How Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, and Count Basie Transformed America, traces the story of how these revolutionary musicians orchestrated the chords that throbbed at the soul of 20th-century America. Each defied racial boundaries by opening America’s eyes and souls to the magnificence of their music. In the process, says Tye, they wrote the soundtrack for the civil rights movement. Copies of The Jazzmen (Mariner Books) are available for purchase.

Tues., July 16, 7 p.m.; CODE 1NV-093; Members $25; Nonmembers $30

Barbie

The History of America’s Best-Selling Doll

For more than 60 years, Barbie has been the world’s best-selling fashion doll, inspiring millions of fans to play with, collect, and adore her. Cultural historian Leslie Goddard explores the history of Barbie, beginning with her inventor, the passionately creative and intensely competitive Ruth Handler. She also delves into the complex cultural battles Barbie has inspired over the decades and offers insights into why the doll has been at the center of deep-rooted debates about what it means to be an American woman and what those debates reveal about us.

Wed., July 17, 7 p.m.; CODE 1CV-043; Members $25; Nonmembers $30

The Sublimely Subversive Cinema of Billy Wilder

Billy Wilder, the European-born genius behind The Apartment and Some Like It Hot, captured the outrageous quirkiness of the United States better than most of his Hollywood contemporaries.

The Wilder gift for provocation and dark humor dared to take on topics from the devastation of alcoholism (The Lost Weekend) to the cruelty of Hollywood (Sunset Boulevard), while his romantic side surfaced in sophisticated adult romps such as Sabrina and Love in the Afternoon. Film historian Max Alvarez offers a tribute to the director-writer who was in many respects the ultimate commentator on American culture.

The Art of Breathing

Yogic Philosophy and Practices

Yoga can be a lifestyle medicine that promotes brain health, mental health, and overall well-being. Linda Lang, a certified yoga therapist, offers an opportunity to embrace yogic thinking and learn simple, gentle breathing practices to cultivate a healthier relationship with your body and mind.

Wed., July 17, 6:30 p.m.; CODE 1K0-496; Members $30; Nonmembers $35

A heightened awareness of the ways we tend to breathe (or not) throughout the day can lead to remarkable selfdiscoveries: controlling emotional reactivity; regulating heartbeat and blood pressure; increasing the flow of anti-inflammatories; and reducing fatigue. In an informative interactive session, find ways to strengthen your body, mind, and confidence in dealing with difficult situations and people as you begin to breathe your way to better being.

Thurs., July 18, 12 p.m.; CODE 1NV-094; Members $25; Nonmembers $30

Leslie Goddard with dolls and accessories from her Barbie collection

The Magnificence of Mozart’s Concertos

The concertos of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart number among the greatest bodies of work that exist in the Western concert music canon. He composed over 40 for a wide variety of instruments, and without his lifelong fascination with this form we would not have the mighty Romantic and modern soloistic showcases that we love today.

From vivacious early experiments to the magisterial later masterworks, Mozart’s sublime invention never dimmed. Pianist and scholar Rachel Franklin explores how he built the modern concerto form with inexhaustible creativity and shaped our contemporary expectations of virtuosity allied with expressive power.

JULY 24 Form and Function

JULY 31 Mozart’s Soloists

2-session series: Wed., July 24 and 31, 12 p.m.; CODE 1K0489; Members $50; Nonmembers $60

In Person

Kathy Reichs: Fire and Bones

Creating

a D.C.

Thriller

Dancing in the Dark

A History of Dance in the Movies

Dancing on the big screen has provided some of the most ecstatic moments in film history—whether it’s Fred Astaire gliding on the ceiling in Royal Wedding, the Nicholas Brothers leaping down a staircase in Stormy Weather, Moira Shearer pirouetting through the dreamscape of The Red Shoes, or John Travolta burning up the dance floor in Saturday Night Fever. Employing more than 75 video clips, media historian Brian Rose surveys 130 years of thrilling movie dance performances and discusses how the cinema helped change the nature of dance.

Tues., Aug. 6, 12 p.m.; CODE 1J0-378; Members $20; Nonmembers $25

Forensic anthropologist Kathy Reichs is known for her crime novels chronicling the adventures of Temperance “Bones” Brennan, a forensic anthropologist at the fictional Jeffersonian Institute (sound familiar?). Her latest thriller, Fire and Bones, finds Brennan at the center of a Washington, D.C., arson investigation that spawns deepening levels of mystery and, ultimately, violence.

When she discovers the case has a surprising link to the Foggy Bottom Gang, a group of 1930s and ’40s bootleggers and racketeers, things get even hotter. Join Reichs as she discuss the inspiration behind the novel and how she staged the thriller in the Smithsonian’s—or the Jeffersonian’s—backyard.

Copies of Fire and Bones (Simon & Schuster) are available for purchase and signing. Mon., Aug. 5, 6:45 p.m.; CODE 1L0-586; Ripley Center; Members $25; Nonmembers $30

All Smithsonian Associates online programs are closed captioned

Read more about programs in this guide on our website. Search by code or date. Expanded program descriptions, presenters’ information, and more at SmithsonianAssociates.org.

Kathy Reichs

Original flyer for the film The Red Shoes, 1948. Collection at Ailina Dance (Archives)

Portrait of a young Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart by Giambettino Cignaroli, 1770

Burt Bacharach, Dionne Warwick, and Hal David

The Synergy of Genius

Burt Bacharach composed for countless important artists during his storied 80-year career—which began in his teens—but he and his lyricist Hal David reserved some of their most visionary work for the magnificent Dionne Warwick.

Lecturer, concert pianist, and Bacharach and Warwick fan Rachel Franklin explores the unique power and depth of their creative relationship and the extraordinary legacy of songbook masterpieces that these great artists have bequeathed us. Among the many beloved songs covered in the program, highlights include “Walk on By,” “I Say a Little Prayer,” “Anyone Who Had a Heart,” “Alfie,” “Don’t Make Me Over,” and “I’ll Never Fall in Love Again.”

Wed., Aug. 7, 6:30 p.m.; CODE 1K0-499; Members $25; Nonmembers $30

Feasting with Royalty

Cleopatra, Alexander, and Caesar

From the elaborate banquets of ancient civilizations to the lavish soirées of the Renaissance, feasts have left an indelible mark on human culture and society. They reveal the culinary delights of their time and the social hierarchies, power dynamics, and cultural exchanges that have shaped our past.

Food historian Francine Segan uncovers the hidden layers of meaning behind the food, drink, and rituals that have defined such gatherings throughout the ages and spotlights the distinctive foods of royal tables in ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome. In each session, participants receive a list of recipes for delicious dishes from across antiquity to make at home. (Roast peacock and flamingo tongue not included.)

3-session series: Mon., Aug. 19, Sept. 16, and Oct. 21, 6:45 p.m.; CODE 1D0-058; Members $60; Nonmembers $75

Individual sessions: Mon., Aug. 19 (CODE 1D0-058A); Mon., Sept. 16 (CODE 1D0-058B); Mon., Oct. 21 (CODE 1D0-058C); 6:45 p.m.; Members $25; Nonmembers $30

Related program: At the Gilded Age Table: Dining and Entertaining, p. 22

Zhang Yimou and Gong Li

The Director and His Muse

Film historian Max Alvarez surveys the turbulent film history of China via the brilliant and beautiful collaborations between Fifth Generation filmmaker Zhang Yimou—who emerged on the world cinema scene in the wake of the Cultural Revolution—and his stunning star Gong Li. Her remarkable acting versatility reinforced Zhang’s themes of resilience in the face of hardship in films such as Ju Dou and The Story of Qiu Ju and the masterpiece Raise the Red Lantern. But those themes frequently aroused the ire of political authorities.

Nevertheless, Zhang’s remarkable muse, whose stardom was instantaneous beginning with their first powerful alliance in the film Red Sorghum, helped make Zhang’s later works—arguably compromised by the political pressure the director faced—both intoxicating and mesmerizing.

Tues., Aug. 20, 6:30 p.m.; CODE 1K0-502; Members $30; Nonmembers $35

Burt Bacharach, Dionne Warwick, and Hal David

Gong Li

Zhang Yimou

Still Life with Lobster, Drinking Horn and Glasses by Willem Kalf, 1653

Musical Miniatures

The Perfect Magic of Shorter Works

Throughout the centuries composers have been constantly drawn to the perfect simplicity of shorter musical forms. Preludes, bagatelles, overtures, romances, impromptus, nocturnes, dances, arias, etudes, songs without words, lieder, fantasias, intermezzos: The range of small-form musical works is astoundingly varied, but creating exquisite miniatures is a demanding art.

With some of the most deeply loved music in the repertoire, pianist and scholar Rachel Franklin shows how it’s done using miniature marvels by Bach, Beethoven, Schubert, Chopin, Schumann, Mendelssohn, Grieg, Bartok, Brahms, Faure, Webern, Debussy, and many others.

SEPT 5 Can We Categorize a Musical Miniature?

SEPT 12 Images and Stories Through Program Music

SEPT 19 Piano Miniatures: An Infinite World in a Tiny Box

SEPT 26 Delights of Salon Music and the Role of Nationalism

4-session series: Thurs., Sept. 5–26, 12 p.m.; CODE 1K0-501; Members $95; Nonmembers $105

From David Copperfield to Demon Copperhead

A Modern Rewriting of Charles Dickens

Barbara Kingsolver’s Pulitzer Prize–winning Demon Copperhead is an adaptation of the beloved 19th-century novel David Copperfield by Charles Dickens. Joseph Luzzi, professor of literature at Bard College, shows how Kingsolver negotiated Dickens’ literary legacy and updated the concerns of David Copperfield to deal with major issues of contemporary American life such as the opioid crisis, rural poverty, and the schisms in an increasingly divided country. Luzzi discusses how the two authors’ lives and literary careers relate to their novels and compares style, character creation, and plot development in the two books.

10 a.m. A Tale of Two Authors: Charles Dickens and Barbara Kingsolver

11:15 a.m. David Copperfield: Youthful Challenges

12:15 p.m. Break

12:45 p.m. David Copperfield: Joys and Sorrows of Maturity

2 p.m. Copperfield to Copperhead

Sat., Sept. 7, 10 a.m.–3 p.m.; CODE 1J0-388; Members $80; Nonmembers $90

How Steven Spielberg and George Lucas Changed the Movies

From 1915’s The Birth of a Nation to epics like The Sound of Music (1965), Hollywood has depended on blockbusters. But beginning in 1974, Steven Spielberg and George Lucas changed the way the industry made movies.

Spielberg’s Jaws and Lucas’ Star Wars helped launch the careers of two of the most influential directors of our time. They introduced the age of the modern blockbuster, which features elaborate special effects and thrilling spectacle, in contrast to previous Hollywood blockbusters whose focus was on prestigious adaptations and mega star power. Media historian Brian Rose looks at their four decades of filmmaking and discusses how they changed the movies.

Tues., Sept. 17, 6:30 p.m.; CODE 1J0-391; Members $20; Nonmembers $25

Chopin Concert by Henryk Siemiradzki, 1829

Barbara Kingsolver

Charles Dickens LIBRARY OF CONGRESS LIFE

Unless noted, all programs are presented on Zoom; listed times are Eastern Time. Online registration is required.

A Grand Tour of the Solar System

Presented in partnership with George Mason University Observatory

This series treks to the sun and the four inner terrestrial planets before traveling outward to the asteroid belt, four Jovian planets, and beyond. At each session, a professional astronomer presents the latest research on a solar system body. Following the talk and a question-and-answer period, Peter Plavchan, a professor of physics and astronomy at George Mason University, brings that night’s sky right into participants’ living rooms via remote control of the university observatory, weather permitting.

The Kuiper Belt: Way Out There

Pluto was the first discovered object in the Kuiper Belt, which contains hundreds of thousands of icy bodies near and beyond Neptune’s orbit. The orbits of Kuiper Belt objects provide information about the formation of our solar system and how the planets moved around in the past. Most exploration of this far-off part of the solar system is conducted via telescopes. Samantha Lawler, an astronomy professor at the University of Regina, Saskatchewan, discusses how these meticulous observations and simulations are carried out.

Tues., June 25, 8 p.m.; CODE 1J0-374; Members $25; Nonmembers $30

A composite image of one of the many icy bodies in the Kuiper Belt, created from data captured by NASA's New Horizons spacecraft

From Ancient History to the Heavens

Digital Technology Reveals Insights

Using sophisticated tools that include a repurposed particle accelerator and working with museums, universities, and private collectors, Michael B. Toth and his colleagues have digitized everything from manuscripts to fossils to historical astronomical plates, mining them for new information about their content and creation. Among the pieces they have worked on are the earliest known copy of work by Archimedes, Sir Isaac Newton’s sketch of how a rainbow is formed, Gutenberg and other early Bibles, and Muslim manuscripts. Toth, the president of R.B. Toth Associates, talks about some of their findings.

Mon., June 3, 6:45 p.m.; CODE 1J0-369; Members $30; Nonmembers $35

Literary Theory for Robots

In a provocative look at the shared pasts of literature and computer science, former Microsoft engineer Dennis Yi Tenen provides a context for recent developments in artificial intelligence, which holds important lessons for the future of humans living with smart technology.

