This month's digest offers an itinerary that visits Renaissance Florence, Benjamin Franklin's early America, and a Smithsonian research facility on Chesapeake Bay. Closer to home, sail into new studio arts classes that add more color to your fall.
As always, this lively monthly offering is designed to make sure you continue to enjoy what you've come to value from Smithsonian Associates: programs and experiences that are entertaining, informative, eclectic, and insightful.
Elaine Ruffolo's Florence-and Beyond
Elaine Ruffolo
Elaine Ruffolo, who surveys Italy's artistic and architectural heritage during her Art-full Fridays series, has cultivated a devoted audience. Here's an opportunity to meet the Florence-based art historian while she's visiting Washington, D.C., on Thursday, August 14, for a program that focuses on the place she calls home.
She reveals Florence as a city in which narrow alleys lead to graceful piazzas where the massive scale of churches and civic buildings-and the splendid art works they house-reflect the wealth once generated by the city's thriving economy. The cradle of the Renaissance, Florence is replete with frescoes, paintings, sculpture, and architecture created in an era in which art was the cornerstone of cultural activity.
Join Ruffolo in person at the Ripley Center or online as she traces the art and history of this jewel of a city, from the dawn of the Renaissance to the era of the Medici dukes.
During the fall, Ruffolo spotlights other historic cities in Art-full Friday programs that examine the illustrious princely court of Urbino (September 19) and Assisi, long a destination for pilgrims wanting to see the places connected to the life of Saint Francis (October 3)
Benjamin Franklin: America's Original Inventor
Benjamin Franklin Drawing Electricity from the Sky by Benjamin West, 1816
Guided by the theme "Our Shared Future: 250," the Smithsonian is in the process of developing programming and events that celebrate the signing of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. Among them will be offerings that spotlight innovation-as reflected in both the nation and, appropriately, the Smithsonian's own past and present.
Benjamin Franklin, the celebrity genius of the Age of Invention, embodies American ingenuity at its finest. In a program on Monday, October 6, historian Caroline Winterer leads a survey of Franklin's most remarkable creations and groundbreaking ideas-from harnessing electricity and inventing bifocals to revolutionizing the postal system and crafting a musical instrument-the glass harmonica-that inspired Mozart and Beethoven. And, of course, his greatest invention: himself.
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A Bountiful Harvest of Studio Art Programs
By Scott Rawlins
Whether you want to tap into your creative side for the first time or expand your existing skills, there's no better way to do it than with a Smithsonian Associates Studio Arts program. And in the July issue of Smithsonian Associate, you'll find 92 offerings that begin this fall to choose from. They cover just about every area you can imagine, from drawing to fiber arts, mixed media to painting, and calligraphy to photography. Some are online, some are in person.
Among all those programs, 31 are brand-new. They include Still Life Charcoal Drawing, Wonder of Watercolor, Landscapes in Collage and Mixed Media, Constructing Quilts from Vintage Textiles, and Upcycled Aluminum Holiday Ornament. In addition, for the first time at the Smithsonian you can join practicing artists for lectures on a variety of studio arts topics, ranging from how to choose paper for different types of projects to watercolor supplies to what you need to begin painting in oil. These sessions are designed for beginning artists, those ready for the next level in their artistic journey, and the art curious.
Find Your Inspiration Here
Saluting SERC at 60
SERC's Woodlawn History Center (Photo: Stephen Voss)
Smithsonian Associates isn't the only division in the Institution marking a 60th anniversary this year. The Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC) is marking a history that encompasses a bequest, a defunct dairy farm, and an institutional secretary with a vision that provided the foundation of what is now one of the nation's leading centers of its kind.
In 1962, a southern Maryland dairy farmer named Robert Lee Forrest bequeathed his 368-acre dairy farm and other holdings on the Rhode River in southern Anne Arundel County to the Smithsonian Institution. Initial discussions entertained the idea of selling the property to add to the Smithsonian's endowment. But the incoming secretary, S. Dillon Ripley, persuaded the Institution to consider holding onto it and exploring the property's potential. It became apparent that the farm and surrounding area provided a wide variety of habitats for terrestrial, wetland, and estuarine field biology and ecology. The center was officially established in 1965 as the Chesapeake Bay Center for Field Biology.
The center's size, range of research, staff-and name-evolved across the decades. Today SERC encompasses 2,654 acres of land. Its staff of roughly 150 scientists and educators have worked on all seven continents. They study issues on the land and in the sea, from invasive species in the Galápagos and mangrove forests in Central America to restoring oysters in the Chesapeake and San Francisco Bays. SERC continues its mission to watch over the planet's coasts, so they can continue to sustain the billions of people who rely on them. The latest report from the center celebrates 60 years of groundbreaking science.
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