While we may be opening our own front doors less frequently, this issue offers a few we hope you'll step through. We're ready to usher you into the worlds of art, fashion, space exploration, cooking, and of course, the Smithsonian.
It's all 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.
Bring the Smithsonian Home
Here's a site that deserves to be bookmarked among your favorites: Smithsonian Cares. This collection of digital resources is as wide-ranging as the institution itself and compiles learning opportunities for all ages, webinars and events, podcasts, online exhibitions—and plenty more. One particularly intriguing feature is a series of video snapshots in which directors, curators, scientists, animal keepers, and other members of the Smithsonian community provide insights into their work. Want to know what goes into creating a frame for a Whistler painting, how the National Zoo's gorillas and orangutans are trained to participate in their own health care, or what secrets are hidden in the mother ship model used in the filming of Close Encounters of the Third Kind that's now docked at the Udvar-Hazy Center? The answers are in the stories at Smithsonian Cares.
Browse Smithsonian Cares
Pantry-Friendly Cooking
Now that we're cooking at home more and grocery shopping less, we could all use some help in learning how to optimize our pantries. Zoom into a session with two food writers whose newly released cookbooks are perfect guides to quarantine cooking. Charlotte Druckman, author of Kitchen Remix, shows you how to take sets of three ingredients and produce three very different dishes, and Joe Yonan draws on his book Cool Beans to shine a new spotlight on this category of often-overlooked pantry staples. The May 28 program is among the limited-time free offerings scheduled through June 11 that introduce Smithsonian Associates Streaming, which will be expanded to a slate of online programming inspired by the full range of topics we offer year round.
Register for the Program
Studies in Style
The historic National Arts Club in New York City brings together fashion-industry professionals and museum curators as presenters in a series of programs on the present and past of the most glamorous of creative forms. (One recently celebrated the fashion photography of Rodney Smith, whose home and studio were part Smithsonian Associates' Hudson Valley art tour.) The club rolls out the digital red carpet for these free presentations, including a May 21 conversation with Patricia Mears, deputy director of The Museum at FIT, on the exhibition Ballerina: Fashion's Modern Muse. Upcoming programs include a history of the color black in fashion and an exploration of the legacy of Chanel. You may not find yourself next to a Vogue editor, but you're guaranteed a front-row seat.
View NAC's Digital Offerings
A Passport to the Art World
If you miss visiting your favorite art museums, Smarthistory can open the doors again. Described as the most-visited art history resource in the world, Smarthistory offers a remarkable range of conversational videos and essays that cover art and cultural objects from the Paleolithic to the present. Works from Smithsonian collections are featured among this free global gallery drawn from museums and historical sites. Designed for all types of learners, Smarthistory's content offers an ideal way to explore the sweep of the world of art—and enhance your own experiences in art-focused Smithsonian Associates programs.
Explore Smarthistory
The Sky's No Limit
A new free app released through a collaboration between Smithsonian and NASA invites users to virtually discover a new science hero. Reach Across the Stars: A Universe of Explorers, which was developed by an all-woman team, spotlights more than 35 current scientists and other women who have contributed to space exploration. App users can journey to Mars in 3D with Ellen Stofan, who directs the Air and Space Museum; listen to the stars with computer scientist and astronomer Wanda Diaz; and bring NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory into their home with astronaut and chemist Cady Coleman, the mission specialist on the Space Shuttle Columbia that launched the X-ray telescope into space.
Journey to the Stars