Intelligence expressed through technology should not be mistaken for a magical genie capable of self-directed thought or action, holds Yi Tenen. Rather, he asks us to look past the artifice—to better perceive the mechanics of collaborative work. Something as simple as a spell-checker or a grammar-correction tool, embedded in every word processor, represents the culmination of a shared human effort spanning centuries. Blending history, technology, and philosophy, he discusses why AI should be viewed as a matter of labor history, celebrating the long-standing cooperation between authors and engineers.

Yi Tenen is an associate professor of English and comparative literature at Columbia University and an affiliate at Columbia’s Data Science Institute. His book, Literary Theory for Robots: How Computers Learned to Write (W. W. Norton & Company), is available for purchase.

Tues., June 4, 6:45 p.m.; CODE 1K0-475; Members $20; Nonmembers $25

programs are part of Smithsonian Associates

High-tech equipment creates images of a Gutenberg Bible and early Confucian pages

Dennis Yi Tenen

The Heart and the Chip

The Future of Robots

Robots have enabled us to explore dark ocean depths and the surface of Mars. They can act as transportation, serve as personal trainers, help diagnose disease, plow fields, milk cows, and even do household chores. Though robots can mimic a great deal, they cannot replicate care, says pioneering roboticist and computer scientist Daniela Rus: They lack heart.

Drawing on her new book, The Heart and the Chip: Our Bright Future with Robots, co-written with Gregory Mone, Rus—the first woman to direct MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory—reframes the way we think about intelligent machines and weighs the moral and ethical consequences of their role in society. She envisions a world in which these technologies augment and enhance our skills and talents, both as individuals and as a species, and where the proliferation of robots allows us to be more human.

Copies of The Heart and the Chip (W. W. Norton & Company) are available for sale.

Mon., June 10, 7 p.m.; CODE 1NV-089; Members $25; Nonmembers $30

Nature of the Book

Throughout history, books were handwritten, printed, bound, and decorated using a wide variety of materials from the natural world, from standard ingredients like flax, leather, copper, and lead to the unexpected, like wasps and seaweed. The “Nature of the Book” exhibition at the National Museum of Natural History, assembled by Smithsonian Libraries and Archives, shows what the use of these materials in a book can tell us about it, touching on questions of purpose, process, global trade, and economy. Book conservators Katie Wagner and Vanessa Haight Smith, who curated “Nature of the Book,” share their process and research.

Interpreting Earth’s Patterns

The human mind is very good at discerning patterns in nature: shapes, symmetries, repetitions. Even in random visual noise like cloud shapes or Rorschach blots, we see things that have meaning to us. But why do we see hexagons in beehives, mud puddles, ice crystals, and lava flows but not sand dunes, rose bushes, or comets? What are the commonalities among galaxies, hurricanes, and ammonites that inform their spiral forms?

Callan Bentley, a geology professor at Piedmont Virginia Community College, explores various formations, from branches and braids to waves and wiggles, and explains the science behind each. By decoding some of nature’s formations—from prosaic to sublime—we can better understand our ability for pattern recognition.

Wed., June 12, 6:45 p.m.; CODE 1L0-581; Members $20; Nonmembers $25

Mon., June 10, 6:30 p.m.; CODE 1T0003; Members $20; Nonmembers $25

”lava

Cover and interior pages from Tsuru no sōshi (The Tale of the Crane), a 17th-century Japanese book

Overlapping

toes,” the Galápagos Islands

Abuzz About Bees

Bees are part of the biodiversity on which we all depend for our survival, but some of their activity has been unexplainable—until now. Cornell University biology professor Thomas D. Seeley provides an up-close account of how he and his colleagues solved mysteries about honey bee nature and communication. His research illuminates how worker bees function as scouts to choose a home site for their colony, furnish their home with beeswax combs, and stock it with brood and food while keeping tens of thousands of colony inhabitants warm and defended from intruders.

Seeley’s book Piping Hot Bees and Boisterous Buzz-Runners: 20 Mysteries of Honey Bee Behavior Solved (Princeton University Press) is available for purchase.

Tues., June 18, 6:45 p.m.; CODE 1T0-004; Members $20; Nonmembers $25

Among the Great Whites

Since Jaws scared a nation of moviegoers out of the water nearly 50 years ago, great white sharks have attained a mythic status as the most frightening and mysterious monsters to still live among us. Each fall in the waters surrounding a desolate rocky island chain 27 miles off the San Francisco coast, the world’s largest congregation of these fearsome predators gathers to feed.

Journalist Susan Casey first saw the great whites of the Farallon Islands in a television documentary. She became obsessed with these awe-inspiring creatures and has joined scientists on their expeditions to study the species. Casey offers a presentation full of jaw-dropping images that’s part adventure tale and part natural history lesson in which she describes her time among the great whites and shares the latest in great white shark research.

Tues., July 23, 6:45 p.m.; CODE 1K0-494; Members $25; Nonmembers $30

Quantum Mechanics Demystified

Theoretical physicist and philosopher Sean Carroll takes a unique approach to sharing physics with a broad audience: one that reveals how physicists really think, providing an accessible, straightforward perspective that you don’t need to be a scientist to understand

Drawing on his new book, Quanta and Fields, he takes on quantum field theory—how modern physics describes nature at its most profound level. Starting with the basics of quantum mechanics itself, he offers insights into why matter is solid, why there is antimatter, where the sizes of atoms come from, and why the predictions of quantum field theory are so spectacularly successful.

Copies of Quanta and Fields: The Biggest Ideas in the Universe (Dutton) are available for purchase.

Tues., July 23, 6:45 p.m.; CODE 1L0-585; Members $20; Nonmembers $25

Otterly Amazing

From their intricate social structures to their remarkable hunting techniques, otters captivate observers with their cleverness, charisma, and resilience. Erin Whatley and Paul Bradenburger, animal keepers with Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute, reveal fascinating details about the natural history of these furry, semi-aquatic mammals.

Otters are highly social animals, often forming close-knit family groups. Whatley and Bradenburger describe the bonds between mothers and pups and delve into reproductive strategies. Learn how otters play a crucial role in maintaining the health of freshwater ecosystems. Finally, discover secrets of otter care at the Smithsonian National Zoo.

Thurs., Aug. 1, 6:30 p.m.; CODE 1CV-044; Members $25; Nonmembers $30

Extreme Cat-itude

Exploring the Biology, Behavior, and Importance of Wild Felines

How much difference exists between a tiger and the fluffy kitten sitting on your sofa? Probably less than you think. Robert Johnson, a professor of biology at Coastal Carolina University, examines the evolution of the Felidae family, highlights big cat species, and sheds light on remarkable small cat species that go all but unnoticed in our modern world. He also provides insight into feline behavior, conservation status, and adaptations that make cats among the most effective predators on the planet.

Wed., Aug. 7, 6:45 p.m.; CODE 1J0-379; Members $20; Nonmembers $25

Understanding Cephalopod Behavior

Some stories that people tell about octopuses almost defy belief. These animals are said to escape from aquariums, invent tools, make friends, and hold grudges. But how many of these tales are true?

Scientists have indeed documented extraordinary cognitive capacity and behavioral flexibility not only in octopuses but also in their close relatives, squids and cuttlefish, who are all members of the cephalopod group of animals. Biologist Danna Staaf sorts fact from fancy and dissects the question of how intelligent they are to see what we can learn from them about our definition of intelligence.

Mon., Aug. 26, 6:45 p.m.; CODE 1J0-384; Members $20; Nonmembers $25

Underwater Volcanoes

From Indonesia to Iceland, hundreds of islands across the globe were formed by once so-called submarine volcanoes. Submarine volcanoes are exactly what they sound like: volcanoes located beneath the ocean’s surface.

Although they know underwater volcanoes behave differently than terrestrial ones, scientists are somewhat in the dark when it comes to understanding them because the eruptions are cloaked from view by thousands of feet of water. Dive deep with volcanologist Samuel Mitchell as he explains what is known about the volcanoes that lie beneath the surface of our oceans and why we should be both curious and cautious about them.

Fri., Sept. 6, 12 p.m.; CODE 1J0-387; Members $20; Nonmembers $25

West Mata, near Samoa, is the deepest submarine volcano ever filmed

The Geology of Shenandoah National Park

Virginia’s Shenandoah National Park is situated atop the Blue Ridge, a prominent mountain range formed during the ancient smash-up between ancestral North America and Africa. Known for its spectacular views, the park contains rocks that tell compelling geologic stories. What do stripes in a rock mean? Are those almonds from someone’s trail mix, or are they fossilized volcanic gas bubbles on a boulder? How were the stairway-like sections of the hiking trail up Old Rag Mountain created?

Geologist Callan Bentley can read these rocks and translate their tales from deep time.

Mon, Sept. 9, 7 p.m.; CODE 1NV-100; Members $25; Nonmembers $30

Related program: Outdoor Adventures in Shenandoah National Park, p. 61

How We Healed the Earth

… and How We Can Do It Again

Glaciers are melting. Oceans are rising. Surface temperatures worldwide are rising. What’s to be done? We have solved planet-threatening problems before, atmospheric scientist Susan Solomon argues, and we can do it again. The path to success begins when an environmental problem becomes both personal and perceptible to the public, she says.

Solomon connects her 1986 expedition to Antarctica that made discoveries key to healing the damaged ozone layer with the stories of environmental victories to extract the essential elements of what makes change possible. Solomon’s new book, Solvable: How We Healed the Earth, and How We Can Do It Again (University of Chicago Press), is available for purchase. Thurs., Sept. 12, 6:45 p.m.; CODE 1J0-389; Members $20; Nonmembers $25

Social Networks and the Wondrous Complexity of Animal Societies

It’s all about who you know when you’re an animal. For vampire bats sharing blood meals to survive, macaque monkeys forming grooming pacts after a deadly hurricane, and great tit birds learning the best way to steal milk, it pays to be well-connected.

In this tour of the animal kingdom, evolutionary biologist Lee Alan Dugatkin describes social networks that existed long before the dawn of human social media. His new book, The Well-Connected Animal: Social Networks and the Wondrous Complexity of Animal Societies (University of Chicago Press), is available for purchase.

Fri., Sept. 13, 6:45 p.m.; CODE 1J0-390; Members $20; Nonmembers $25

The Quest for Cosmic Life

The questions “How did life on Earth begin?” and “Are we alone in the universe?” are arguably two of the most intriguing in science. Attempts to answer them have now led to extraordinarily vibrant and dynamic frontiers of investigation.

Astrophysicist Mario Livio describes how the quest for cosmic life follows two parallel, independent lines of research: cutting-edge laboratory studies aimed at determining whether life can emerge from pure chemistry and advanced astronomical observations searching for signs of life on other planets and moons in the solar system and around stars other than the sun.

Livio’s new book, co-authored with Nobel Prize laureate Jack Szostak, Is Earth Exceptional?: The Quest for Cosmic Life (Basic Books), is available for sale.

Thurs., Sept. 19, 6:30 p.m.; CODE 1M2-341; Members $25; Nonmembers $30

Old Rag Mountain

Art-full Fridays | Live from Italy, with Elaine Ruffolo

World Art History Certificate elective: Earn ½ credit for each

Elaine Ruffolo, a Florence-based Renaissance art historian, examines the rich heritage of Italian art and architecture

Michelangelo and the Medici Popes

Friendship, Patronage, and Betrayal

In the latter part of his career, Michelangelo undertook remarkable architectural ventures, predominantly commissioned by the Medici popes. Following the completion of the Sistine Chapel’s ceiling, he embarked on significant projects for his childhood friends Pope Leo X and Pope Clement VII.

However, Michelangelo’s relationship with the Medici turned sour when he joined Florentine forces attempting to throw off the yoke of the family—who were later banished into exile. Clement VII was furious with the artist’s betrayal and ordered his death. It is believed that Michelangelo hid from the wrath of the Medici for several weeks in a secret chamber in one of the structures he designed. Ruffolo takes a close look at Michelangelo’s projects for the Medici popes and the tumultuous events that unfolded along the way.

Fri., June 7, 12 p.m.; CODE 1D0-053; Members $25; Nonmembers $30

World Art History Certificate elective: Earn ½ credit Impressionism’s

Roots in Normandy and Beyond

Impressionism ignited in the rolling green countryside of Normandy, France, where Claude Monet and other local artists developed this new way of painting, shocking many traditionalists. Travel writer Barbara Noe Kennedy takes you to see sites where Impressionism flourished—even the exact places where well-known paintings were created. Visti the suburb of Chatou, Renoir’s “prettiest little place near Paris” (depicted in his Luncheon of the Boating Party); Ile de la Jatte, the backdrop for Georges Seurat’s masterpiece, A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte; Moret-sur-Loing, Alfred Sisley’s home; and several great Paris museums to view examples of Impressionist art. Maps, photos, videos, and other visuals accompany the journey.

Wed., June 5, 7 p.m.; CODE 1CV-040; Members $25; Nonmembers $30

You love art. Now go deeper.

Art is all around us. It excites us, enriches our lives, and enlivens our imaginations. To truly appreciate any work of art, we need to understand the context and culture in which it was created. That’s why Smithsonian Associates offers a World Art History Certificate Program

The wide-ranging offerings are designed to provide a global perspective on art and architecture and draw on the Smithsonian’s world-class collections and the rich resources of other Washington institutions. They are selected from among Smithsonian Associates courses, seminars, study tours, and studio art classes. Look for World Art History Certificate throughout the program guide to see current listings. Get started today and complete the certificate requirements at your own pace. Registration is ongoing; for a limited time, new participants receive a World Art History Certificate tote bag. Credits are counted from day of registration and are not given retroactively.

