Smithsonian Associates Online Programs

Build on your botanical painting skills in this next-level class as you create vibrant watercolors inspired by nature. Learn to focus on the texture and detail of botanical subjects, including flowers, fruits, and vegetables.

Silk, prized for its lightness, luminosity, and beauty is also one of the strongest biological materials known. The technologies it has inspired—from sutures to pharmaceuticals, replacement body parts to holograms—continue to be developed in laboratories around the world. Author Aarathi Prasad outlines the cultural and scientific history of the fabric including its origins, the ancient silk routes, and its future as a powerful resource.

In this class open to all levels, students discover the versatility and fluidity of working in watercolors while exploring the functional and aesthetic elements of design found in plants.

This introduction to Vincent van Gogh's accomplishments in drawing pays particular attention to his unique and instantly recognizable touch. Participants investigate how his imaginative mark making forms his images. In-class exercises revolve around drawing studies of his masterworks.

Acquire the basic skills to work with the versatile and portable rigid heddle loom—a great entryway into weaving scarves, placemats, dishtowels, and more.

Art historian Joseph P. Cassar takes a close look at the brief period in the late 1880s when Vincent van Gogh and Paul Gauguin shared the Yellow House in Arles, where van Gogh planned to develop an artists' colony. The union between the two artists would end after nine weeks, with a tragic episode in which van Gogh threatened Gauguin with a razor after a disagreement. Several works by both artists are studied and analyzed, highlighting similarities and differences to illustrate how van Gogh and Gauguin, despite their many disagreements, influenced each other. (World Art History Certificate elective, 1/2 credit)

Is it possible to be spiritual and not religious at the same time? Self-identification as “SBNR” is a growing trend in the United States and abroad that promotes the de-institutionalization of religion and a kind of spiritual individuation. Comparative religion scholar Graham Schweig analyzes this phenomenon psychologically and theologically by drawing from ancient Eastern and Western wisdom traditions. 

June 6, 2024, will mark the 80th anniversary of the greatest amphibious operation in history: D-Day. Kevin Weddle, professor emeritus of military theory and strategy at the U.S. Army War College, traces the development, execution, and aftermath of the cross-channel invasion that signaled the beginning of the end of Nazi Germany.

Filmmaker and cultural historian Sara Lukinson explores more glorious songs from the Great American Songbook with stories about their long, often-unexpected lives. The spring lineup covers songs that are considered “simply the best”—ageless and favorite beauties by Harold Arlen.

Art historian Sophia D’Addio of Columbia University offers an introduction to the visual culture of Renaissance Italy from the 14th through 16th centuries in a five-part series of richly illustrated programs on varying types of images, objects, and structures. She examines some of the most influential and fascinating works of the period, exploring their formal innovations and the relationships between powerful patrons and skilled artists that resulted in their creation. (World Art History Certificate core course, 1 credit)