Paul Sharits, "Shutter Interface," (1975), From the Hirshhorn's Collection

On a gray day last Thursday, bright color blazed at the Hirshhorn Museum in the form of a new exhibition, “ColorForms.” The show  is inspired by the museum’s recent acquisitions of the film installation, “Shutter Interface” by the avant-garde filmmaker artist Paul Sharits (1943-1993) and the work “Untitled (Sculptural Study, Twelve-Part Vertical Construction),” a yarn installation by the conceptual sculptor Fred Sandback (1943-2003).  Other works include a floor piece made entirely of pollen from the hazelnut tree and a fiberglass sculpture covered in loose, electric blue pigment. The works define and encapsulate for the visitor the ways that artists use color and space to transform and manipulate their environment.

A collection of four works by Mark Rothko, three of which were borrowed from the National Gallery of Art, fill one gallery and a dialog seems to transpire between the artist’s use of vibrant colors and his dense mixture of overlapping dark shapes. “American,” one of the loaned pieces, epitomizes the best qualities of Rothko’s use of bright transparency and dark opacity. The work’s background of vibrant, red color becomes even brighter when amplified by the deep, dark center of the piece.

The Sandback construct transforms one white-walled gallery into an interactive sculpture and architectural design with only a few yards of magically tethered yarn (bought from Wal-mart, the curator Evelyn Hankins told me).  Sandback can be considered a minimalist, but curator Hankins prefers to refer to him as a conceptual artist.

“When you acquire a Fred Sandback piece,” she told a group of visitor’s at a gallery talk last Friday, “you get a sheet of paper with a diagram on it.”  The paper, looking much like a dot-to-dot picture, tells the curator what color to make the yarn and in what proportion the yarn is to be spaced.  The piece can then be installed in any size or space as long as the specified colors and proportions are respected.

The keystone of the show is the miraculous 1975 film installation by Paul Sharits.  In a triumph of film restoration, the Hirshhorn acquired the piece through the efforts of the Whitney Museum and the Anthology Film Archives, who recreated the artwork from archival materials. It was originally thought to have been lost after Sharits’ death in 1993.

Bars of color are projected the length of a wall and are accompanied by a cacophony of otherworldly sounds.  The curators had a difficult challenge with the work’s noise level.  “The soundtrack,” says Hankins, “is supposed to be piercingly loud.”  But the noise interfered with the contemplative mood created by Rothko’s works in a nearby gallery.  Somehow the museum managed to resolve the problem, because the clicks of an old-school film projector mix with a high-pitched blowing to produce a buzzing that reaches a crescendo of noise in the Sharits’ alcove, but is thankfully muted elsewhere.

The static photograph (above) of the Sharits installation does it no justice. In life, it is a fast moving, fully immersible spectacle of color, movement and light.  The viewer is encouraged to walk in front of the projectors and interact with the work.  Making shadow puppets has never been so highbrow.

One cautious tip for any visitors suffering from seasonal allergies. The Wolfgang Laib floor piece that glows with buttery yellow is created entirely of pollen, hand harvested from the artist’s own hazelnut trees in Germany.  This reporter’s allergy afflicted eyes could not stand looking at it for too long, before she had to exit in search of Claritin and Visine.

“ColorForms” is on view at the Hirshhorn until January 2011. ]]> http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/aroundthemall/2010/03/at-the-hirshhorn-colorforms-brings-life-to-color/feed/ 0 http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/aroundthemall/2010/03/at-the-hirshhorn-colorforms-brings-life-to-color/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/smithsonianmag/AroundTheMall/~3/HilsJQGeLKk/ http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/aroundthemall/2010/03/update-on-the-andean-bear-cubs-at-the-zoo/#comments Mon, 15 Mar 2010 19:00:38 +0000 Erica R. Hendry http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/aroundthemall/?p=10620

On January 14, Billie Jean, the National Zoo's four-year-old Andean bear, gave birth to twin cubs, who have yet to come out of the dean. Photo by Mehgan Murphy.

Just a few weeks after Andean bear cubs were born at the National Zoo, they are still spending time with mom Billie Jean in the den (much to our dismay, since we won’t be able to tell their genders until they come out some time in the next month). But the keepers at the National Zoo have been keeping tabs on the twins via television and audio monitors. We checked in with Tracey Barnes, one of the bears’ keepers, to see how Billie Jean and her babies were doing.