SmithsonianAssociates.org/artcertificate

Arrival of the Normandy Train, Gare Saint-Lazare by Claude Monet, 1877

Project drawing for the façade of the Basilica of San Lorenzo, Florence

Writing Workshops

Experience the power of reflective writing guided by the founding instructor of the National Gallery of Art’s popular Writing Salon, Mary Hall Surface. These reflections can become creative fertile ground for memoir, poetry, and more. The workshops have a limited enrollment to maximize interaction among the instructor and students.

Write Into Art

Creative Writing Inspired by Visual Art

Discover how visual art can inspire creative writing and how writing can offer a powerful way to experience art in online workshops that explore essential elements of writing and style through close looking, word-sketching, and imaginative response to prompts. The sessions spotlight a diverse range of art by Romare Bearden, Georgia O’Keeffe, and

Berenice Abbott to inspire writers of all experience levels to deepen their process and practice.

JULY 9 Memoir: Memory and Metaphor

JULY 16 Poetry: Words as Image

JULY 23 Setting: Explore Place and Time

3-session series: Tues., July 9–23, 10 a.m.; CODE 1K0-490; Members $105; Nonmembers $115

Individual sessions: Tues., July 9 (CODE 1K0-491); Tues., July 16 (CODE 1K0-492); Tues., July 23 (CODE 1K0-493); 10 a.m.; Members $40; Nonmembers $45

World Art History Certificate elective: Earn ½ credit

Georgia O’Keeffe: American Modernist

When she died in 1986 at the age of 98, Georgia O’Keeffe’s obituary appeared on the front page of The New York Times. This was rare for any artist and unheard-of for a female painter. But she had been famous since the late 1920s, and a century later she remains an icon of American art. Images of O’Keeffe’s paintings are ubiquitous in popular culture. Collectors covet her pictures: In 2014 the painting Jimson Weed/White Flower #1 (1932) broke the auction record for a work by any female artist when Sotheby’s sold it for more than $44 million to the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas.

In a richly illustrated program, art historian Bonita Billman explores O’Keeffe’s life and artistic career, from her upbringing in rural Wisconsin to her association with New York City’s avant-garde circle to her years in New Mexico, where the desert opened a new range of subject matter for her work. Billman also looks at the influences on O’Keeffe—including fellow artist Arthur Wesley Dow, who taught her the importance of “filling a space in a beautiful way,” and her husband, gallerist and photographer Alfred Stieglitz.

Thurs., June 6, 12 p.m.; CODE 1M2-326; Members $25; Nonmembers $30

World Art History Certificate core course: Earn 1 credit

African Art Through the Centuries

From the vibrant paintings found in Stone Age caves to the abstract sculptures produced during the continent’s colonial period, the arts of Africa have been shaped by unique creative insight as well as by specific political, social, religious, and economic forces. Art historian Kevin Tervala explores these vibrant artistic expressions through an examination of the continent’s historical trajectory.

JUNE 6 Ancient Africa (Prehistory–1000)

JUNE 13 Medieval Africa (1000–1500)

JUNE 20 Early Modern Africa (1500–1900)

JUNE 27 Modern and Contemporary Africa (1900–Present)

4-session series: Thurs., June 6–27, 6:45 p.m.; CODE 1D0-052; Members $90; Nonmembers $100

Face mask by a Chokwe artist, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Angola, early 20th century

Great Mud Mosque, Djenné, Mali

Georgia O’Keeffe by Alfred Stieglitz, 1918

Mary Hall Surface

World Art History Certificate elective: Earn ½ credit each session

Lunchtime with a Curator

Decorative Arts Design Series

Join curator Elizabeth Lay Little, a regular lecturer on the topics of fashion, textiles, and American furniture, and her guests for an image-rich lunchtime series focusing on decorative arts and design topics.

A younger generation of collectors and novices are making their decorating decisions much differently than their parents: Today family portraits, silver, and antiques are no longer treasured the way they once were. Antique dealer Taylor Thistlethwaite discusses the current state of the decorative arts world and how to make it more relatable to the next generation.

La Pausa, Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel’s deceptively simple vacation home on the Riviera, harbors a complexity not apparent at first view. Design historian Jean Marie Layton delves into the history of the home and its creation to demonstrate that it indeed mirrors its owner—a woman who promoted simplicity and modernity in women’s fashion but who was equal parts modern, simple, and complex.

Research fellow Benjamin Bowery examines the roots and evolution of American interior design, from the French-obsessed doyennes of the Gilded Age to the women decorating the mid-century boardroom. He discusses an emphasis on the designers, tastemakers, and business owners who defined the aesthetics of the modern era, including Elsie de Wolfe, Dorothy Draper, Mary and Russel Wright, and Florence Knoll.

JUNE 10 My Kids Hate Antiques

JUNE 17 Gabrielle Chanel’s La Pausa

JUNE 24 From “Designing Women” to “Fixer Upper”

3-session series: Mon., June 10, 17, and 24, 12 p.m.; CODE 1K0-479; Members $50; Nonmembers $60

Individual sessions: Mon., June 10 (CODE 1K0-480); Mon., June 17 (CODE 1K0-481); Mon., June 24 (CODE 1K0-482); 12 p.m.; Members $20; Nonmembers $25 Chippendale chest of drawers, courtesy of Thistlethwaite Americana

World Art History Certificate elective: Earn ½ credit

Édouard Manet

Pioneer of an Artistic Revolution

Édouard Manet was one of the first 19th-century artists to paint modern life, as well as a pivotal figure in the transition from Realism to Impressionism. His early masterworks, The Luncheon on the Grass and Olympia, both from 1863, caused great controversy, but today, these are considered key paintings that mark the start of modern art.

The last 20 years of Manet’s life saw him form bonds with other great artists of the time such as Pissarro, Cézanne, and van Gogh, yet he developed his own simple and direct style that would be heralded as innovative and serve as a major influence for future painters. In a richly illustrated program, art historian Joseph P. Cassar critically examines several of Manet’s key works within their historical context.

Wed., June 12, 6:30 p.m.; CODE 1K0-485; Members $30; Nonmembers $35

The Luncheon on the Grass by Édouard Manet, 1863

World Art History Certificate elective: Earn 1 credit

Van Gogh and the Painters of the Petit Boulevard

Vincent van Gogh spent 1886 to 1888 in Paris, living with his brother Theo, an art dealer. Theo’s connections with the avant-garde art world gave van Gogh a quick and intensive contemporary art education as he was drawn into a social and artistic circle of like-minded painters that included Pissarro, Seurat, Signac, Gauguin, Laval, Bernard, Anquetin, and Toulouse-Lautrec.

He called the rising group the Painters of the Petit Boulevard to distinguish them from the established and successful Impressionists like Monet, Degas, and Renoir. Van Gogh’s time among these young artists was among the most influential in his brief life.

Art historian Bonita Billman explores the Parisian lives and careers of the Painters of the Petit Boulevard and their depictions of the celebrities and scenes of everyday Montmartre—the night life and low life of a bohemian world.

10 a.m. The Avant-Garde Art World of Paris

11:30 a.m. Vincent in Paris, 1886–1888

12:45 p.m. Break

1:15 p.m. Divisionists and Symbolists

2:45 p.m. Moulin Rouge: Toulouse-Lautrec and Colleagues

Sat., June 15, 10 a.m.–4 p.m.; CODE 1M2-328; Members $80; Nonmembers $90

Related program: The Mark of van Gogh, p. 48

The Goldfinch by Carel Fabritius, 1654

World Art History Certificate elective: Earn 1 credit

Art and Fiction

A picture is not only worth a thousand words: It can sometimes inspire a whole invented world. Independent art historian Heidi Applegate explores the art and artists behind three works of historical fiction: Rules of Civility by Amor Towles; The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt; and The Latecomer by Jean Hanff Korelitz.

Gain new perspectives on American art and photography of the 1930s; a previously little-known 17th-century Dutch painting; art-world theft and forgeries; collecting 20th-century paintings; and Outsider art by delving into the novels, followed by Applegate’s examination of the factual background along with the fiction. It’s a “novel” way to explore the arts.

3-session series: Wed., June 12, July 10, and Aug. 14, 12 p.m.; CODE 1H0-816; Members $60; Nonmembers $65

Give the Gif t of Color

Limited-edition prints from the Smithsonian Associates Art Collectors Program capture brilliant and memorable worlds of color—and make great gifts for all occasions. For details, visit ArtCollectorsProgram.org

*Member pricing applies to Promoter level and above For membership levels visit SmithsonianAssociates.org/levels

Haymaking, Éragny by Camille Pissarro, 1887 VAN

Blue Moonlight by April Gornik (detail) Retail: $1200 Members: $950*

World Art History Certificate elective: Earn ½ credit Mid-Century Design Series

California: A Paradise of Mid-Century Architecture

Since the late 1940s, California has been an epicenter for some of the most striking and innovative modern architecture in the world. World War II and its aftermath opened the state to tremendous population growth, drawing tens of thousands of people to its aircraft and shipbuilding industries and creating a housing boom in which demand far exceeded supply. The need for housing for workers and returning GIs resulted in some of the most iconic examples of Mid-Century Modern houses in the nation.

Bill Keene, a lecturer on architecture and urban studies, surveys this bold new landscape of housing design. He examines the experimental Case Study Houses of Los Angeles, which fostered the use of new materials and construction methods in residential architecture; the high-end Modernist homes of the Palm Springs desert; and how California Mid-Century Modern architecture evolved from an experiment of the wealthy to a mass-marketed style trend that reached a national scale.

Tues., June 18, 7 p.m.; CODE 1NV-088; Members $25; Nonmembers $30

World Art History Certificate elective: Earn ½ credit

Painting with Monet

At pivotal moments in his career, Claude Monet would go out with a fellow artist, plant his easel beside his friend’s, and paint the same scene. Examining paintings made side by side, Harmon Siegel, a junior fellow at Harvard University, shows how Monet explored challenging questions in concrete, practical ways while painting alongside his teachers, Eugène Boudin and Johan Barthold Jongkind; his friends Frédéric Bazille and PierreAuguste Renoir; and his hero, Édouard Manet. Siegel’s book, Painting with Monet (Princeton University Press), is available for purchase.

Mon., June 24, 7 p.m.; CODE 1CV-042; Members $25; Nonmembers $30

World Art History Certificate elective: Earn 1 credit Monet:

Impressions of an Artist

Monet. The name alone conjures up vivid images: water lilies in Giverny, haystacks in the French countryside, trains pulling into Gare Saint-Lazare in Paris, the façade of the Rouen cathedral. A pioneer of the Impressionist movement, Claude Monet created paintings capturing nature’s fleeting moments—and rendered the scenes unforgettable.

Monet first concentrated on landscapes and seascapes because of his fascination with how the changing atmospheric elements of light, clouds, sun, and wind transformed the scenes before him. Later at his home and garden in Giverny, he found a new setting in which to explore that inspiration of a lifetime. Art historian Joseph P. Cassar leads an in-depth look at one of the most influential and bestloved Impressionist painters.

JULY 10 The Early Years

JULY 17 The Birth of Impressionism

JULY 24 A Home in Giverny

JULY 31 The Water Lilies Installation 4-session series: Wed., July 10–31, 10:30 a.m.; CODE 1K0-486; Members $80; Nonmembers $90

Stahl House (Case Study House No. 22) in the Hollywood Hills, Los Angeles

Portrait of Claude Monet by Nadar

World Art History Certificate elective: Earn 1 credit

Close-Up on Rembrandt

Rembrandt van Rijn is widely considered one of the most impor tant and influential figures in Western art. Though best known for his psychologically revealing self-portraits, he is also an unrivaled master of light and shadow and expressive, luxuriant brushwor k, qualities that would be emulated by generations of later artists.

Art historian Aneta Georgievska-Shine explores the most distinctive aspects of Rembrandt’s artistic language through close looking and an analysis of some of his greatest masterpieces—from his public commissions such as The Night Watch to his representations of stories from classical history and the Old Testament, as well as in his most private of works.

10 a.m.

Rembrandt’s Formation and Breakthrough

11:15 a.m. Painting and Story-Telling

12:15 p.m. Break

12:45 p.m.

Rembrandt’s Loves: Portrayals of Women

2 p.m. The Self-Portrait as Diary

Fri., June 14, 10 a.m.–3 p.m.; CODE 1K0-477; Members $80; Nonmembers $90

World Art History Certificate elective: Earn ½ credit

Masterpieces and Mayhem

Caravaggio’s Artistic Revolution

The Beheading of Saint John by Caravaggio, 1608

Few artists have generated so much fascination and revolutionized the history of art as profoundly as Michelangelo Merisi, better known as Caravaggio (1571–1610). He was a hot-headed, anti-social outlaw and murderer who despite a short lifespan created a sensation with a bold naturalistic style—one that evoked intense drama and emotion through theatrical light and expressive, often violent gestures. He was both loved and reviled by his contemporaries for this new approach to realism. Author Ross King explores the life and times of this complicated man and puts his innovative paintings and notorious lifestyle into the context of Rome’s turbulent first decade of the 17th century, which witnessed a crisis in the Catholic Church as well as the rise of Galileo and his new science.

