All upcoming Daytime programs

Discover how visual art can inspire creative writing and how writing can offer a powerful way to experience art. Join Mary Hall Surface, the founding instructor of the National Gallery of Art’s popular Writing Salon, for a course of three online workshops that explore essential elements of writing and styles through close looking, word-sketching, and imaginative response to prompts. The sessions spotlight a diverse range of visual art chosen to inspire writers of all experience levels to deepen their process and practice. This writing session is inspired by A Sunburst Restrained by María Berrío.

Found in every region of the globe, embroidery is one of the world’s most widely shared forms of creative expression—and one of the most varied. Gillian Vogelsang-Eastwood, director of the Textile Research Centre in Leiden, the Netherlands, and author of The Atlas of World Embroidery: A Global Exploration of Heritage and Styles, guides audiences through this rich tapestry, exploring the materials, tools, designs, and symbolic meanings of embroidery, as well as the communities and individual makers who sustain these traditions. (World Art History Certificate elective, 1/2 credit)

Between 350 and 750, western Europe underwent a profound transformation. The Roman empire, which had dominated the ancient world for more than half a millennium, collapsed. The last Western Roman emperor was deposed in 476, while new peoples competed with the Roman population and with each other. In a 4-part series, historian David Gwynn traces the entangled stories of the Goths, Huns, Franks, and Anglo-Saxons, who interacted in different ways with the Roman empire and its legacy and together shaped the history of Christian Europe and Western civilization. This session focuses on the Huns.

For more than 70 years, the adventures of James Bond have thrilled readers and left them wondering if any of his escapades are actually possible. Kathryn Harkup, a former chemist, investigates 007’s exploits and the weapons, technologies, and tactics of his foes. During the process, she assesses the practicalities of building a volcano-based lair and whether being covered in gold paint really would kill you.

Discover how visual art can inspire creative writing and how writing can offer a powerful way to experience art. Join Mary Hall Surface, the founding instructor of the National Gallery of Art’s popular Writing Salon, for a course of three online workshops that explore essential elements of writing and styles through close looking, word-sketching, and imaginative response to prompts. The sessions spotlight a diverse range of visual art chosen to inspire writers of all experience levels to deepen their process and practice. This writing session is inspired by The Green Door by Lois Mailou Jones.

Claude Monet created his enchanting Water Lilies series with the intention to provide an “asylum of peaceful meditation.” However, the calm and beauty of these luminous works belie the personal loss, turmoil, frustration, and anguish Monet endured in the last 15 years of his life. Author Ross King explores how, despite these travails, Monet turned to his art once again—and continued until his death in 1926. (World Art History Certificate elective, 1/2 credit)

Between 350 and 750, western Europe underwent a profound transformation. The Roman empire, which had dominated the ancient world for more than half a millennium, collapsed. The last Western Roman emperor was deposed in 476, while new peoples competed with the Roman population and with each other. In a 4-part series, historian David Gwynn traces the entangled stories of the Goths, Huns, Franks, and Anglo-Saxons, who interacted in different ways with the Roman empire and its legacy and together shaped the history of Christian Europe and Western civilization. This session focuses on the Franks.

The Renaissance is often linked to antiquity’s rediscovery, but art historian Liz Lev argues its roots lay in mendicant orders emphasizing the Gospel’s human elements. St. Francis of Assisi, founder of the Franciscans, embodied holiness that “went viral,” inspiring Giotto and Dante to reform art, highlighting the human condition with its quirks and heroic journeys. By weaving The Divine Comedy with frescoes in Assisi and Padua’s Scrovegni Chapel, Lev contends Renaissance art’s most compelling features arose from new spirituality rather than pagan revival. (World Art History Certificate elective, 1/2 credit)

Between 350 and 750, western Europe underwent a profound transformation. The Roman empire, which had dominated the ancient world for more than half a millennium, collapsed. The last Western Roman emperor was deposed in 476, while new peoples competed with the Roman population and with each other. In a 4-part series, historian David Gwynn traces the entangled stories of the Goths, Huns, Franks, and Anglo-Saxons, who interacted in different ways with the Roman empire and its legacy and together shaped the history of Christian Europe and Western civilization. This session focuses on the Anglo-Saxons.

From the classical villas of ancient Rome to the landscaped estates of the Renaissance, artists and patrons have long sought to bring sculpture into dialogue with nature. Art historian Jennie Hirsh traces the history and vision behind three of the world’s most inspiring contemporary sculpture gardens: Storm King Art Center in upstate New York, Glenstone Museum in Potomac, Maryland, and Château La Coste near Aix-en-Provence. These sites reveal how artists and architects continue to redefine the possibilities of sculpture, scale, and place, offering a compelling perspective on the interplay between art and landscape. (World Art History Certificate elective, 1/2 credit)