What was it like seeing the birth of those bear cubs, but not being able to touch them?

It’s a thrill, but it’s a little frustrating. Because I was here the morning they were born, I spent the night and I’d been watching around the clock and all of the sudden around 8 in the morning we started hearing squealing and realized we had a cub.  And of course the first thing you want to do is run back there and look. But having worked with bears for a number of years I know that things can be very touch and go with bear cubs for the first few weeks, and stress plays a major part in their survival. You don’t want the mother to be stressed: you want her to be in a nice, dark, quiet place. You have to pretty much fight every instinct you’ve got, knowing it’s the best thing for the bears and just let them be. We’ve happily been able to watch them from the monitor and we have audio set up there. So when I’m in the keeper office, I can hear the cubs nursing and squealing. As it turns out that, in itself, is good enough for me.

When the cubs actually do leave the den, will they instinctively explore on their own, or will the mother take them out?

It can work one of two ways. Sometimes the mother will choose to bring them out before they can walk, merely by bringing them up by the scruff of the neck—similar to what you’d see with cats. That doesn’t look like it’s going to happen with B.J. I can never say never, because animals continue to surprise you, but she hasn’t been inclined to bring them out just yet. What I experienced with our last cub birth is that once the cub was up and moving, Mom spends a lot of time trying to come up with ways to keep them in the den. Eventually [the cub] went out and so she allowed him to come out very close to her, between her front legs, or right beside her, or on her back. So I’m anticipating that’s what will happen to BJ and her cubs, they will all three come out very slowly together.

When the bear cubs are first born, they’re hairless and toothless. What do they look like now?

We noticed they were really looking dark, so that indicates their fur has pretty much filled in now and you can see light spots on their face where their snouts are. So on the monitor,  you can make out the front end from the back end. Now they’ve gone from originally looking like little sock rolls to looking like bear cubs: You can see their faces, their legs. We watched one of them stand up. They’re starting to get their legs under them.

Are they still in the nursing stage?

They’ll nurse for the better part of the year at least. There’s a good reason for that: Bear milk is very nutritious, it’s very rich. When you compare it to human milk, which has a fat content of four percent, bear milk has a fat content of 46 percent, which is one of the highest in the animal kingdom. They’ve got a very nice supply of nutrition coming from Mom and we can hear them humming, which is the sound they make when they’re nursing. So we know they’re nursing well and that they’re happy. They are fairly advanced, however, when they come out of the den for the first time. They’ll sample food right away. They’ll still be nursing but they’ll already be capable of starting to nibble on solid food. Bear cubs are the same in the wild. Once they leave the den, they can start foraging in the wild right next to Mom, but they’ll continue to nurse.

What has made it so hard for these bear cubs to survive in captivity?

[The mother] really needs dark and quiet and we’re very lucky we’ve been able to do that at the National Zoo. But all zoos have to kind of work with the constraints they have in their facility. So that could be part of the problem, but it’s hard to say. Even in the wild bear cubs are very helpless at birth. They can easily die from infection; if the mother is stressed that can cause her to reject them; sometimes the mother isn’t producing milk. There are a myriad of reasons and it’s never the same from birth to birth. It’s unique to each birth and unique to each zoo, and we feel really lucky that right off the bat we had successful twins.

The mother and cubs are in seclusion in their den at the Zoo and not on view to visitors. No photographs are yet available either, so as to not disturb them. However, visitors can catch a glimpse of what’s going on inside the bear den via the Zoo’s animal cam.

Come get expert advice from an art expert on how you can build your own print collection! Revolving Doors (1916-17) by Man Ray. Image courtesy of the Hirshhorn.

Monday, March 15: Seasoned with Spirit
Enjoy episodes of the public television series Seasoned with Spirit, and join host Loretta Barrett Oden as she visits Native communities to learn about their agricultural and culinary traditions. In Food Upon the Water, Oden participates in a wild rice harvest and shows you how to prepare a wild rice and maple syrup cake to accompany a lakeside first rice feast of buffalo, wild rice and cranberry stuffed acorn squash, buffalo stew, and beautiful ruby red swamp tea. Free. American Indian Museum, 12:30 PM.