Wed., June 26, 6:30 p.m.; CODE 1H0-817; Members $20; Nonmembers $25

World Art History Certificate elective: Earn ½ credit

Art + History

John Trumbull’s The Surrender of Lord Cornwallis

Paul Glenshaw returns to the Art + History series to look at great works of art in their historical context. As he examines The Surrender of Lord Cornwallis painted by John Trumbull in 1820, he is joined by Revolutionary War scholar Iris de Rode, who discovered eyewitness accounts of one of the top French generals depicted in the painting. They unfold the story of the British surrender at Yorktown in 1781 and the fascinating process of the creation of the epic work by Trumbull.

Tues., July 9, 6:45 p.m.; CODE 1K0-488; Members $25; Nonmembers $30

The Night Watch by Rembrandt van Rijn

Surrender of Lord Cornwallis by John Trumbull

World Art History Certificate core course: Earn 1 credit

The Origins of Western Art

From the

Paleolithic

Through the Aegean Bronze Age

Our modern world echoes and sometimes replicates the creative vestiges of the past—and one key to understanding our surroundings is through an overview of ancient material culture. Focusing on the Mediterranean region, art historian Renee Gondek surveys the earliest traces of artistic production from the Paleolithic period through the late Bronze Age (roughly 1,500,000 B.C.E. through 1100 B.C.E.).

JULY 9 The Paleolithic and Neolithic Periods

JULY 16 The Ancient Near East

JULY 23 Ancient Egypt

JULY 30 The Aegean Bronze Age

4-session series: Tues., July 9–30, 12 p.m.; CODE 1T0-005; Members $100; Nonmembers $110

World Art History Certificate elective: Earn ½ credit Art

Deco

Commercializing the Avant-Garde

Prior to the 1960s, the bold, geometric, machine-focused style now called Art Deco was known by many names. Drawing from a recent exhibition at Poster House in New York City, the museum’s chief curator, Angelina Lippert, offers a lively chronicle of its rise and fall. Her overview begins at the 1925 Paris Exhibition, where avant-garde Modernist styles became a global influence, and concludes as Deco graphics became more nationalistic in the lead-up to World War II.

Thurs., July 11, 12 p.m.; CODE 1NV-092; Members $25; Nonmembers $30

World Art History Certificate elective: Earn ½ credit

German Expressionism and the Modernist Impulse

As the threat of World War I loomed over them in the opening decades of the 20th century, German artists became disillusioned with the culture around them and began to move away from art that was outward facing to one focused on their subjective feelings. Raw and uncompromising, their art reflected their Modernist interpretations of a tumultuous world.

David Gariff of the National Gallery of Art explores the vital role that German and Austrian Expressionism played in a period of volatile contradictions—providing a fertile ground for the emergence of the new visual languages of Max Beckmann, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Gustav Klimt, Oskar Kokoschka, Wassily Kandinsky, Franz Marc, Emil Nolde, and Egon Schiele.

Sun., July 14, 3 p.m.; CODE 1H0-823; Members $20; Nonmembers $25

Fresco of Primavera (or Flora), ca. 1st cent., Stabiae

Dance Hall Bellevue by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, 1909/1910

World Art History Certificate core course: Earn 1 credit

Versions of the Baroque

The age of the Baroque coincides with the 17th century, one of the most transformational periods in European history. Despite the many variants of this style, its most salient features include emphasis on sensual richness, drama, movement, emotional exuberance, and a tendency to blur distinctions between the various arts.

Girl with a Pearl Earring, 1665

These characteristics reflected important social and cultural developments sparked by forces including religion, government, global exploration, and science. Art historian Aneta Georgievska-Shine discusses the main currents of Baroque art in countries ranging from Italy and Spain to France and Holland.

10 a.m. Social and Cultural Context

11:15 a.m. The Growth of the Baroque in Italy

12:15 p.m. Break

12:45 p.m. The Baroque in France and Spain

2 p.m. The Baroque in the Low Countries

Fri., July 26, 10 a.m.–3 p.m.; CODE 1K0-495: Members $80; Nonmembers $90

World Art History Certificate core course: Earn 1 credit

Chinese Art: From the Bronze Age to the People’s Republic

With a dynamic history that spans the Neolithic period to the modern age, Chinese civilization has produced some of the world’s most remarkable artistic creations. Robert DeCaroli, a professor in the department of history and art history at George Mason University, examines how shifts in China’s social, religious, and political life have influenced transformations in its material culture.

AUG 1 Origins of Chinese Culture

AUG 8 Foundations of the Chinese Imperial System

AUG 15 China and the Outside World

AUG 22 From the Forbidden City to the People’s Republic

4-session series: Thurs., Aug. 1–22, 6:30 p.m.; CODE 1J0-380; Members $100; Nonmembers $110

World Art History Certificate elective: Earn ½ credit

The Provenance Trap

How Forgers Fool the Art World

“The world wishes to be deceived, so let it be deceived.” This motto attributed to the Roman satirist Petronius is as true now as it was in the 1st century. While today fake news steals the headlines, the history of art forgery is packed with stories of tricksters who, while more pranksters than gangsters, succeeded in fooling the art world and profiting while doing so.

Art historian Noah Charney uncovers the “provenance trap,” a methodology in five variables that have most often and most successfully led to forgers fooling experts. He dives into a series of intriguing, quirky, and enlightening case studies involving famous forgers Han van Meegeren, John Myatt, Eric Hebborn, Ely Sakhai, and Shaun Greenhalgh.

Tues., Aug. 6, 6:30 p.m.; CODE 1H0-826; Members $20; Nonmembers $25

A Tang Dynasty glazed pottery horse from the collection of the Shanghai Museum

World Art History Certificate elective: Earn ½ credit

Rodin and the Birth of Modern Sculpture

Auguste Rodin is considered the father of modern sculpture. Yet his works were deeply inspired by ancient classical and Renaissance art. Art historian Judy Scott Feldman explores how Rodin’s fascination, even obsession, with earlier figural traditions inspired his fusion of tradition and innovation in “The Kiss,” “The Gates of Hell,” and his powerful “Monument to Balzac.”

She examines why Rodin was absorbed by the Parthenon sculptures he saw at the British Museum; how his visit to Italy and his encounter with the sculptures of Michelangelo transformed his treatment of the male nude; and why he created a prolific output of fragments including hands, feet, and headless torsos.

Tues., Aug. 13, 6:45 p.m.; CODE 1L0-588; Members $25; Nonmembers $30

World Art History Certificate elective: Earn ½ credit

Marie Laurencin

Painter of Sapphic Paris

Beginning in the early 20th century, French artist Marie Laurencin (1883–1956) created a unique pictorial world that placed women at the center of modern art. With a highly original painting style, Laurencin moved seamlessly between the maledominated Cubist avant-garde, lesbian literary and artistic circles, and the realms of fashion, ballet, and decorative arts.

Barnes Foundation docent Joe Caliva discusses “Marie Laurencin: Sapphic Paris,” a recent exhibition at the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia. Caliva explores Laurencin’s career, including her self-portraits, early Cubist paintings, and signature work— feminine and discreetly queer—that helped define 1920s Paris.

Wed., Aug. 21, 6:30 p.m.; CODE 1CV-046; Members $25; Nonmembers $30

World Art History Certificate elective: Earn ½ credit

Jacob Lawrence and The Migration Series

Jacob Lawrence was one of America’s greatest painters of Black life and a key figure in the Harlem Renaissance. He was known for his series paintings, in which he documented important moments in global Black history through a sequence of painted panels.

Art historian LaNitra M. Berger examines one of Lawrence’s best-known projects, The Migration Series. Painted in 1941, the set of 60 captioned panels illustrates African Americans’ historic migration from the deep South to the North in the early 20th century. Berger discusses the historical context of Lawrence’s work and analyzes the paintings, providing an understanding of how the series contributes to our knowledge of African American history and culture.

Mon., Aug. 26, 6:30 p.m.; CODE 1H0-827; Members $20; Nonmembers $25

Read more about programs in this guide on our website. Search by code or date. Expanded program descriptions, presenters’ information, and more at SmithsonianAssociates.org.

“The Kiss” by Rodin, 1886 Musée Rodin, Paris

Panel 1, The Migration Series by Jacob Lawrence, 1941

Marie Laurencin in her atelier, 1932

World Art History Certificate elective: Earn ½ credit

Surrealism: From France to Latin America

While surrealism originated in Paris in the 1920s, it had enormous international impact. Michele Greet, the director of the art history program at George Mason University, follows the spread of surrealism to Latin America with a special focus on exhibitions such as the surrealist exhibition in Lima, Peru, in 1935 and the International Surrealist Exhibition held in Mexico City in 1940. The work of female artists in the movement, including Frida Kahlo, Leonora Carrington, and Remedios Varo, is also covered.

Wed., Sept. 4, 12 p.m.; CODE 1J0-386; Members $30; Nonmembers $35

World Art History Certificate elective: Earn ½ credit Palladio

and the Villa Culture of the Veneto

Renaissance architect Andrea Palladio is best known for his majestic villas scattered throughout the Veneto countryside. Ranging from working farms to country residences, these structures reflect the contemporary view that spending time away from the chaos of the city was a path to moral betterment and provided the opportunity to engage in intellectual pursuits surrounded by the beauty of a pastoral setting.

Art historian Sophia D’Addio explores the architecture and context of several of Palladio’s villas in connection with his influential writings on villa design in The Four Books of Architecture. She highlights the Villa Barbaro, Villa Emo, and the iconic Villa Almerico-Capra, known as the Villa Rotonda, and examines a selection of painted decorations that adorn them.

Tues., Sept. 10, 6:30 p.m.; CODE 1M2-336; Members $25; Nonmembers $30

Lesser-Known Museums of Florence

World Art History Certificate elective: Earn ½ credit

In this quarterly series, Renaissance art expert Rocky Ruggiero spotlights the significant collections of Florence’s sometimes-overlooked museums.

Museum of the Convent of San Marco

The convent of San Marco, transformed into a museum in the 19th century, houses one of Florence’s most spectacular collections of sacred art. Decorated with frescoes painted by Fra Angelico and once home to the fiery preacher Girolamo Savonarola, the building is steeped in art, history, and culture and offers a sense of religious life in 15th-century Florence. Ruggiero delves into the art and history of the museum, where Dominican friars have lived for nearly 600 years.

Wed., Aug. 28, 6:30 p.m.; CODE 1J0-385; Members $30; Nonmembers $35

Saint Dominic Adoring the Crucifixion, fresco by Fra Angelico

Villa Godi, one of the first works by Palladio

La huida (detail) by Remedios Varo, 1961, Museo de Arte Moderno

World Art History Certificate elective: Earn ½ credit Audubon

Redrawn

A New Look at the Artist and The Birds of America

John James Audubon—naturalist, artist, and creator of The Birds of America—is widely regarded as America’s first great watercolorist, but his artistic journey has never been examined. Art historian

Roberta J. M. Olson, author of Audubon as Artist: A New Look at The Birds of America, explores how Audubon studied both past and concurrent artists to forge innovative works of fine art. Olson delves into the contemporary controversies surrounding this legendary figure, who, for the first time in history, accurately represented all avian species life-size.

Wed., Sept. 18, 12 p.m.; CODE 1J0-392; Members $20; Nonmembers $25

World Art History Certificate elective: Earn ½ credit Camille

Pissarro: Faithful Impressionist

The Danish-French Impressionist and Post-Impressionist painter Camille Pissarro was an odd man out among the Impressionist fold. He was Jewish, a native of St. Thomas, and older than his fellow artists Monet, Renoir, and Sisley, though he remained faithful to their avant-garde style. Despite their differences and politics—the Dreyfus Affair split the colleagues—Pissarro was the only artist to exhibit in all eight French Impressionist group exhibitions held between 1874 and 1886. Art historian Bonita Billman examines Pissarro’s landscapes and genre subjects and his range of materials and forms including charcoal drawings, watercolors, etchings, and oil paintings.

Thurs., Sept. 19, 12 p.m.; CODE 1M2-340; Members $25; Nonmembers $30

We open the doors of the Smithsonian’s vast knowledge resources to people of all ages.

Please help us in presenting vibrant educational programs by making a charitable contribution today. Your gift is essential because, unlike the museums, Smithsonian Associates is not federally funded and relies entirely on donations and membership support to bridge the gap between program expenses and registration revenue.

IN PERSON

DRAWING n n n n

Drawing Treasures

In-person classes are taught by professional artists and teachers. View detailed class descriptions and supply lists at SmithsonianAssociates.org/studio. View portfolios of work by our instructors at SmithsonianAssociates.org/art instructors.

Intermediate Oil Painting

Sculptures in the National Gallery of Art

By Renee Sandell

Stretch your creative muscles and deepen your observational skills at the National Gallery of Art. Create a drawn-treasure map as you visually explore time, space, and place in the museum’s West Wing sculpture galleries.

IN PERSON: Sat., July 13, 10 a.m.; Renee Sandell; National Gallery of Art West Building, Ground Floor; CODE 1E0-0KB; Members $110; Nonmembers $125

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Painting the Draped Figure

SOLD OUT

Learn the foundational skills needed to create a naturalistic painting from a draped (clothed) live model. The class covers basic proportion, simplified form and light, and color mixing from a limited palette.

By Mark Giaimo

IN PERSON: Sat., July 13–Aug. 17, 10:30 a.m; Mark Giaimo; Ripley Center; CODE 1E0-0KJ; Members $255; Nonmembers $290

Meet our Instructors

View portfolios of work by our instructors at SmithsonianAssociates.org/art instructors

In-person Classes are taught by professional artists and teachers.

