Smithsonian Associates Online Programs

Explore the Japanese art of takuga, the intersection between printmaking and watercolor. Use sumi or block printing ink to handprint leaves, flowers, or vegetables. You leave this workshop with many colorful prints in the takuga style, ready for framing or sending as a greeting card.

Many consider Leo Tolstoy’s epic 19th-century War and Peace, the story of the Napoleonic Wars in Russia, to be the greatest novel ever written. Joseph Luzzi, a professor of literature at Bard College, leads participants through an in-depth consideration of the themes, historical issues, literary elements, and cultural conditions that give Tolstoy’s work its legendary aura.

Explore the art and architecture of the Middle Ages through dazzling early Christian mosaics, sumptuous Carolingian illuminated manuscripts, sculpted Romanesque church facades, and soaring Gothic cathedrals. Art historian Judy Scott Feldman examines the art of the thousand-year period between classical antiquity and the Renaissance and its relationship to a diverse society infused with faith and spirituality. (World Art History Certificate core course, 1 credit)

Be careful when you step into your garden: It’s full of killers. You may be familiar with carnivorous plants such as the Venus flytrap, sundew, or pitcher plant, but a surprising number of plants could be classified as carnivorous—including your geraniums and potentillas. Steve Nicholls, a wildlife filmmaker, offers a wide look into these garden-world wonders.

Begun in 1337, the ground floor of Orsanmichele church in Florence, Italy, was originally a loggia-style market. When it was transformed, the inside was decorated with paintings of saints and the outside with statues by artists such as Donatello, Ghiberti, and Verrocchio. Today, the upper floor of Orsanmichele is a museum where all but one of the original sculptures are on display. Renaissance art expert Rocky Ruggiero highlights this museum and its treasures. (World Art History Certificate elective, 1/2 credit)

Have you ever wondered why scores of British words and phrases—such as one-off, kerfuffle, easy peasy, and cheeky—have been enthusiastically taken up in the United States? Drawing from his new book, Gobsmacked!: The British Invasion of American English, writer Ben Yagoda takes a deep dive into the most popular British terms in the United States today as he explores why Americans have embraced British insults and curses, sports terms, and words about food and drinks.

Are we alone in the universe and are there Earth-like planets orbiting other stars in the Milky Way? In 2009, NASA launched the Kepler space telescope to answer these questions. Jason Steffen, a former member of the science team on the mission, traces Kepler from the take-off of the rocket that sent it into space to the revelations of the data that flowed back to a supercomputer at NASA—evidence of strange new worlds unlike anything found in our own solar system.

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 five online workshops that explore essential elements of writing and styles through close looking, word-sketching, and imaginative response to prompts. This writing session is inspired by the mixed media work, Winning, by 20th-century African American artist Emma Amos.

Embark on a maker’s journey as you create a fiber art labyrinth modeled after an ancient convoluted circular path. Explore a selection of materials, create a reusable pattern, practice handwork techniques for couching and quilting, and learn finishing and installation techniques.

Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau are three influential philosophers whose ideas have significantly shaped political theory and the understanding of the social contract. In a fall series, join Georgetown professor Joseph Hartman as he explores these thinkers who offered distinct perspectives on the nature of human beings, the origins of political authority, and the formation of societies. This session focuses on John Locke.