Tuesday, March 16: Collectors’ Roundtable: Pleasures of Building a Print Collection

Are you beginning to curate a collection of your own in the comfort of your home? If so, experts in the field are handy to offer their insights and invaluable advice. Tonight, Mary Ryan of the Mary Ryan Art Gallery  in New York will discuss the pleasures of building a print collection. Free. American Art Museum, 7:00 PM.

Wednesday, March 17: The Sacred Art of Making a Mandala

Come on out to the Freer Sackler gallery and witness the creation of a sand mandala—a spiritual image created out of brightly-colored grains of sand which, according to Tibetan Buddhist beliefs, transmits positive energy to those nearby. Monks began work on the mandala on Saturday, March 13, so come see what it looks like a few days into the creations process. But hurry on over—the mandala will be swept away on March 21. Free. Freer Sackler Gallery, 11:00 AM-1:00 PM. This event repeats today between 2:00 PM and 4:00 PM.

Thursday, March 18: Julia Child: Face-to-Face Portrait Talk

If you only know Julia Child by way of Dan Ackroyd cutting the dickens out of his finger on Saturday Night Live, then you definitely owe it to yourself to swing by the Portrait Gallery for this week’s gallery talk. National Museum of American History curator Rayna Green will be on deck to discuss this icon of kitchen counter culture. Free. National Portrait Gallery, 6:00 PM.

Friday, March 19: Milarepa: Magician, Murderer, Saint

This film tells the story of Milarepa, a major figure in the Karma Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism. In 11th century Tibet, young Milarepa is leading a privileged life a world full of greed and betrayal upends his good fortune, compelling him to exact revenge. Free. Freer, 7:00 PM.

Ella Fitzerald, one of the grand dames of jazz, poses for photographer Car van Vechten in 1940. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress.

Friday, March 12: Philosophical Fridays

Come join in the first of a series of philosophical Fridays, a forum where you and your peers can discuss issues of ethics, personal identity and knowledge—Socratic style! In this inaugural session helmed by UVA professor Mitchell Green, you and your peers will discuss morality in the context of history and contemporary society. Tickets are required. Please visit this site for prices and information on how you can purchase tickets. Resident Associates Program, 6:45-8:15 PM.

Saturday, March 13: The Sacred Art of Making a Mandala: Opening Ceremony

Come on out to the Freer Sackler gallery and witness the creation of a sand mandala—a spiritual image created out of brightly-colored grains of sand which, according to Tibetan Buddhist beliefs, transmits positive energy to those nearby. The artwork will be completed over the course of the week, so be sure to keep checking back in to see how it progresses. Free. Freer Sackler Gallery, 12:00 PM

Sunday, March 14: Rhythm Café: Women in Jazz

Come learn about the innovative women who left an indelible mark on the all-American musical form: jazz. Enjoy a lecture by local radio personality Ellen Carter of WPFW 89.3 FM and musical performances by local artist Janelle Gill.  Tickets are required. Cost is $15 general admission. Call 202-633-4866 for more information. Anacostia Museum, 11:00 AM.

At the Renwick Gallery last week, a number of Japanese-American families gathered for the opening of the new exhibition, “The Art of Gaman; Arts and Crafts from the Japanese American Internment Camps, 1942-1946.”

They were there to see some 120 hand-crafted tools, teapots, furniture, toys, games, musical instruments, pendants and pins and paintings and other artworks that had been made by family members or friends that had been among the 120,000 Japanese Americans, who were ordered to report to internment camps after the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941.

Delphine Hirasuan, guest curator and author of the book The Art of Gaman, arrived at the idea for the exhibition after discovering a painted wooden bird pin among her deceased mother’s things. It was a piece that Hirasuan had never seen before and when she asked her father about it, he said it was likely the pin had come “from camp.” Hirasuna began to ask others in the Japanese-American community and soon discovered that many families had, but kept hidden away, a wealth of castaway objects they’d made in the camps, many of them exquisitely handcrafted.

The Japanese word “Gaman,” says Hirasuna  means  “to bare the seemingly unbearable with dignity and patience.” These objects were made as a testament to the hardships of the camps.

Internees could take with them only what they could carry. And when they arrived at the camps, they found that they would be provided with only the barest of essentials. Once in the camps, Hirasuan learned that out of necessity, the internees began to build from found scraps of metal and wood simple things like chairs and tables and pegs so that they could hang up their clothes. Soon, they crafted other items:  dolls, jewelry, musical instruments and games as a way to pass the time, and, she added, to find a source of comfort.

