All upcoming 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)

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 music of Orlando Gibbons and Wililam Byrd with the Smithsonian Consort of Viols.

Alexandria, Virginia, a port city with deep roots in pre-Revolutionary America, was a heavily divided and conflicted city during the Civil War, and the memories of the war still resonate today. Journalist Chuck Raasch guides you on a tour that touches on those memories.

It’s getting chillier outside, and there’s no time like the present to knit gloves and mittens for yourself or a loved one. Learn the skills you need to craft a pair to keep the winter’s cold at bay. In class, make a small sample mitten for a child or as a decoration.

Alexandria, Virginia, a port city with deep roots in pre-Revolutionary America, was a heavily divided and conflicted city during the Civil War, and the memories of the war still resonate today. Journalist Chuck Raasch guides you on a tour that touches on those memories.

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 music of Orlando Gibbons and Wililam Byrd with the Smithsonian Consort of Viols.

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)