Five fossil human skulls show how the shape of the face and braincase of early humans changed over the past 2.5 million years. Photo by Chip Clark, Jim DiLoreto and Don Hurlbert. Image courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution.

What would a neanderthal have on his iPod playlist? Some of you may sassily snap back with names of bands and songs you don’t especially care for. But let’s be serious for a moment, shall we? Even though early hominids didn’t have modern conveniences like touch-sensitive scroll wheels, (they had yet to invent the wheel), they apparently had a musical ear. A report from National Geographic cites a 40,000 year old bone flute as the oldest instrument on record and is perhaps an indication of music being used for communication and social networking. Nifty, yes? So to answer the opening question, I’d venture a guess that early European flute aficionados might have liked Jethro Tull.

Now to reveal what all this prehistoric flautist talk is building up to!

Well, it took a few years and a few million dollars to evolve, but the Natural History Museum this week unveils for the today’s Homo sapiens a higher form of museum experience: the Hall of Human Origins!

This new, permanent exhibition begs you to ponder what it means to be human through an array of early artifacts that document the development of behaviors—like art, burial rites, and the use of tools—as well as changes in physical characteristics. There’s also a fun interactive station where you can literally morph yourself into an early hominid. Life before Aqua Net was primitive indeed.

That said, Around the Mall has been tracking the creation of this new show, so take a quick look at what went into the making of this mammoth show.

The Hall of Human Origins would not have come together without a team of skilled artisans, some of whom built caves and recreated early man’s artworks while others undertook the task of sculpting what our predecessors actually looked like.

Not able to make it out to the National Mall anytime soon? Check out the Hall of Human origins website, which features a host of online features and resources. Oh and yes, there is a flute.

The Tibetan artist and religious leader Situ Panchen is depicted here in a painting likely done by one of his students. Image courtesy of the Rubin Museum of Art, New York.

A new exhibit at the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery is highlighting the work of a 18th-century Tibetan religious leader and artist, famous not only for his revival of Tibetan art styles but also for the insider’s view that his writings provide modern scholars.

Because most Tibetan artists of the period toiled anonymously in monasteries little recognized for their work, and because there are very few historical documents in extant, the study of Tibetan art, has long had its limitations.

The exhibition, “Lama, Patron, Artist: The Great Situ Panchen,” however, focuses on the remarkable life of  Situ Panchen (1700-1774) , whose life as a revered Buddhist leader and artist, is well documented in a number of autobiographies and diaries.

Situ Panchen was recognized as a Lama, or teacher, of the Karma Kagyu order of Tibetan Buddhism at an early age. Even as a child and before he was given any formal training, he painted. When he was older, he founded the Palpung Buddhist monastery in Derge, Tibet, where he instructed young Buddhist students in the arts and religion. Well-educated, well-traveled (he journeyed to Nepal in 1723), Situ Panchen made vast contributions to 18th-century Tibetan art, medicine and diplomacy.

“The fact that he was both a prominent patron and artist but also a major religious figure means we have all his autobiographies, and diaries, and also monastic histories of his monastic seat,” said Karl Debrecezeny, a curator of New York City’s Rubin Museum of Art, a co-sponsor with the Sackler of the exhibition. “We have really rich textual material to draw from, his own words, as well as those of his contemporaries.”

The exhibit is based on new research conducted by a leading scholar of Tibetan culture and history, David Jackson, also of the Rubin. Jackson and Debreczeny used the Situ Panchen’s painting as historical documents, cross-referencing the works with passages in the artist’s diaries and journals. A number of Chinese paintings in the Freer-Sackler collection and on view in the exhibition contributed to the scholars’ study of the 18th-century Tibetan leader and artist.

“It’s not just Tibetans looking to Chinese art.” Debreczeny says. “You also have this tradition going on in the Chinese court at the exact same time drawing on Tibetan art, and that’s a major distinction.”

The artist is credited with reviving a 16th-century tradition of the Tibetan encampment style, a traveling monastic community of monks and skilled artists and artisans.  The style combines Indian-inspired human figures with the Chinese blue-green style, which focuses on lush blue and green landscapes.

Panchen began to paint in this style himself, and is the artist of some of the works in the exhibit. But he was even more skilled at designing works of art, Debrecezeny says. He organized artist workshops in his monastery to teach his disciples the style, which often included painting landscapes using the dry tip of a brush to form layers of small dots. He then composed artworks or sets of paintings, dictating to his students while they painted.

“Tibetan art is quite young, compared to Italian renaissance or impressionism,” he says. “This material is new and very few scholars in the past have worked from primary sources. It’s ground breaking.”

Lama Patron Artist: The Great Situ Panchen runs through July 18 at the Sackler Gallery of Art, 1050 Independence Avenue, S.W., Washington, D.C.