Once out of the camps, the families put the objects away, like so many bad memories, in attics, or garages, or sheds.

Now, the items are on view in museum vitrines and hung framed on the walls of a Smithsonian museum, a powerful homage to the Japanese American story.

“The Art of Gaman: Arts and Crafts from the Japanese American Internment Camps, 1942-1946″ will be on view at the Renwick Gallery, located on Pennsylvania Avenue at 17th Street N.W. through January 30, 2011.

Photographs of Harriet Tubman's funeral, with hand-written descriptions from one of Tubman's relatives, were donated to the National Museum of African American History and Culture. Photos by Erica Hendry

The last time Harriet Tubman heard the African American spiritual, “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot,” was in the final hours of her life, as friends and family gathered around her and sang the song to “carry her home.”

Tubman (1822- 1913), an African American abolitionist and humanitarian who guided dozens of slaves out of the southern states to freedom in the north, was also an Union spy during the Civil War.

Yesterday, on what would have been her 188th birthday, a crowd gathered in a congressional hearing room, holding hands as they sang through the verses. But this time, the song celebrated a rare gift: the donation of 39 of Tubman’s belongings to the the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture.

Charles L. Blockson, a Philadelphia historian who donated the items to the museum, has spent much of his life collecting artifacts and texts that represent African American history, including a collection of 20,000 items at Temple University under his name . But when he inherited Tubman’s belongings, which were willed to him by a grand-niece of Tubman’s who died, he was “in awe.”

“I prayed,” he said, “I kept it under my bed for eight months.”

But he wanted to honor Tubman in a larger way, so he revealed the items to Rep. Robert A. Brady (D-Pa.), chair of the Committee on House Administration and the congressman for Blockson’s district, and later decided to donate the items.

“It’s important that Harriet Tubman is honored,” said Blockson, whose family escaped slavery with Tubman’s help. “And now, Harriet Tubman’s spirit is here.”

From left, Lonnie Bunch, museum director; Rep. Robert A. Brady (D-Pa.); and donor Charles L. Blockson, a Philadelphia historian, discuss a book of hymnals that once belonged to Harriet Tubman.

Some of the items were laid out on table in the hearing room yesterday, including a large seven-by-ten-inch photograph of Tubman. The other items ranged from a fork and knife, believed to come from Tubman’s home, and a silk shawl, given to Tubman by England’s Queen Victoria as a gift around 1897, during the queen’s Diamond Jubilee celebration. The delicate silk and lace shawl is still in near-perfect condition, free of any rips or visible repairs.

Lonnie Bunch, the director of the National Museum of African American History and Culture, says the museum has collected about 10,000 artifacts. It is scheduled to open in 2015, but Bunch said this donation was particularly special because there are very few artifacts or materials in existence today that can be traced to Tubman.

“I didn’t even know these things existed,” he said. “So I think that’s what special about it—it allows us to be the place where we can really interpret Harriet Tubman, which no one else can really do.”

Bunch said the museum will likely use the items in an exhibit on slavery and freedom.

“These items will help us talk about the power of freedom;the lure of freedom;that no matter how imbonded you were, you wanted to be free,” he said. “Harriet Tubman really risked life and limb to do just that.”

The completed sand mandala created at the Freer in January 2002. Image courtesy of the Freer.

Remember sand art from when you were a kid? It’s that craft where you took a clear, empty bottle and poured in layer upon layer of colored sand until the whole thing was filled to the brim. (And then you’d set it in your bedroom for a while and over time the sand would settle a bit and your sand art didn’t look so pretty anymore and you ended up chucking it. Sigh.) Now, with that image in mind, let’s kick that craft up a bazillion notches and consider the sand mandala.

In Tibetan Buddhism, the mandala is a symbolic, graphic representation of the universe rendered in colored sand. While creating the intricately geometric forms grain by grain, the monks chant and meditate over the slowly-evolving image, which, according to their practice, transmits positive energy to those nearby. After the mandala is completed, it is swept away and the sand is traditionally collected and dispersed in a body of flowing water—an act that is representative of the transitory nature of material existence.

Some of you may remember a special 2002 event at the Freer where, over the course of two weeks, Buddhist monks created a mandala in response to the September 11 tragedies. (You can see a time lapse video of that event here.) Well, the Buddhists are back and between March 13 and 20, they will be creating another mandala masterpiece. If you’re in the DC metro area, make it out to the Freer a few times over the next week and see how the artwork is progressing. The museum has posted a full schedule of when you can see the monks at work. But keep in mind: the disillusionment ceremony—that’s the part where everything gets swept away—happens on March 21.

