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.

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.

Humans have long thought of their bodies and minds as separate spheres of existence, with the body as physical and the mind as mental. But such thinking is a barrier to discovery and understanding, and a new framework is needed, argues neuroscientist Joseph LeDoux. He shares his latest research, which says that human beings are a composite of four fundamental realms of existence—biological, neurobiological, cognitive, and conscious. Together our realms account for all of what and who we are, LeDoux says.

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.

“Brilliant Exiles: American Women in Paris, 1900–1939” at the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery illuminates the accomplishments of 60 women who crossed the Atlantic to pursue personal and professional aspirations in the vibrant cultural milieu of Paris. Robyn Asleson, the gallery’s curator of prints and drawings, provides an overview of the first exhibition to focus on the impact of American women on Paris—and of Paris on American women­—as she discusses portraits of Josephine Baker, Isadora Duncan, Zelda Fitzgerald, Gertrude Stein, and Anna May Wong, among others. (World Art History Certificate elective, 1/2 credit)

In the distant past, people were both awed and alarmed by comets. We now know that comets are leftovers from the dawn of our solar system around 4.6 billion years ago. They may yield important clues about the solar system’s formation. Carey Lisse, an astronomer at Johns Hopkins University’s Applied Physics Laboratory, highlights what we know about comets and what we are still hoping to find out.

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)

Students are introduced to the materials, tools, and technologies used in collage and assemblage. They find inspiration in artists who worked in collage, including Joseph Cornell, Romare Bearden, and Gertrude Greene.