Complementing the exhibit "Women Artists from Antwerp to Amsterdam, 1600–1750" at the National Museum of Women in the Arts, a lecture by art historian Aneta Georgievska-Shine highlights Dutch and Flemish women’s contributions to 17th- and early 18th-century art. From renowned painters to lesser-known printmakers and sculptors, women shaped the artistic culture of the Low Countries. Despite social constraints, many built successful careers, proving their creative worth in a male-dominated world. (World Art History Certificate elective, 1/2 credit)

John Brown, a devout Christian and fierce abolitionist, rose to prominence during “Bleeding Kansas,” fighting to keep the state free of slavery. His 1859 raid on Harpers Ferry and subsequent execution made him an international symbol of the anti-slavery movement. Though best known for Kansas and Harpers Ferry, some scholars argue that the complicated Brown helped ignite the Civil War. Historian and author Stephen Engle, author of the upcoming Reckoning with Justice: The Execution of John Brown, explores Brown’s transformation from zealot to revolutionary.

Drawing on one of the greatest Post-Impressionist and early modern art collections in the world, Barnes Foundation educator Penny Hansen guides a five-part series of online tours that examine the paintings of artists who helped shape a revolutionary period in the history of art. High-definition Deep Zoom technology provides close-up views of their canvases. This session highlights Paul Cézanne.

Learn to love the linocut, a relief printmaking process. Go through each step and come away with a beautiful edition of prints.

During the first several centuries of the first millennium, the Syrian desert oasis of Palmyra was a crucial link in an overland trade network that stretched from Rome to India. The profits of this trade were invested in stunning monuments and works of art that fused Western and Eastern sensibilities. Historian Justin M. Jacobs explores the history of UNESCO World Heritage Site Palmyra, its monuments and sculptures, and its fate during the Syrian civil war.

The Greek comic poet Menander, who lived in the 4th century B.C.E., is not exactly a household name, but he greatly influenced what people see when they go to the movies or watch TV shows. Starting in the 320s B.C.E., Menander wrote new types of plays that featured romance and familial relationships rather than politics, the usual theme. Classics professor Mitch Brown illustrates how, through his successors, Menander helped shape theater in the Renaissance—ultimately becoming responsible for domestic and relationship-focused plays, movies, and sitcoms that are still popular today.

The 49th season of the Smithsonian Chamber Music Society features musical masterpieces from the early 17th century to the middle of the 20th, played on some of the world’s most highly prized musical instruments in an 8-concert series. This concert features music of Haydn and Brahms with the Smithsonian Academy Orchestra.

Scholars contend that the Haitian Revolution remains the only successful large-scale revolt in which enslaved people won their freedom, overthrew the existing colonial government, and established an independent state. Historian Alexander Mikaberidze traces the rebellion from its beginnings during the French Revolution to its culmination in 1804, which reshaped ideas about race, freedom, and sovereignty across the Atlantic world.