So the next time you throw out the sand art on your dresser, don’t take it as a failed artistic venture—think of yourself as having taken one baby step on the path to enlightenment.

On January 25, 1904, a military procession to Smithsonian Institution grounds delivered the remains of James Smithson (c.1765-1829) whose bequest created the Smithsonian. Image courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution Archives

One hundred and thirty-four years ago today, Alexander Graham Bell made the first phone call. “Mr. Watson,” he said into a transmitter, “Come here. I want to see you.” And Watson, in the next room, heard the words through a receiver.

Later, in his life Alexander Graham Bell would become a Smithsonian Institution regent and he would make a peculiar and bizarre journey to Genoa, Italy, to retrieve the remains of the Smithsonian’s founder, James Smithson, to bring them to the United States. (In life, the Englishman had never visited the States.)

It is the “proper thing to do,” Bell insisted in 1903, when he made the case to go get Smithson’s bones. The burial ground where Smithson was interred after his death in 1829 was being over run by a nearby stone quarry and the graves were being removed.

So the inventor of the telephone left promptly to recover the bones of the man who had given the United State $508,418 (about $10 million today) to create an institution for the “increase and diffusion of knowledge.”

Bell got back to Washington in January 1904 and Smithson’s casket was brought to the Smithsonian from the Washington Navy Yard by a cavalry detachment traveling along Pennsylvania Avenue.

The crypt, where the founder was laid to rest, can still be seen inside the Smithsonian Castle’s north entrance vestibule.

Loree Rodkin designed the jewelry worn by Michelle Obama for the inaugural balls. Photo by Molly Roberts.

Loree Rodkin is a Los Angeles-based jewelry designer, who crafted First Lady Michelle Obama’s inauguration jewelry, including diamond earrings, a 10-carat diamond signet ring and a set of diamond bangle bracelets. Rodkin was on hand Tuesday morning when Mrs. Obama donated her inaugural ball gown by the young designer Jason Wu, along with the jewelry and her Jimmy Choo shoes to the National Museum of American History. We chatted about jewelry and few other things.

What does it feel like to see your work on display at the Smithsonian?

Surreal. You can’t dream this large. It’s like winning the Academy Award of jewelry design.

Your work has been described as “visionary,” what did you envision for Mrs. Obama?

She is so dramatic looking and so statuesque. I wanted something that accentuated her beauty. I wanted something with a twist. Fashion forward, but classic.

You were born in Chicago. How does that city figure into your relationship with the First Lady?

The store Ikram in Chicago’s Gold Coast on Rush Street; Mrs Obama has shopped there over the years and relies on Ikram’s style.

Is the jewelry symbolic?

Michelle Obama's inaugural jewelry, earrings, bracelets and a ring were designed by Los Angeles-based Loree Rodkin. Photo courtesy of the museum

The election earrings that I designed are called the celestial earrings. They have 61 carats of diamonds and they represent the moon, the stars, and the hope for Obama for our future.

First words and thoughts when Mrs. Obama called to say she’d selected your jewelry?

You’ve called the wrong jewelry designer. I traditionally make very edgy jewelry for performers like Madonna and Cher and Elton John. But I also do grown-up jewelry and for Michelle Obama, I did my most elegant work. It’s still hard to fathom. I called my mother and she didn’t believe me!

"Sea Lion Brand with Blue", made of Sea lion skin/fur with nylon thread, by Sonya Kelliher-Combs. Courtesy of the museum

In New York City, a new exhibition at the American Indian Museum’s George Gustav Heye  Center, is intriguingly entitled, “HIDE: Skin as Material and Metaphor.”

In the show, “Skin” is both that of human and animal flesh and proves not only to be subject matter, but as animal hide, it becomes the material or canvas for the works. And finally, skin also serves as an allegory for the hardships and the struggles—and the ability to overcome them—in native communities both past and present.

“For Native people,” writes curator Kathleen Ash-Milby, in the online exhibition, “our own skin functions as a canvas that we can inscribe with messages about our identity or use as a shield to protect and hide our secrets. As a material, animal skin or hide has had a long history within Native culture. It is a symbolic reminder of historical misrepresentation, exploitation, and racial politics.”