Expand on your technical background and grow your practice as an oil painter. This class provides students with the opportunity to work on personal projects, set up a still-life arrangement, and explore figure painting from a live model. Unfurl your style with support and feedback from the instructor.

By Shahin Talishkhan

IN PERSON: Sun., Aug. 4–Sept. 15, 10:15 a.m.; Shahin Talishkhan; Ripley Center; CODE 1E0-0KL; Members $245; Nonmembers $280

Beginning Oil Painting

In this course, gain the technical background and experience you need to get started as a painter. Lectures, demonstrations, and experimentation introduce the medium of oils. Working from museum masterpieces, still-life arrangements, or your favorite photos, explore basic techniques, including colormixing, scumbling, and glazing.

IN PERSON: Sun., Aug. 4-Sept. 15, 2:30 p.m.; Shahin Talishkhan; Ripley Center; CODE 1E0-0KQ; Members $245; Nonmembers $280

World Art History Certificate elective: Earn ½ credit En Plein Air Painting in a Smithsonian Garden

By Sandra Gobar

Post-Impressionism

Inspired by Cézanne

Using watercolors, capture the nuances of the natural light in the beautiful Enid A. Haupt Garden next to the Smithsonian Castle. Study the delicate subtleties of the plants and learn to translate your observations into stunning PostImpressionistic studies and paintings.

IN PERSON: Sun., Aug. 18 and 25, 11 a.m.; Sandra Gobar; Ripley Center; CODE 1E0-0HZ; Members $115; Nonmembers $140

IN PERSON

Paper Frenzy

Investigate new techniques as you have fun creating papers for collage and other art projects. Take home a glorious collection of one-of-a-kind papers accented by acrylic, inks, stamps, and other printmaking materials.

By Sharon Robinson

IN PERSON: Sat., July 13–Aug. 3, 1 p.m.; Sharon Robinson; Ripley Center; CODE 1E0-0KD; Members $165; Nonmembers $190

Dissecting Design with Abstract Collage

Learn to understand design and composition in nonobjective mixed-media art. Examine works by various artists to discern the elements of composition, how they were used, and how they are expressed in different styles. Then apply what you learn to your practice.

By Sharon Robinson

IN PERSON: Sat., Aug. 17–Sept. 14, 1 p.m.; Sharon Robinson; Ripley Center; CODE 1E0-0HP; Members $165; Nonmembers $200

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Embroidered Patch Workshop

Use basic stitches to create an embroidered rainbow watermelon patch to embellish a favorite jacket or pair of jeans. Learn how to prepare fabric with a simple design, then ready a hoop and begin stitching.

By Heather Kerley

IN PERSON: Sat., Aug. 17, 11 a.m.; Heather Kerley; Ripley Center; CODE 1E0-0LD; Members $55; Nonmembers $70

Freestyle Embroidery Basics

In this introduction to freestyle hand embroidery, a style in which the stitches are applied freely, students learn how to select and prepare fabric using a simple design, ready their hoop, and begin stitching.

TWO IN-PERSON OPTIONS: Sat., July 20, 11 a.m. (CODE 1E00KC); Sat., Sept. 7, 11 a.m. (CODE 1E0-0HG); Heather Kerley; Ripley Center; Members $55; Nonmembers $70

NEW CLASS

Painting with Wool

By Heather Kerley

Use your knowledge of the principles of art and design as you create compositions, blend colors, and form shadows to evoke realistic or abstract painted images with felt. Play with the possibilities of felt to create 3D and relief effects.

By Renate Maile-Moskowitz

IN PERSON: Sat., Sept. 7 and Sun., Sept. 8, 10:30 a.m.; Renate Maile-Moskowitz; Ripley Center; CODE 1E0-0EU; Members $185; Nonmembers $210

IN PERSON

Knitting Day Camp

Help with Projects

The knitting doctor is in: Bring a project that you want help starting, one that you are stuck on, or something you would like advice on. Draw on the instructor’s expertise and fellow students’ ideas to brainstorm solutions and suggestions.

IN PERSON: Sat., Aug. 24, 10:30 a.m.; Ann Richards; Ripley Center; CODE 1E0-0HS; Members $60; Nonmembers $75

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By Andargé Asfaw

On-Location

Photography at Washington

National Cathedral

In the first session, visit and photograph Washington National Cathedral—with architectural features ranging from gargoyles to stunning stained glass windows. Then in the second session, which is online, learn composition techniques and strategies during the follow-up critique.

IN PERSON: Wed., July 17 and 24, 10 a.m., Andargé Asfaw; Washington National Cathedral; CODE 1E0-0LC; Members $115; Nonmembers $140

Mosaic Express

Create a 2D, contemporary mixed-media mosaic artwork while you learn the basics of mosaics, experience working with a variety of materials, and enjoy the company of others in the studio. Everything you need to create a small home décor artwork is provided.

By Bonnie Fitzgerald

IN PERSON: Sat., Aug. 17, 10:30 a.m.; Bonnie Fitzgerald; Ripley Center; CODE 1E00HQ; Members $105; Nonmembers $120

On-Location Photography

Learn to capture this vibrant capital city and sharpen your way of thinking about shooting outdoors in a course that focuses on deploying a minimal amount of equipment and a lot of fresh perspective. Emphasis is placed on what happens before the shutter release is pressed and on truly previsualizing the photograph.

IN PERSON: Sun., July 14–Aug. 18, 1:45 p.m.; Joe Yablonsky; Ripley Center; CODE 1E0-0KM; Members $195; Nonmembers $230

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By Joe Yablonsky

NEW CLASS

NEW CLASS

NEW CLASS

Unless noted, all programs are presented on Zoom; listed times are Eastern Time. Online registration is required.

ONLINE

Online classes are taught by professional artists and teachers. View detailed class descriptions and supply lists at SmithsonianAssociates.org/studio. View portfolios of work by our instructors at SmithsonianAssociates.org/art instructors.

ART THEORY AND PRACTICE

Developing Your Creative Practice

Drop the burden of creating a finished product and focus instead on developing your ideas. Begin to deal with procrastination, creative blocks, flow, problem solving, and finishing within the support of a stress-free environment and build confidence alongside other students on the same journey.

By Kate Lewis

The Sketchbook Habit

The Art of Everyday Life

ONLINE: Mon., July 15, July 29, and Aug. 12, 10:30 a.m., Kate Lewis; CODE 1E0-0JT; Members $215; Nonmembers $240

By Sue Fierston

In this once-a-month class on the essentials of starting a sketchbook habit, practice “close looking” exercises as you fill your sketchbook with meditative contour drawings, watercolor sketches of the natural world, and quick but evocative images from your travels.

ONLINE: Sat., July 20, Aug. 17, and Sept. 14, 10 a.m.; Sue Fierston; CODE 1E0-0JZ; Members $170; Nonmembers $195

By Sushmita Mazumdar

Artful Mind, Tranquil Mind

Artists throughout the world have developed practices that allow them to center themselves and prepare for making art. Students explore some of these techniques: mark making with lines, swirls, and puddles and using paper to experiment with folding and tearing.

ONLINE: Mon., July 22–Aug. 26, 12 p.m.; Sushmita Mazumdar; CODE 1E0-0JU; Members $105; Nonmembers $140

By Renee Sandell

Visual Journaling: Creativity Workout

In an afternoon of artistic experimentation designed to strengthen creative muscles and deepen skills in visual expression, explore five modes of visual thinking: working from memory, observation, imagination, narrative, and experimental approaches.

ONLINE: Sat., July 27, 1 p.m.; Renee Sandell; CODE 1E0-0JY; Members $80; Nonmembers $95

World Art History Certificate elective: Earn ½ credit Composition

This workshop examines fundamental concepts of composition and their practical application in studio-art practice, offering participants tools to enrich their work as well as to analyze and appreciate visual art in general.

ONLINE: Mon., Aug. 5–19, 6:30 p.m.; Shahin Talishkhan; CODE 1E0-0KF; Members $125; Nonmembers $150

DRAWING n n n n

Digital Drawing Fundamentals

Learn to use the iPad, Apple Pencil, and Procreate for illustration and animation. With this deceptively minimal toolset, artists can create a wide range of visuals. Students get an introductory lecture on the basics of digital art production, demonstrations, and experience drawing in Procreate on an iPad.

By Mike O’Brien

ONLINE: Sat., July 20, 1 p.m.; Mike O’Brien; CODE 1E0-0KA; Members $55; Nonmembers $70

Moroccan Café by Matisse, 1913

Beginning Drawing

This course teaches the basic skills needed for a strong foundation for drawing. Working with a variety of materials and techniques, including charcoal and pencils, students explore the rendering of geometric forms, volume, and perspective, with an emphasis on personal gesture marks.

ONLINE: Sun., July 14–Aug. 25, 10:15 a.m.; Josh Highter; CODE 1E0-0KH; Members $250; Nonmembers $285

World Art History Certificate elective: Earn ½ credit

Drawing Light and How the Masters Did It

Learn the strategies Rembrandt, Daumier, and Cézanne used to harness light in their images. Participants investigate how these masters manipulated light to unify, intensify, and give dimension to their images. Inclass exercises focus on using graphite to draw studies of masterworks.

By Nick Cruz Velleman

ONLINE: Tues., Aug. 6–Sept. 10, 1 p.m.; Nick Cruz Velleman; CODE 1E0-0JA; Members $210; Nonmembers $245

Exploring Alcohol Inks

By Sharon Robinson

Take a dive into the possibilities of alcohol inks as a component of your mixed-media arsenal. With intense, saturated color, alcohol inks offer many possibilities on a variety of surfaces, from tiles to paper.

ONLINE: Wed., Aug. 7–28, 6:30 p.m.; Sharon Robinson; CODE 1E0-0JP; Members $150; Nonmembers $175

By Lori VanKirk Schue

Oil Pastels for Beginners

Oil pastels behave like chalk pastels but possess characteristics similar to those of wax crayons. While producing a painterly effect, oil pastels can be applied with a limited degree of layering. Students learn proper application and blending techniques.

ONLINE: Thurs., Aug. 8 and 15, 1 p.m.; Lori VanKirk Schue; CODE 1E0-0HW; Members $95; Nonmembers $120

World Art History Certificate elective: Earn ½ credit

The Mark of van Gogh

This introduction to Vincent van Gogh’s accomplishments in drawing pays particular attention to his unique and instantly recognizable touch. Participants investigate how his imaginative mark making forms his images. In-class exercises revolve around drawing studies of his masterworks.

By Nick Cruz Velleman

ONLINE: Thurs., Aug. 8–22, 1 p.m.; Nick Cruz Velleman; CODE 1E0-0HV; Members $135; Nonmembers $160

By Eric Westbrook

Portrait Drawing

Capturing the likeness of an individual is a time-honored, essential tradition in art. In this class, students are introduced to the basic steps of how to create a convincing portrait using charcoal or graphite.

ONLINE: Wed., Aug. 14-Sept. 4, 7 p.m.; Eric Westbrook; CODE 1E0-0JM; Members $195; Nonmembers $220

Read more about programs in this guide on our website. Search by code or date. Expanded program descriptions, presenters’ information, and more at SmithsonianAssociates.org.

Children’s Book Illustration

Creating illustrations for a children’s book is fun once you know the basics. Find out how to start; fit illustrations to the storyline; choose mediums that are most successful; transform reality into whimsy; and listen to an author to gain insight into the vision for the story and its characters.

ONLINE: Thurs., Aug. 22 and 29, 1 p.m.; Lori VanKirk Schue; CODE 1E0-0HU; Members $105; Nonmembers $130

PAINTING n n n n

Watercolor Workshop: Quick-Sketch for a Day

By Lori VanKirk Schue

Textures and Techniques in Watercolor

Take your paintings to the next level with simple secrets that every watercolor artist should know about creating washes and contrasting textured areas. Techniques demonstrated in the class are particularly useful for painting captivating landscapes.

SOLD OUT

ONLINE: Tues., July 9–Aug. 27, 5 p.m., Lubna Zahid; CODE 1E00KU; Members $275; Nonmembers $310

By Lubna Zahid

Spend the day learning to capture your travels with flowing lines and painterly colors. Discover how to simplify a scene and to compose and draw more organically and confidently. This technique is perfect for studies, travel journals, and finished fine art.

By Cindy Briggs

TWO ONLINE OPTIONS: Sat., June 1 (CODE 1E0-0GA); Sat., June 8 (CODE 1E0-0HD); 10:15 a.m.; Cindy Briggs; Members $160; Nonmembers $185

Introduction to Watercolor

Beginning students as well as experienced painters explore watercolor techniques and learn new approaches to painting through demonstration, discussion, and experimentation.

ONLINE: Mon., July 8–Aug. 19, 6:30 p.m.; Josh Highter; CODE 1E0-0JX; Members $250; Nonmembers $285

By Josh Highter

By Lubna Zahid

The Magic of Light and Shadow in Watercolor

Say goodbye to flat and boring painting as you learn to create patterns of light and dark in watercolor through demonstrations and hands-on exercises. You also learn how to create a strong focal point, unity, and balance within your paintings.

SOLD OUT

ONLINE: Tues., July 9–Aug. 27, 10:30 a.m., Lubna Zahid; CODE 1E0-0KT; Members $275; Nonmembers $310

Introduction to Afghan Geometric Design

For centuries, religious and secular Islamic manuscripts have contained beautiful geometric decorations. Explore the history and construction of these traditional designs before creating ones of your own with opaque watercolors and gold, outlined in black ink.

