Create a powerful personal record of experiences by drawing and painting moments from your life to include in your sketchbook.
Expand on your technical background and grow your practice as an oil painter. This class provides students with the opportunity to work on personal projects, set up a still-life arrangement, and explore figure painting from a live model. Unfurl your style with support and feedback from the instructor.
Getting a grip on the myriad of tools and materials for mixed media can be daunting. Explore paints, mediums, inks, adhesives, and the array of equipment that can accelerate your creativity and ensure that your artwork is finished to a high standard.
Americans have long been fascinated by the disappearance of the Roanoke colony, founded on the Outer Banks of modern North Carolina in the mid-1580s. But it was not the only European colony to be abandoned. Historian Peter C. Mancall explores Roanoke and other lesser-known examples of disappeared colonial efforts, from Nunavut (Baffin Island) in the 1570s to the coast of Maine in 1606/1607 and as far south as the Atlantic coasts of northeastern South America.
Travel the world with the summer edition of Sketching the Smithsonian as you take an artful break and explore the fascinating, vast collections of this extraordinary museum.
Explore the brilliance of Louis Comfort Tiffany, a leading figure of late-19th and early-20th-century American design. Known for his stained-glass windows, signature lamps, and innovative glasswork, Tiffany transformed decorative arts into fine art through his bold experimentation with color and light. Art historian Janetta Rebold Benton, a lamp collector herself, examines his creative vision, his studios, and his relationship with his father, Charles Lewis Tiffany of Tiffany & Co., revealing how Tiffany’s luminous creations continue to captivate admirers today. (World Art History Certificate elective, 1/2 credit)
Learn to use the iPad, Apple Pencil, and Procreate for illustration and animation. Students get an introductory lecture on the basics of digital art production, demonstrations, and experience drawing in Procreate on an iPad.
The War of 1812 is among the most misunderstood wars in American history. Historian Richard Bell argues its causes, course, and consequences have long been obscured by the American Revolution and the Civil War. More than the conflict that inspired the national anthem says Bell, it was a defining moment in a young republic, establishing American credibility abroad, securing independence, shaping national identity, entrenching states’ rights, and unleashing imperial ambitions—all at extraordinary human cost.
Philosopher Ben Bramble argues that we are often told humanity’s destiny lies beyond Earth—complete with Martian cities, asteroid mining, lunar industries, and even “backup planets.” Drawing on his book Lunacy: Ten False Promises of the New Space Age, he contends that many of these visions rest on misunderstandings about risk, progress, and what truly makes a human future genuinely good. If we care about humanity’s long-term flourishing, he suggests we should look less to Mars—and more carefully at our own planet.
After the devastation of World War II, Italy transformed into one of Europe’s great economic success stories of the 1950s and 1960s by embracing Western consumerism. Through globally popular films, advertising, and design, the country projected an image of modernity, elegance, and pleasure that captivated international audiences. Lecturer Adam Tanner examines how the myth of la dolce vita forged during these boom years continues to shape how Italy is imagined, both at home and abroad.