The pieces in the show are a challenge and ring with a brutal honesty that leaves the viewer with an unsettled feeling and an intellectual quest for more.  Part I of this two part show features the mixed media works of native artists Sonya Kelliher-Combs and Nadia Myre. Both women document their own personal battles with unflinching detail.

Alaskan-born Sonya Kelliher-Combs creates sculptural pieces made from animal fur, hides and the sinew and tissue of internal organs, materials held sacred to the lifestyles of the Arctic and Sub-Arctic tribes. In her portion of the show, entitled “Skin Secrets,” the Inupiaq/Athabaskan artist uses both organic and man-made media in her exploration of the exterior and the interior.  In one piece, a small army of empty pouches made from sheep and reindeer rawhide, line up in regimental form. They are shaped as if they once held something but they are empty containers, according to the exhibition text, where the artist wrestles with “secrets that are unspeakable or forced into hiding.”

A woven beaded work from "Scarscrapes" by Nadia Myre. Courtesy of the museum

Nadia Myre’s presentation “Scar Tissue,” confronts hidden trauma and redefines the scar as a symbol of healing and strength rather than disfigurement and loss. A series of her works, called “Scarscarpes” combine bold, graphic imagery with loom-woven beaded works and prints of her Anishinaabe heritage to create a decorative, historical and personal celebration of overcoming injury. In these pieces ugly scars are rendered beautiful, part of an overarching landscape and matrix of experience and personal growth.

These two woman tell stories of hardship, isolation and stunning personal strength. In their hands, a new beauty arises against the clichéd  cosmetic quest for wrinkle free, poreless and flawless skin—and packs more meaning into an an old maxim, “beauty is only skin deep.”

HIDE: Skin as Material and Metaphor, Part 1 is open now at the George Gutav Heye Center.  Part II, featuring the art of Michael Belmore, Arthur Renwick, KC Adams, Terrance Houle, Rosalie Favell, and Sarah Sense, opens September 4.

Louisiana Tanager, Clark's Crow, Lewis' Woodpecker by Alexander Lawson. Image courtesy of the American Art Museum.

Monday, March 8: Seasoned with Spirit

Enjoy episodes of the public television series Seasoned with Spirit, join host Loretta Barrett Oden as she visits Native communities to learn about their agricultural and culinary traditions. In Food Upon the Water, Oden participates in a wild rice harvest and shows you how to prepare a wild rice and maple syrup cake to accompany a lakeside first rice feast of buffalo, wild rice and cranberry stuffed acorn squash, buffalo stew, and beautiful ruby red swamp tea. Free. American Indian Museum, 12:30 PM.

Tuesday, March 9: Jane Austen: The Author, Her Legacy and…Sea Monsters?

Jane Austen’s writings have garnered scores of admirers over the years. Recently, her works have inspired several authors to pen their own best-selling riffs on her work, notably Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters and Darcy’s Passions. Come enjoy a panel discussion with Austen scholar Tara Wallace alone with the authors of the aforementioned books, Seth Grahame-Smith, Ben H. Winters and Regina Jeffers, respectively. Tickets are required. For prices and purchase information, please visit this site. Resident Associates Program, 6:45 PM.

Wednesday, March 10: Afro-Mexican History and Identity: Brown and Black Lecture Series

Noted sociologist and researcher Dr. Maria Elisa Velazquez  of the Universidad Autonoma Metropolitana, Instituto Nacional de Antropologia e Historia discusses the Afro-Mexican history of identity formation since colonial times. She also brings her own perspective on issues of historical accuracy within this history. Free. Anacostia Museum, 7:00 PM

Thursday, March 11: Nosferatu

Before Twilight and Buffy started feeding on people’s perpetual fascination with vampires, there was Nosferatu. The first film adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Nosferatu was made in Germany in 1922 and its visual style has influenced generations of filmmakers. Enjoy a screening of this seminal silent movie with live musical accompaniment by the Thad Wilson Group. Free. American Art Museum, 6:30 PM.