By Sughra Hussainy

ONLINE: Sun., July 14–Aug. 18, 1 p.m., Sughra Hussainy; CODE 1E0-0KK; Members $235; Nonmembers $270

Seasonal Quick-Sketch for a Day

Discover how to quickly capture the beauty of any season with loose lines and painterly colors using a quick-sketch watercolors method. Learn how to see like an artist, compose a scene, and draw more organically as you build your confidence.

By Cindy Briggs

ONLINE: Sat., Aug. 3, 10 a.m.; Cindy Briggs; CODE 1E00HR; Members $160; Nonmembers $185

World Art History Certificate elective: Earn ½ credit Drawing Light

How the Masters Did It in Color

Using watercolor, learn the strategies Delacroix, Turner, Monet, and Cézanne employed to manipulate the viewer’s experience of light in their images. In-class exercises focus on making studies of masterworks to create similar luminous effects.

By Nick Cruz Velleman

ONLINE: Wed., Aug. 7–Sept. 11, 1 p.m. Nick Cruz Velleman; CODE 1E0-0JQ; Members $210; Nonmembers $245

World Art History Certificate elective: Earn ½ credit

By Nick Cruz Velleman

Sketching

Turner Expressing Atmosphere and Skies in Watercolor

This course is an introduction to J.M.W. Turner’s vast achievements in watercolor, with particular attention to his manner of expressing light and atmosphere. In-class exercises revolve around making studies of his masterworks with an emphasis on creating cohesive sketches, not replicas.

ONLINE: Thurs., Aug. 29–Sept. 12, 1 p.m.; Nick Cruz Velleman; CODE 1E0-0HY; Members $115; Nonmembers $140

MIXED MEDIA n n n n

Collage Jumpstart

By Sharon Robinson

Newsprint Collage

Discover a variety of approaches to creating mixed-media collages and learn techniques for creating interesting, personalized papers for art applications. Find out how to capitalize on everyday materials; learn to use household tools and utensils to make stencils and create patterns and textures on papers.

ONLINE: Mon., July 8–29, 6:30 p.m., Sharon Robinson; CODE 1E0-0JW; Members $140; Nonmembers $165

Making art can be a wonderful way to escape from everyday life. It can also be a useful tool to understand current events. Working with newspapers, magazines, and mixed-media techniques, create a visual representation of the news.

By Kate Lewis

ONLINE: Tues., July 9–23, 10:30 a.m., Kate Lewis; CODE 1E0-0KS; Members $175; Nonmembers $200

By Marcie Wolf-Hubbard

Collage and Mixed Media

Students are introduced to the materials, tools, and technologies used in collage and assemblage. They explore the use of text, images, texture, and natural and found objects as they create collage, mixed-media, or assemblage projects.

ONLINE: Wed., July 10–31, 1:30 p.m.; Marcie WolfHubbard; CODE 1E0-0KY; Members $130; Nonmembers $155

By Marcie Wolf-Hubbard

Collage and Mixed Media: People and Places

Explore the possibilities of collage, realistic abstraction, and altered images as you create works centered around people and places. Experiment with a range of materials and techniques to create your own story, including exploring real or imagined landscapes, architecture, portraits, and self-portraits.

ONLINE: Wed., July 10–31, 6:30 p.m., Marcie Wolf-Hubbard; CODE 1E0-0KZ; Members $130; Nonmembers $155

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Color Theory for Embroidery Artists

Find your sense of color confidence while learning to apply color to embroidery art as would a painter using pigments and a palette. Learn the vocabulary of color theory through exercises and embroidery hoop experiments.

ONLINE: Thurs., July 11–25, 12 p.m.; Heather Kerley; CODE 1E0-0KN; Members $85; Nonmembers $110 By Heather Kerley

Confidence with Color in Quilting

Create spectacular color combinations in your quilts as you build your color theory vocabulary and learn how to beautifully incorporate many types of printed fabric through exercises presented in this class for quilters ready to level up.

By Lauren Kingsland

ONLINE: Wed., July 17–31, 1 p.m., Lauren Kingsland; CODE 1E0-0KX; Members $115; Nonmembers $140

Related tour: A Pattern of History, p. 58

NEW CLASSES

Craft a Quilted Coat

By Lauren Kingsland

Choose to upcycle a vintage quilt or make your own fabric selection, then follow a basic pattern to have your custom quilted coat done just in time for fall.

ONLINE: Mon., July 8–29, 1 p.m., Lauren Kingsland; CODE 1E0-0JV; Members $155; Nonmembers $180

Slow Stitch Fabric Journal

Let your creativity flow as you slow stitch a fabric journal composed of your favorite embroidery stitches, embellishments, and fabric scraps. Build a repertoire of embroidery stitches combined with other textile-based elements to produce a finished, bound fabric book.

By Heather Kerley

ONLINE: Wed., Aug. 14–Sept. 4, 12 p.m.; Heather Kerley; CODE 1E0-0KW; Members $135; Nonmembers $160

By Lauren Kingsland

Hand Quiltmaking for the Non-perfectionist

This class is for those who feel utterly untalented at sewing yet want to make a quilt. Journey from not knowing to bold experiments, finding your sense of quiltmaking confidence as you learn strategies for piecing, appliqué, quilting, and finishing.

ONLINE: Wed., Aug. 14–28, 1 p.m.; Lauren Kingsland; CODE 1E0-0JN; Members $125; Nonmembers $150

Repeating Patterns in Crocheted and Tatted Lace

Explore basic techniques of lace crochet and tatting while learning about the historical context of lace and its creation. Look at ways to incorporate your modern lace into garments or fiber art.

By Lauren Kingsland

ONLINE: Tues., Aug. 27–Sept. 10, 12 p.m.; Lauren Kingsland; CODE 1E0-0JB; Members $125; Nonmembers $150

Weave a Houndstooth Scarf

By Tea Okropiridze

Jump on your loom and learn how to weave a houndstooth scarf just in time for the fall season. Experiment with techniques and explore color options to construct your custom woven piece.

ONLINE: Wed., Sept. 11 and Thurs., Sept. 12, 10 a.m.; Tea Okropiridze; CODE 1E00HK; Members $135; Nonmembers $160

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Alternative Pens for Mark Making and Calligraphy

Have fun experimenting with creating writing instruments from common household objects and items foraged from nature. This workshop is geared toward people who want to push their creativity to the next level in their painting, mark making, creation of textures, and calligraphy.

By Sharmila Karamchandani

ONLINE: Wed., Aug. 28–Sept. 11, 6 p.m.; Sharmila Karamchandani; CODE 1E0-0LH; Members $115; Nonmembers $140

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OTHER MEDIA

Orchids in the Summer

Just in time for summer, learn how to safely move and care for your orchids outside in the hotter months.

ONLINE: Sat., June 1, 11 a.m.; Barb Schmidt; CODE 1E0-0FS; Members $50; Nonmembers $75

Orchids Gone Wild

In their native environments, most common orchids grow on trees. This class teaches you how to free your orchid from the confines of its pot and mount it on a piece of wood.

ONLINE: Wed., July 17, 6:30 p.m.; Barb Schmidt; CODE 1E0-0CX; Members $65; Nonmembers $70

Orchids for Beginners

Join an orchid care expert to learn how orchids grow in their native environments and how to keep them blooming in your home. You also learn how to repot a Phalaenopsis orchid, one of the easiest orchids to raise indoors.

ONLINE: Tues., Aug. 13, 6:30 p.m.; Barb Schmidt; CODE 1E0-0JK; Members $45; Nonmembers $60

Single-Sheet Books

Learn four simple techniques to transform a single sheet of paper into a unique book. In each class, make two variations of each type of book: one shaped like a house, a maze book, an amulet book, and an accordion matchbox book.

ONLINE: Tues., Aug. 6–27, 1 p.m.; Sushmita Mazumdar; CODE 1E00JL; Members $140; Nonmembers $175

By Sushmita Mazumdar

Lady Ackland's cattleya (Cattleya aclandiae)

Phalaenopsis schilleriana

NEW CLASSES

By Mïa Vollkommer

Multi-strand Necklaces Workshop

Bring your beaded creations to the next level with multi-strand clasps, cones, and spacers to create multistrand designs with strung beads and decorative finishing.

ONLINE: Sun., July 14, 12 p.m., Mïa Vollkommer; CODE 1E0-0KE; Members $75; Nonmembers $90

Butane Micro Torch 101 for Jewelers

Add new techniques to your wire-working toolbox with the use of a butane micro torch. Topics covered include torch setup and safety for your home studio, as well as melting and fusing to create distinctive findings and a simple chain with fine silver wire.

ONLINE: Thurs., Aug. 15 and 22, 6 p.m.; Mïa Vollkommer; CODE 1E0-0HX; Members $130; Nonmembers $155

By Mïa Vollkommer

Bead Weaving Spiral Rope

With this off-loom technique, create a colorful, flexible tube from seed beads of various sizes. The hollow tube can be used to make a necklace or bracelet. Finishing techniques, including clasp ideas, are demonstrated in class.

By Mïa Vollkommer

ONLINE: Thurs., Sept. 5 and 12, 6 p.m.; Mïa Vollkommer; CODE 1E00HL; Members $130; Nonmembers $155

By Bonnie Fitzgerald

Mosaics for Beginners

Build a solid creative and technical foundation for working with mosaics via weekly lectures, demonstrations, and work-along periods. Select from eight patterns designed by the instructor, with the option to work in either glass tiles or unglazed porcelain.

ONLINE: Tues., July 23–Aug. 13, 6:30 p.m., Bonnie Fitzgerald; CODE 1E0-0KR; Members $165; Nonmembers $190

PHOTOGRAPHY n n n n

Digital Photography: Beyond the Basics

Take your digital photography up a notch by honing your use of exposure and composition to frame the information in the camera lens and create your most expressive and meaningful photographs.

ONLINE: Sat., June 1 and 8, 10 a.m.; Eliot Cohen; CODE 1E00GY; Members $280; Nonmembers $305 By

Natural Lighting Conditions

Light can make or break your photos. Learn the essentials of shooting in a natural-light setting and how to gauge the direction of light; recognize degree of diffusion; minimize (or emphasize) lens flare; and control conditions with lens hoods.

ONLINE: Thurs., July 11, 6:30 p.m., Joe Yablonsky; CODE 1E0-0KP; Members $55; Nonmembers $70

Read more about programs in this guide on our website. Search by code or date. Expanded program descriptions, presenters’ information, and more at SmithsonianAssociates.org.

Eliot Cohen

By Lewis Katz

Fundamentals of Digital Printing

How many times do your digital prints not reflect the image on your monitor? Learn why this occurs as well as the information you need to accurately execute a digital print. Topics include monitor calibration, photographic papers, and aspect ratio.

ONLINE: Sat., July 13–27, 10 a.m.; Lewis Katz; CODE 1E0-0GW; Members $115; Nonmembers $140

Smartphone Photography

Learn how to take good images with your smartphone. By understanding a few principles of what makes a good image, you can use your phone’s camera to create stunning photographs.

ONLINE: Sat., Sept. 7 and 14, 11 a.m.; Sharmila Karamchandani; CODE 1E0-0LG; Members $80; Nonmembers $105

Slow Shutter Speed Photography

Slow things down as you learn to capture movement and low-light scenes with longer shutter speeds. Topics covered include panning, zoom effect, intentional camera movement, tripods, drive modes, neutral density filters, and the camera settings required to take slow shutter speed photos in bright light, low light, and twilight and at night.

ONLINE: Wed., Aug. 7 and 14, 6:30 p.m.; Joe Yablonsky; CODE 1E0-0JR; Members $90; Nonmembers $110

Taking Better Photos

Learn to develop your photographic vision and take better photos more consistently. Foster a deliberate approach to composition, balance, and lighting conditions and discover how to keep it simple.

By Joe Yablonsky

ONLINE: Wed., Aug. 21–Sept. 4, 6:30 p.m.; Joe Yablonsky; CODE 1E0-0JS; Members $125; Nonmembers $150

Photographing Industrial Items

By Joe Yablonsky

Learn the camera controls, composition, and lighting considerations to achieve artful images of items such as brickwork, apartment or office buzzers, call boxes, and vintage signage. Working knowledge of your camera is required, along with willingness to see the mundane as magnificent.

ONLINE: Thurs., Sept. 5 and 12, 6:30 p.m.; Joe Yablonsky; CODE 1E0-0HM; Members $90; Nonmembers $115

World Art History Certificate elective: Earn ½ credit

The Cyanotype: Hands-On History of Photography

Delve into the history of cyanotypes, a photographic printing process that produces a cyan-blue and white print, and create your own cyanotype in this unique studio arts class.

ONLINE: Sat., Sept. 7 and 14, 12 p.m.; Patricia Howard; CODE 1E0-0HJ; Members $80; Nonmembers $105

By Patricia Howard

By Sharmila Karamchandani

Smithsonian Associates expert-led Study Tours offer one-of-a-kind in-person experiences. They’re the perfect way to learn more about the places and topics that fascinate you, and you’re sure to discover plenty of new favorites along the way.

The Battle of Cedar Creek and Its Aftermath

Snatching Victory from the Jaws of Defeat

Among all the battles fought in the Shenandoah Valley, none achieved more significant results and had wider consequences than the Battle of Cedar Creek on Oct. 19, 1864. What began disastrously for Union forces in the morning, as Confederate Maj. Gen. Jubal A. Early’s Army of the Valley launched a surprise attack, transformed during the afternoon into arguably one of the Union’s most remarkable triumphs.

