All upcoming programs

For Ages 3 to 6. This musical play with a great big heart brings the whole audience into the family with singing, finger play, and call-and response as we all give thanks for being together. 

For Ages 3 to 6. This musical play with a great big heart brings the whole audience into the family with singing, finger play, and call-and response as we all give thanks for being together. 

Unlike other great painters of 16th-century Venice such as Titian and Paolo Veronese, Jacopo Tintoretto was born and bred in the lagoon city. A considerable number of his works remain there to this day in the churches, confraternity buildings, and palaces for which they were commissioned. Art historian Sophia D’Addio of Columbia University explores a selection of Tintoretto’s dramatic and expressive sacred works located in such beautiful settings as the Church of the Madonna dell'Orto, the Scuola Grande di San Rocco, and San Giorgio Maggiore. (World Art History Certificate elective, 1/2 credit)

Ever since its publication in 1961, Joseph Heller’s satirical novel Catch-22 has been a beloved classic for generations of readers, especially during the turbulent 1960s, when its depictions of the atrocities of war captured the attention of Vietnam War protesters. Joseph Luzzi, a professor of literature at Bard College, guides you through the literary techniques and key themes that give Heller’s work its enduring appeal.

Knowing how to put together elements of wirework and strung bead jewelry is crucial to creative success. However, all the techniques in your toolbox become useless if you get stuck during the design process. Learn important design principles for jewelry makers such as use of color, creating visual texture and balance, and managing proportion.

Historians talk about “reading” a monument as a way to learn more about the relationship between the people who erect it and the historical event it pays tribute to. War memorials can be especially fascinating places to practice these thinking skills, and there is no better place in the United States to think about the memory of conflict than on the National Mall. Historian Christopher Hamner leads a day dedicated to four memorials on the Mall: the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, Korean War Veterans Memorial, World War II Memorial, and Ulysses S. Grant Memorial.

Commissioned by Pope Julius II to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, Michelangelo used the most universal artistic language available—the human body in all its configurations. From the spark of life given to Adam and Eve to the Last Judgment, his frescoes blazed a path toward secularism despite the chapel’s religious themes. Art historian Liz Lev examines the evolution of the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, a work so astounding it changed the course of Western art. (World Art History Certificate elective, 1/2 credit)

The 48th season of the Smithsonian Chamber Music Society features musical masterpieces from the late-16th to the early 21st century, played on some of the world’s most highly prized musical instruments in a 6-concert series held mostly on Saturdays. This concert features Austrian music from the time of Leopold I with the Smithsonian Chamber Players.

Just in time for the upcoming season, this workshop is an opportunity to create small hanging artworks that can be individualized in many ways to fit any gift-giving occasion.

The 48th season of the Smithsonian Chamber Music Society features musical masterpieces from the late-16th to the early 21st century, played on some of the world’s most highly prized musical instruments in a 6-concert series held on Sundays. This concert features Austrian music from the time of Leopold I with the Smithsonian Chamber Players.