Friday, March 12: Migratory Bird Club Event: SI Ornithology Exchange

Now that springtime is springing forth, come on out to the National Zoo and enjoy a series of short lectures on current ornithological research throughout the Smithsonian Institution. This event is for Smithsonian Migratory Bird Club members only. Not a member? Call Lisa Whitney at 202-633-3027 or email her at whitneyl@si.edu. Smithsonian Migratory Bird Club members only. RSVP requested. Please contact Amy Wilson at 202.633.0550 or wilsonas@si.edu to RSVP. National Zoo, 3:00 PM.

Faith Asleep (1923) by Harold Weston. Image courtesy of the American Art Museum.

You don’t have to be someone like Luca Brasi to sleep with the fishes anymore because the Resident Associates Program is offering sleepover parties in the Natural History Museum’s Sant Ocean Hall! That’s right kids, for $125 you and a chaperone can have an evening full of edutainment that kicks off with a screening of the IMAX film Wild Ocean 3D after which you’ll enjoy a scavenger hunt, arts and craft activities, a visit to the forensics lab and flashlight tours of the museum. After that, hunker down in the Ocean Hall and fall asleep to the sight of the 45-foot full scale model of Phoenix the Whale gracefully hovering above your head. (Tip: bring a well-padded sleeping bag—remember those floors are marble!) Check out the Resident Associates site for more details. And if you can’t make the March 6 sleepover date, worry not—this event is currently slated to repeat on April 24 and May 15.

Sadly, I doubt that any after-dark shenanigans on par with what you saw in last year’s Night at the Museum movie, but hey, it never hurts to let the imagination wander, right? By comparison, the events detailed in a book like From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler are much more plausible, but still improbable. So if you can’t make the sleepover, try taking in the aforementioned movie and book for some good museums-at-night fun.

Dance of Spring (1937) by Samuel Joseph Brown. Image courtesy of the American Art Museum.

Saturday, March 6: Women’s History Month Family Day Celebration

The Smithsonian celebrates Women’s History Month with a festival devoted to women in the arts. Enjoy music and dance performances and workshops, hands-on art and stamp-collecting activities, and a special Red Carpet area for stars of all ages! Free. American Art Museum, 11:30 AM-3:00 PM

Sunday, March 7: Persian New Year’s Celebration!

Celebrate Nowruz, the Persian New Year festival and celebration of spring at the Freer with this series of family-friendly free events!

11:00 AM

Xanthe Gresham brings to life stories of ancient Persian kings and exciting episodes from the Shanama (Book of kings) and other classic Iranian epics. A lecturer in storytelling and drama at the University of East London, Xanthe entertains young and old alike in the spacious Discovery Theater. Free, but tickets are required. Tickets are available through Ticketmaster. Any remaining tickets will be available at the door on March 7 beginning one hour before show time. This event repeats today at 2:00 PM.

11:00 AM-4:00 PM

For the kids: make Nowruz greeting cards, take part in the Nowruz tradition of jumping over a fire (artificial, of course), and have your fortune told.

Also be sure to check out the animated short Babak and Friends: A First Nowruz. Young Babak lives in the United States and learns about Nowruz when his cousins arrive from Iran to celebrate the New Year. This film is 30 minutes long and will be screened throughout the day.

For the domestic diva (and divo): Learn about Haft Sin, festive tabletop displays that Iranian families traditionally set out to celebrate the return of spring.

12:00 PM

Backgammon: The tables are set for backgammon enthusiasts to come and play this classic parlor game that originated in Persia (present-day Iran). Never played? Never fear! Members of the Northern Virginia Backgammon Club are on hand to offer newbies introductory lessons. This event repeats today at 2:00 PM.

Storytelling: Surabhi Shah: Asian Stories of Rebirth: Storyteller Surabhi Shah returns to the Freer to share stories of new beginnings from across Asia. Her engaging storytelling style is part of a rarely heard tradition from India that weaves story with melodic verse. This event repeats today at 2:00 PM.

12:30 PM

The Pejvak Ensemble: Enjoy new music performed on traditional Persian instruments, featuring Bahadoran on tar and setar; Faraz Minooei on santur; Pezhham Akhavass on tombak; Shohreh Majd, vocals; and Steve Bloom on percussion. Free tickets are required. Tickets are available through Ticketmaster. Any remaining tickets will be available at the door on March 7 beginning one hour before show time. This event will repeat today at 3:30 PM.

1:00 PM

Book Signing: Najmieh Batmanglij: Acclaimed chef and author Najmieh Batmanglij signs copies of her cookbooks, including Happy Nowruz: Cooking with Children to Celebrate the Persian New Year.