Militarily, the battle finally wrested the Shenandoah Valley, a vital source of provender for Confederate troops in Virginia and an avenue of invasion into the North, from Confederate control. Politically, the victory achieved by Union Maj. Gen. Philip H. Sheridan’s Army of the Shenandoah tremendously aided President Abraham Lincoln’s bid for reelection in November 1864.

Additionally, Union success at Cedar Creek defined Sheridan’s legacy and elevated him to the pantheon of great American generals. In the decades after the Civil War, the Cedar Creek battlefield attracted both Union and Confederate veterans as they attempted to shape how this critical moment in the Republic’s history would be remembered.

History professor Jonathan A. Noyalas leads a daylong tour exploring the complexities of the battle, its impact on the soldiers who fought there and their families, its significance in the Civil War’s broader context, the battle’s aftermath, and veterans’ efforts to shape the battlefield’s commemorative landscape. The tour includes a visit to Belle Grove Plantation, a National Trust Historic Site. Lunch at the historic Wayside Inn is included.

Sat., June 1, 8 a.m.–6:15 p.m.; by bus; detailed tour information on website; CODE 1CD-035; Members $165; Nonmembers $215

Please visit SmithsonianAssociates.org to view the FAQ on Health & Safety guidelines for in-person programs

Bus Tour

Going Green in DC

The Washington, D.C., area is becoming a greener urban environment. Bill Keene, a lecturer in urban studies, architecture, and history, spotlights innovative approaches to the environment and sustainability that have taken root—sometimes literally—in many types of buildings around town.

Begin the day in the Navy Yard neighborhood at the rooftop garden of the office building at 55 M St., SE. Staff from Up Top Acres, which installed and maintains the garden, discuss upkeep, what is grown, and the garden’s community impact. The garden includes an area for annual vegetables, another for flowers, and one for native plants and perennials—plus resident pollinators at the onsite beehive. Last year, 243 pounds of produce were grown there.

At the Oxon Run community solar farm—the largest community solar project in the District—explore how the facility is helping to provide free electricity to hundreds of households in the surrounding community. Development of the site also included the restoration of native pollinator plantings, meadows, and native plant and shrub landscaping.

University of the District of Columbia’s East Capitol Urban Farm

In the afternoon, visit the University of the District of Columbia (UDC), where a team presents an overview of the green roof movement and its environmental benefits, then offers a look at UDC’s urban agriculture farm, part of the university’s Urban Food Hubs initiative.

The day concludes at the Sidwell Friends School, which has been recognized by the U.S. Green Building Council for its efforts. Get a look at the campus’s middle school building, which features not only a green roof but a constructed wetland and other environmentally friendly features.

Fri., June 14, 8:45 a.m.–5 p.m.; by bus; detailed tour information on website; CODE 1CD-036; Members $130; Nonmembers $180

Bus Tour

Belle Grove Plantation

Historic Wilmington

With a cruise on the tall ship Kalmar Nyckel

Travel back to 1638 in Wilmington, Delaware, with a daylong immersive exploration led by transportation expert Scott Hercik. In that year, Swedish and Finnish settlers arrived on the ships Kalmar Nyckel and Fogel Grip, landing on the Christina River at the site of present-day Wilmington. Eventually they signed a treaty with the Lenni Lenape Indigenous people and built Fort Christina, creating the first permanent European settlement in the Delaware Valley.

The first stop upon arriving in Wilmington is the Copeland Maritime Center and Museum for a private guided tour exploring why the Swedes and Finns settled in the Delaware Valley. After a boxed lunch at the museum, visit the Old Swedes Historic Site, which includes a former church and a repurposed historic home. Old Swedes Church is one of the very few surviving remnants of the New Sweden Colony in the Delaware Valley and one of the oldest structures in Delaware. The Hendrickson House, a furnished 18th-century Swedish-American farmhouse, serves as museum, office, and research space.

Stop at Fort Christina Park, the Swedes’ 1638 landing site, before a leisurely afternoon sailing on the Kalmar Nyckel—a full-scale replica of the original ship—where you have the opportunity to haul lines, set sails, and learn the history of the ship from its crew.

Sat., June 22, 7:45 a.m.–6:30 p.m.; by bus; detailed tour information on website; CODE 1CD-037; Members $225; Nonmembers $275

East of the River

Architecture of Historic Anacostia

The rolling hills east of the Anacostia River, with a commanding view of Washington, D.C., have been settled for centuries. From the trading grounds of the Indigenous Nacotchtank to a whites-only suburb known as Uniontown to a predominantly Black community, Anacostia has seen dramatic change. The neighborhood has served as a home for abolitionist Frederick Douglass, part of the escape route for assassin John Wilkes Booth, protest grounds for World War I veterans, and a modern testament to the resilience of Washington’s Black community.

2-Day Tour

Join Carolyn Muraskin, founder of DC Design Tours, for a look at the architecture of Anacostia, which encapsulates the area’s many identities. Highlights include Old Market House Square, built in 1913 and a centerpiece of the Anacostia Historic District; Rose’s Row; the 19½-foot-tall Big Chair; the historic home known as Big Green; and the Frederick Douglass National Historic Site.

Thurs., June 20, 4-6 p.m.; detailed tour information on the website; CODE 1CW-B20; Members $45; Nonmembers $55

Summer at the Theater

The Contemporary American Theater Festival

One of the top theater festivals in the world, the Contemporary American Theater Festival in Shepherdstown, West Virginia, helps shape the future of American theater. Each summer since 1991, the festival has produced bold new plays that spotlight daring and diverse stories. Washington, D.C., area theater aficionado Lynn O’Connell leads a visit to the festival.

Over the course of two days, attend the premieres of three plays. In addition to the performances, enjoy “talktheater” sessions that offer an opportunity to meet with actors, artistic directors, staff, and special guests for lectures, discussions, and staged readings, all focused on issues and themes in the plays.

Fri., July 12, 8:15 a.m.–Sat., July 13, 7 p.m.; by bus; detailed tour information on website; CODE 1CN-CTF; Members $725; Nonmembers $965

Related program: Broadway’s Beginnings, p. 21

Bus Tour

Kalmar Nyckel

Walking Tour

Homes at 13th and W Sts., SE, in the Anacostia Historic District

The Marinoff Theater, site of the Contemporary American Theater Festival

World Art History Certificate elective: Earn ½ credit

Armor of the Samurai

At the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts

Travel to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond with historian Justin M. Jacobs for an awe-inspiring look at Japan’s exquisitely crafted samurai armor from one of the largest and finest collections in the world. The assembled works from the collection of Ann and Gabriel Barbier-Mueller offer a glimpse of samurai history with a focus on the flourishing culture of the Edo period.

The samurai, whose name means “those who serve,” rose to prominence as masterful swordsmen, archers, and equestrians beginning in the 12th century.

During the Edo period (1615–1868), they continued to dominate political, social, and cultural aspects of Japan until their fall in the late 19th century.

The exhibition of more than 140 objects features full suits of armor and an array of weapons, helmets, masks, horse accessories, woodblock prints, and textiles. A guided tour of the exhibition is the centerpiece of a day that includes time to enjoy the museum’s extensive holdings, including a dazzling Fabergé collection.

Sun., July 14, 7:45 a.m.–7 p.m.; by bus; detailed tour information on website; CODE 1CD-038; Members $200; Nonmembers $250

World Art History Certificate elective: Earn 1 credit

An Artful Weekend in Philadelphia

The Philadelphia Museum of Art, Barnes Foundation, and Rodin Museum

The art of Impressionist-era creators is in the spotlight during a 2-day visit to three of Philadelphia’s outstanding collections led by art historian Ursula Rehn Wolfman

Begin with a guided tour of the Philadelphia Museum of Art exhibition “Mary Cassatt at Work,” devoted to the works of the celebrated Pennsylvania-born Impressionist, who challenged the conventional expectations of Philadelphia’s elite. This is the first major showing of the artist’s oeuvre since 1998–99 and presents new findings about the materials she used and her processes, which were advanced for her era. The exhibition displays over 130 works that follow Cassatt’s evolving practice and demonstrate her interest in artmaking.

Works by Renoir, Cezanne, Seurat, Monet, Manet, and Degas are among the treasures in the Barnes museum’s collection of French Impressionist and Post-Impressionist art. The exhibition “Matisse & Renoir: New Encounters at the Barnes” places masterpieces from the same period near each other and traces the development of the work of these two artists. Enjoy a private guided tour of the galleries before the museum opens to the public and then time on your own before lunch in the museum’s Garden Pavilion.

Focus on the art and legacy of one of France’s most influential sculptors during a visit to the Rodin Museum. Showcased in an elegant Beaux-Arts style building, the collection of nearly 150 bronze, marble, and plaster sculptures represents every phase of Auguste Rodin’s career. It is one of the most comprehensive public collections of Rodin’s work outside Paris.

Sat., Aug. 10, 7 a.m.–Sun., Aug. 11, 8 p.m., by bus; detailed tour information on website; CODE 1CN-PAO; Members $650; Nonmembers $865

2-Day Tour

In the Loge, ca. 1879, by Mary Cassatt

Installation at the Rodin Museum

Bus Tour

Sōmen (full-face mask), Edo period, 1710

Nimaitachidō Tōsei Gusoku armor, Muromachi period, ca. 1400

North to Freedom: Harriet Tubman’s Eastern Shore

Born into slavery in Dorchester County, Maryland, around 1822, young Araminta Ross faced adversity from an early age. These hardships transformed “Minty” into Harriet Tubman, the most famous conductor of the Underground Railroad, and her childhood knowledge of the geography of the Eastern Shore played a key role in her success in ferrying more than 70 people to freedom by 1860.

Historian Anthony Cohen uncovers the saga of Tubman’s life by exploring significant sites in the region where she was raised—and that shaped her dreams of freedom and equality. He chronicles Tubman’s life and the journey she and others took on their perilous journey north to freedom. Visit the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad State Park and Visitor Center; Bucktown Village Store, where a violent encounter altered young Tubman’s life; and the Harriet Tubman Museum and Educational Center. Stops at sites along the Underground Railroad provide insights into Tubman’s life and achievements.

Sat., July 20, 8 a.m.–6:15 p.m.; by bus; detailed tour information on website; CODE 1CD-039; Members $185; Nonmembers $235

Read more about programs in this guide on our website. Search by code or date. Expanded program descriptions, presenters’ information, and more at SmithsonianAssociates.org.

Please visit SmithsonianAssociates.org to view the FAQ on Health & Safety guidelines for in-person programs

A Pattern of History

What Quilts Reveal

Quilting is a tradition that has transcended the limits of culture and eras, likely making its way to North America with early immigrants. As styles and techniques changed, the common thread in the creation of quilts remained their makers: women. Led by Alden O’Brien, textile and costumes curator at the Daughters of the American Revolution Museum, explore the role quilting has played in our society, including how it has expressed emotion and acted as a force of social justice.

Begin the day at the DAR museum in Washington, D.C., where O’Brien gives a tour of the exhibition “Sewn in America: Making—Meaning—Memory,” which features quilts, clothing, and needlework from 1750 to today. The exhibition looks at the role sewing played in the lives of American women and the ways they expressed emotions, identity, and opinions through their quilts and other textiles. Visit a selection of the museum’s period rooms, some of which include quilts and sewing tools, in self-guided tours.

Continue to the Virginia Quilt Museum in Harrisonburg to go behind the scenes in the conservation lab for an up-close view of a selection of quilts from the archives. Guided tours highlight three special exhibitions, including “Sacred Threads,” which explores themes of joy, inspiration, spirituality, healing, grief, and peace through quiltwork.

Round out the day at the Frontier Culture Museum in Staunton, Virginia. The living history museum recreates farm life in the regions that had been home to the immigrants most responsible for creating the folk culture of Virginia and traces rural life in the New World. Houses and farmyards represent life in England, Germany, Ireland, and West Africa in the 17th and 18th centuries, and Native American and European farms replicate the 1760s, 1820s, and 1860s. The farms provide a sense of some of the contexts in which women were quilting, sewing, knitting, spinning, and weaving.

Fri., July 26, 8:30 a.m.–8 p.m.; by bus; detailed tour information on website; CODE 1CD-040; Members $175; Nonmembers $225

Related Studio Arts class: Confidence with Color in Quilting, p. 51

Bus Tour

Silk embroidery on silk needlework with watercolor and spangles by Eliza Camp, 1810

Stewart's Canal in Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Historic Park

Bus Tour

A Natural History of the Mid-Atlantic

Stories of Calvert County, Maryland

The geography and environment of the Mid-Atlantic were shaped over hundreds of millions of years, reflecting influences that include the impact of a massive meteor; four tectonic mountainbuilding events; ice sheets and tropical oceans; plants and animals; and at least 15,000 years of human habitation. Environmental historian Hayden Mathews interprets the many layers of the region’s natural history as he leads a tour to three sites in Calvert County, Maryland: Battle Creek Cypress Swamp, Calvert Marine Museum, and Flag Ponds Nature Park.

Explore the rich history of the region as you hear Mathews’ tales of colliding continents, changing climate, species new and old, and fascinating people. Smell sea salt and the scent of pine trees and see towering bald cypresses, a rare albino snapping turtle, and the bones of ancient whales, camels, and mastodons.

