Smithsonian Associates - Educating and Entertaining Audiences for More Than 50 Years

Although New York City’s first Gay Pride parade in June 1971 was a key marker in the progress of LGBT+ organizing, a lesser-known pivotal moment took place in Washington, D.C., 20 years later. Nikki Lane of American University examines how the city’s home-grown Black Pride event grew into a national and international model for celebrations of community, inclusion, and diversity.

This class introduces students to the principles of relief sculpture, which is a bridge between two-dimensional and three-dimensional art forms.

For generations, Palestinian women have gathered with their daughters to work collectively on embroidery projects, bonding with one another over a cup of tea. Guided by Wafa Ghnaim, who began her training in embroidery with her mother at age 2, learn the basic Palestinian cross-stitch and how to create a tatreez sampler, using Aida cloth fabric. Motif Focus: Road of Stars, Yaffa Region.

Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that concerns itself with what is fundamental or basic to reality. Prepare for a whirlwind tour of historical and contemporary controversies in search of the nature of the ultimate reality led by philosophy scholar Michael Gorman.

Art historian Nancy G. Heller focuses on a quartet of Spain’s most significant painters—unearthing their sources, analyzing their principal works, discussing the critical receptions of their pictures, and demonstrating their influences on later generations of visual artists, both within and beyond the borders of Spain. (World Art History Certificate elective, 1 credit)

It takes a village! In this workshop, students construct their own tiny houses, which they personalize working in paper-mache, acrylics, and mixed media.

His role as Union Army quartermaster general is well known, but Montgomery Meigs was also an engineer, architect, inventor, and patron of the arts who left an indelible impression on the face of the capital city. Historian Bill Keene offers a virtual tour of sites in the Washington area associated with Meigs in his role of engineer and architect.