When field biologist Gudrun Pflueger found out, in 2005, that a cancerous tumor the size of a golf ball was growing in her brain, her chances for survival looked bleak. Many might have even said that recovery was impossible. But Pflueger—sweet, and yet tough as nails—fought, and remained hopeful.

“Already once something impossible happened,” she says. “Why not a second time?”

The miracle she’s referring to happened just prior to her diagnosis. Pflueger, a wolf expert, was on a six-week expedition along the coast of British Columbia, when she experienced a rare wildlife encounter. Seven Canadian coast wolves encircled her, curiously but not aggressively, in a meadow, while she lay prone in the grass. They played in the field for about an hour.

“The situation kind of carefully evolved. It was always their decision to come closer and closer. They didn’t rush. They took their time. They tried to smell me. They never showed any sign that they would even remotely consider me as prey,” Pflueger told me in an interview two years ago. “They just accepted me.”

At that time, the Smithsonian Channel was preparing to air its first program on Pflueger, called “A Woman Among Wolves.” (Check out the interview and the accompanying video clip.) Now, cancer-free, Pflueger is the subject of a sequel. The channel’s “Running with Wolves” premieres this Sunday at 8pm (et/pt).

“They [the wolves] gave me their will to fight for my life and be determined,” says Pflueger in the film, which describes her deep connection to the animals. The biologist says that her battle with cancer really brought her work into focus, and to a great extent her life’s, purpose, to fight for wolf conservation.

In “Running with Wolves,” she returns to the meadow where her encounter with the wolves happened. She also searches for wolves in other parts of British Columbia, setting up motion sensitive cameras along the way. Months after she installs a camera outside of an empty wolf den, she returns to it and watches the footage. Jackpot! For a second time, she gets a privileged view of wolves. On her laptop, in a cabin in the backcountry, she watches wolf pups coming out of their den for the first time.

Michelle Obama in her inaugural gown. Credit: AFP PHOTO / Saul Loeb / Newscom

At last, the long-awaited moment has arrived. The white chiffon, off-the-shoulder dress that Michelle Obama wore to ten inaugural balls last January will go on view at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History beginning Wednesday, March 10.

Full Stop. Everybody take a deep breath. It’s going to be a part of the permanent collections of the Smithsonian, held there in perpetuity for generations to admire.

On Tuesday, the First Lady will formally present the floor-length gown, designed by Jason Wu, to the Smithsonian in an event that is sure to draw a crowded media scene to the museum. (Early news reports erroneously reported that this event would be open to the public. It is not.) This reporter will be there and will keep ATM followers up to date. We’ve been anxiously awaiting news of the dress since the request went out last year from the Smithsonian to Mrs. Obama for the donation.

Politics play no role in this much-loved tradition. Delirious anticipation mounts with every new administration as the public ponders the moment in Washington, D.C., when the First Lady sends over her dress. Laura Bush’s scooped-neck, red-Chantilly, laced gown, crafted by the Dallas-based Michael Faircloth, arrived eight years ago with equal fanfare.

Indeed, the tradition has been going strong, since 1912 when Helen Taft delivered her dress to the Smithsonian, also a white chiffon. “It’s the first time you see the first lady in her official capacity,” the Smithsonian’s curator of the First Ladies exhibit Lisa Kathleen Graddy likes to tell reporters. And as Mrs. Obama made her debut in that gown, the world took notice. “Already, she has generated the sort of fashion excitement that one hasn’t seen since Mrs. Kennedy,” Vogue’s European editor at large, Hamish Bowles told the Chicago Tribune in January 2009.

In fact, along with Mrs. Obama’s dress also opening next Wednesday, March 10, is a whole new gallery, “A First Lady’s Debut” that includes 11 other gowns worn by first ladies beginning with Mamie Eisenhower (her 1953 inaugural gown, a pink peau de soie designed by Nettie Rosenstein with 2,000 rhinestones), along with a host of other items, portraits and china and personal possessions. But certainly the centerpiece of the show will be this much-anticipated acquisition.

Check your calendar, when can you get here?

In the meantime, check out our video of the current First Ladies exhibit.

Editor’s note: A previous version of this post stated that the Mamie Eisenhower dress going on view in the new exhibit was a a pink rose-colored silk gown worn at a 1957 state dinner at the British Embassy. That dress is already on display in the original exhibition.