On the return journey, enjoy a stop at the Annmarie Sculpture Gardens & Arts Center in Solomons, a Smithsonian Affiliate. Stroll along a walking path that weaves through the woods, a serene setting for the large collection of outdoor sculpture.

Sat., Aug. 17, 8:15 a.m.–7 p.m.; by bus; detailed tour information on website; CODE 1CD-041; Members $153; Nonmembers $205

Sunrise Walks at Meadowlark

Botanical Gardens

Rise early and enjoy a delightful summer walk at Virginia’s Meadowlark Botanical Gardens. The 95-acre setting features thousands of ornamental and native plants in numerous collections; lakes and adjacent forests that attract a variety of birds; a restored log cabin that embodies the colorful history of the garden; and a unique Korean bell pavilion, the only structure of its type in an American public garden. American Horticultural Society international travel guide Keith Tomlinson leads a hilly 3-mile walk on paved and mulched trails.

TWO OPTIONS: Sat., Aug. 10 (CODE 1NW-A02); Fri., Aug. 16 (CODE 1NW-B02); 6:30–8:30 a.m.; detailed tour information on website; Members $50; Nonmembers $75

On American Soil

The 1814 British Invasion of the Chesapeake

When the vanguard of a powerful British fleet entered the Virginia Capes on the morning of Feb. 4, 1813, the last thing likely on the minds of farmers in the fertile Patuxent River valley of Maryland a hundred miles to the north was war. However, within months, the Chesapeake Bay had become a veritable British lake and the Maryland countryside a land of danger and destruction. By the summer of 1814, the capital of the United States was the destination point of the first major attack on American soil in history.

Follow the invasion and retreat routes of the British Army in the War of 1812 as it successfully attacked the nation’s capital, resulting in the 1814 burning of the Capitol, Washington Navy Yard, and the White House, seeing relevant sites along the way. Hear the story of Dr. William Beanes and his incidental connection to Francis Scott Key. Walk the grounds of pivotal conflicts, including the historic land-sea Battle of St. Leonard Creek.

During the afternoon, a visit to the Calvert Marine Museum explores an exhibit on the Chesapeake Flotilla. Continue to trace the route of the British Army through Maryland farmlands to the Battle of Bladensburg and learn how a divided nation of “states united” emerged from the War of 1812 to truly become the United States of America. Maritime historian Donald Grady Shomette leads the tour.

Sat., Aug. 24, 8 a.m.–6:45 p.m.; by bus; detailed tour information on website; CODE 1CD-042; Members $175; Nonmembers $225

Bus Tour

Nature Walk

Bus Tour

Charles Ball, an enslaved African American, was a seaman in the Chesapeake Flotilla

Lakeside gazebo on Lake Caroline at Meadowlark Botanical Gardens

Drum Point Lighthouse at The Calvert Marine Museum

World Art History Certificate elective: Earn 1 credit

2-Day Tour

Exploring Frank Lloyd Wright Fallingwater, Kentuck Knob, and Polymath Park

One of America’s most innovative architects, Frank Lloyd Wright experimented with new ways to design homes and integrate them into nature. Fallingwater, Kentuck Knob, and the houses at Polymath Park offer prime examples of his organic architecture. Visit all three locations on an overnight tour to the scenic Laurel Highlands of Pennsylvania with tour leader Bill Keene, a writer and lecturer on architecture, urban history, and city planning.

Fallingwater, perhaps the architect’s best-known structure, was designed in 1936 as a mountain retreat for the Kaufmann family of Pittsburgh. Cantilevered over a waterfall, the home is one of the most dramatic and frequently photographed works of architecture. It is also the only major Wright house with its setting, original furnishings, and artworks intact.

Constructed of Tidewater red cypress and native fieldstone, the house on Kentuck Knob almost appears to be part of the mountain on which it is built. It was designed by Wright in 1953 for the I.N. Hagan family and now houses furnishings and art of the current owners, Lord Peter and Lady Hayat Palumbo.

At historic Polymath Park near Fallingwater, view two houses designed for everyday living in the 1950s: the Usonian-style Duncan House and the Mäntylä House, both of which were relocated here.

Sun., Sept. 29, 7:15 a.m.–Mon., Sept. 30, 5:30 p.m.; by bus; detailed tour information on website; CODE 1CN-FKP; Members $555; Nonmembers $740

Please visit SmithsonianAssociates.org to view the FAQ on Health & Safety guidelines for in-person programs

World Art History Certificate elective: Earn 1 credit

5-Day Tour

The Hamptons for Art Lovers

New York’s fabled Hamptons—where privet hedges hide grand estates and Modernist homes overlook the Atlantic surf—are more than an elite summer resort. The stark natural beauty of Long Island’s South Fork has inspired painters from William Merritt Chase and Childe Hassam to Willem de Kooning, Jackson Pollock, and Lee Krasner.

In a tour led by arts journalist Richard Selden, participants encounter works by these artists and others at the Parrish Art Museum in the Southampton hamlet of Water Mill and at Guild Hall in the Village of East Hampton. The group also visits the former home and studio of Krasner and Pollock in the Town of East Hampton and the dune-bordered fishing village of Montauk at the island’s easternmost point.

Traveling from Washington, spend time in Brooklyn and visit Prospect Park—a favorite subject of Chase—and the Brooklyn Museum, coinciding with the opening of several galleries in its American Art wing after reinstallations. From the Hamptons, ferry across Long Island Sound for an afternoon in the charming village of Mystic, Connecticut. After a night in New Haven at a hotel designed by Marcel Breuer, the Yale University Art Gallery provides the tour’s concluding art experience on the return trip.

Sat., Oct. 5, 8 a.m.–Wed., Oct. 9, 7:30 p.m.; by bus; detailed tour information on website; CODE 1NN-HAM; Members $2,130; Nonmembers $2,840

The Big Bayberry Bush by William Merritt Chase

Fallingwater

2-Day Tour

Staunton, Shakespeare, and Steam

Fall in the Shenandoah Valley

Nestled in the heart of scenic Shenandoah Valley, Staunton, Virginia, is alive with history, culture—and a little steam. Join Washington, D.C., area guide Lynn O’Connell for a weekend getaway that offers a sampling of Staunton’s best sights plus a train excursion.

Upon arriving in Staunton, visit Blackfriars Playhouse, the world’s only replica of Shakespeare’s indoor theater, where the magic of the bard’s works comes alive. Delve into the world of theater with a backstage tour, during which guides share secrets and anecdotes and offer insights into the playhouse’s inner workings. After lunch, embark on a delightful journey of mischief, pranks, and folly with a performance of The Merry Wives of Windsor

Following the performance, hit the streets for a leisurely walking tour of Staunton led by local guides. A three-course dinner at Mill Street Grill follows.

On Sunday, board the Virginia Scenic Railway for a 3-hour train journey, bound for the George Washington and Jefferson National Forests. Wind through rural landscapes, passing by working farms with cattle, horses, and sheep. Picture-worthy views of the Allegheny Mountains unfold as you venture west. The train turns around in the hamlet of Goshen in Rockbridge County. The day concludes back in Staunton with a guided tour through the Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library and Museum, offering insights into the legacy of the 28th president.

Sat., Oct. 19, 7:30 a.m.–Sun., Oct. 20, 7:30 p.m.; by bus; detailed tour information on website; CODE 1CN-SSO; Members $715; Nonmembers $955

Outdoor Adventures in Shenandoah National Park: Big Meadows

Virginia’s fabled Skyline Drive weaves through the length of Shenandoah National Park, one of the region’s top draws for hikers. In a two-day active getaway designed for outdoor lovers, meet up with fellow participants and explore the Blue Ridge trails at the height of their fall beauty. Naturalist and study leader Keith Tomlinson leads two moderate-level hikes in the park and presents an engaging evening program that offers insights into the area’s history, geography, geology, wildlife, and forest environment.

Accommodations are at Big Meadows Lodge on Skyline Drive, which offers panoramic views of the mountain landscapes. Built in 1939 with stones hewn from Massanutten Mountain and native wormy chestnut, the lodge is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Participants stay in preferred rooms, a short walk from the main lodge building.

Sun,. Oct. 20, 11 a.m.–Mon., Oct. 21, 4 p.m.; detailed tour information on website; CODE 1NN-SNP; Members $525; Nonmembers $700.

NOTE: Participants meet on site with independent travel to and from Shenandoah National Park.

Sign up for this tour by Sept. 6 and receive a complimentary registration for the online Geology of Shenandoah program on Sept. 9. (see page 32)

The American Shakespeare Center's Blackfriars Playhouse in Staunton, Virginia

Main Street in Staunton

Hiking Tour

Big Meadows Lodge

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Program Planner (New listings in red); (In-person programs•)

Courses, Performances, and Lectures—Multi-Session

Sat., June 1

Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra • .......................................19

Thurs., June 6–27

African Art Through the Centuries 34 Mon., June 10–24

Lunchtime with a Curator: Decorative Arts Design Series 35

Wed., June 12, July 10, and Aug. 14

Art and Fiction 36

Tues., July 9–23

Write Into Art: Creative Writing Inspired by Visual Art 34

Tues., July 9–30

Western Art: Paleolithic Through the Aegean Bronze Age ............39

Wed., July 10–31

Monet: Impressions of an Artist

Wed., July 24 and 31 The Magnificence of Mozart’s Concertos

Thurs., Aug. 1–22

Chinese Art: From the Bronze Age to the People’s Republic

Mon., Aug. 19, Sept. 16, and Oct. 21

Feasting with Royalty: Cleopatra, Alexander, and Caesar

Thurs., Sept. 5

Musical

Program Planner (New listings in red); (In-person programs•)

Mon, July 29 The Battle of Remagen ................................................3

Krakow: Off the Beaten Path ..................................10

Tues., July 30 The Wars of the Roses .................................................5

Wed., July 31

Thurs., Aug. 1

Mon., Aug. 5

Thomas Jefferson and Leadership .........................10

Otterly Amazing ...........................................................31

Denmark’s Defiance During WWII .............................7

Kathy Reichs • ..............................................................25

Tues., Aug. 6 Hidden History of America’s First Ladies ..............11

Dancing in the Dark ..................................................25

The Provenance Trap .................................................40

Wed., Aug. 7 Unique Memorials of Washington ...........................11

The Borgias: A Scandalous Family Portrait ..........12

Burt Bacharach, Dionne Warwick, & Hal David .......26

Extreme Cat-itude .......................................................31

Thurs., Aug. 8 The Spice Race ............................................................12

The California Gold Rush ...........................................12

The Presidio of San Francisco .................................12

Mon., Aug. 12 Grant’s Overland Campaign ......................................13

Tues., Aug. 13 The Maya of Yucatan ..................................................13

Rodin and the Birth of Modern Sculpture ............41

Wed., Aug. 14 The Rise and Fall of Agrippina ................................13

Thurs., Aug. 15 Daily Life in Tudor London ..........................................9

In the Footsteps of St. Paul ......................................13

Tues., Aug. 20 The Mysterious Mrs. Nixon ........................................11

How Museums Got Their Treasures ......................14

Zhang Yimou and Gong Li ........................................26

Wed., Aug. 21 Railroads and the National Parks ............................14

Marie Laurencin: Painter of Sapphic Paris ...........41

Thurs., Aug. 22 Emperor Justinian .......................................................14 Alexander Hamilton ....................................................14

Fri., Aug. 23 Summer Wine Adventures: Mediterranean ..........18

Mon., Aug. 26 Understanding Cephalopod Behavior ....................31

Jacob Lawrence and The Migration Series ..........41

Tues., Aug. 27 The Dead Sea Scrolls ...................................................9

Wed., Aug. 28 Medical Practices of the Civil War .........................15 Museum of the Convent of San Marco .................42

Wed., Sept. 4 Surrealism: From France to Latin America .........42

Fri., Sept. 6 Underwater Volcanoes ...............................................31

Sat., Sept. 7 David Copperfield to Demon Copperhead ...........27

Mon., Sept. 9 The Geology of Shenandoah National Park .........32

Tues., Sept. 10 Palladio and Villa Culture..........................................42

Wed., Sept. 11 The Troubles .................................................................15

Thurs., Sept. 12 How We Healed the Earth ........................................32

Fri., Sept. 13 Social Networks of Animal Societies .....................32

Mon., Sept. 16 Making the Presidency: John Adams .....................10

Tues., Sept. 17 Lafayette ........................................................................16 How Spielberg and Lucas Changed the Movies ......27

Wed., Sept. 18 Audubon Redrawn ......................................................43

Thurs., Sept. 19 The Quest for Cosmic Life .......................................32 Camille Pissarro: Faithful Impressionist ..............43

Fri., Sept. 20 Summer Wine Adventures: Virginia ........................18

Sat., Sept. 21 Ancient Israel ...............................................................16

Mon., Sept. 23 Amsterdam in the 17th Century ..............................15

Tues., Sept. 24 The Shakers ..................................................................16

Thurs., Sept. 26 The Women of the Wars of the Roses .....................6

July 12

Sun., July 14 Armor of the Samurai

Sat., July 20 North to Freedom

Aug. 24 The 1814 British Invasion of the Chesapeake

Sept. 29 Frank Lloyd Wright: Fallingwater

Oct. 5 The Hamptons for Art Lovers

Sat., Oct. 19 Staunton, Shakespeare, and Steam 61 Sun., Oct. 20 Shenandoah National Park: Big Meadows 61

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