National Portrait Gallery, courtesy of Flickr user afagen

In honor of St. Patrick’s Day, we plumbed the National Portrait Gallery’s collection for famous Irish-Americans. Take a look at these fabulous portraits, and read about the sitters’ lives.

1. F. Scott Fitzgerald

The famous author of The Great Gatsby, among other works, was born into an upper-middle class Irish family on September 24, 1896. Fitzgerald was accepted and attended Princeton University, but dropped out and joined the army. Soon after, he published his first novel This Side of Paradise and married a woman by the name of Zelda Sayre. He and Zelda lived the wild lifestyle of the aptly-named “Roaring 20s,” but, unfortunately, experienced both the agony and ecstasy of it. Apparently, Fitzgerald was in the midst of an emotional breakdown in 1935 when he met artist David Silvette, who painted the only known portrait done from life of the writer. Fitzgerald described the portrait, which hangs in the museum’s “Twentieth-Century Americans” exhibition, as being “swell.” Five years later, at age 44, Fitzgerald died of alcohol-related causes.

2. Grace Kelly

Actress Grace Kelly was born on November 12, 1929, in Philadelphia, to parents John Brendan Kelly, son of Irish immigrants, and Margaret Katherine Kelly, a German American. Early in her acting career, she starred on Broadway and on television. But in the early 1950s, she advanced to films—11 in all, including The Country Girl (1954), for which she won an Academy Award for Best Actress. In 1956, she traded the glamour of Hollywood for that of royalty, marrying Prince Rainier III of Monaco. Princess Grace lived in Monaco, a mother of three and dual citizen of the United States and Monaco, until 1982, when she was killed in a car accident at age 52. A bronze portrait of Kelly, by artist Korstiaan Verkade, is part of the gallery’s “Bravo!“ exhibition, which features composers and performers.

3. Nolan Ryan

Irish-American and Hall of Famer Nolan Ryan played for the New York Mets, California Angels, Houston Astros and Texas Rangers over his 27-year career as a baseball pitcher. He was known for throwing pitches that clocked more than 100 miles per hour, earning him the nickname “The Ryan Express.” At age 46, he retired with three major records—most strikeouts in both a career (5,714) and a season (383) and most no-hitters (7)—to his name. Houston-based artist Ruth Munson painted a portrait of Ryan, just having fired a pitch, which now hangs in the museum’s “Champions” exhibit.

4. Muhammad Ali

That’s right! In 2002, genealogists discovered that boxing great Muhammad Ali has Irish roots. This past fall, Ali traveled to Ennis, Ireland, hometown of his great-grandfather, Abe Grady. As the story goes, Grady emigrated to the United States in 1860, where he met and married a freed slave. One of Grady and his wife’s grandchildren, Odessa Lee Grady Clay, is Ali’s mother.

The National Portrait Gallery has in its “Champions” exhibit a portrait of the three-time heavyweight champion by artist Henry C. Casselli, Jr., called “Cat’s Cradle.” In it, young Ali’s arms are outstretched, holding a string in one of the positions of the Cat’s Cradle game. It has been said that the string is an allusion to the ropes around a boxing ring, as well as the delicate, “float like a butterfly” quality of Ali’s boxing style. (I can’t help but think how the snapping of the string would sting like a bee!)

5. John F. Kennedy

John Fitzgerald Kennedy’s great-grandparents, on both his maternal and paternal sides, hailed from Ireland, and he celebrated his Irish ancestry. As the nation’s first Catholic president, he used the Fitzgerald family bible, brought over from Ireland, when he took his oath of office. In June 1963, during his presidency, he made a historic trip to Ireland, at one point telling crowds, “When my great grandfather left here to become a cooper in East Boston, he carried nothing with him except two things: a strong religious faith and a strong desire for liberty. I am glad to say that all of his great-grandchildren have valued that inheritance.”

President Kennedy sat for artist Elaine de Kooning in late 1962, and instead of painting one portrait, as she intended, de Kooning painted a series, one of which is in the gallery’s “America’s Presidents” exhibit. The portrait’s abstract expressionist qualities make it stand out from the rest.

*Be on the look out for, “Americans Now,” an exhibition slated to open this coming August, which promises a portrait of Irish-American Cormac McCarthy, author of The Road and No Country for Old Men.

One hundred years ago today, the doors of a magnificent, new Beaux Arts building located at 10th Street on the National Mall swung open and parade of 4,000 visiting dignitaries, including the German, Japanese and Swiss ambassadors, entered. It was the grand opening of a new National Museum. Six years in the making, at a cost of $3.5 million, the building would become the Smithsonian’s third on the Mall, with an exterior designed by the much acclaimed architectural firm owned by Daniel Burnham and Charles McKim. The Washington Post hailed it as “another milestone in the development of Washington as the intellectual and artistic Capital of the United States.”

Today, the National Museum of Natural History, in celebration of its centennial,  plans a series of events as well as the opening this week of its new David H. Koch Hall of Human Origins. An upcoming exhibition in May, “On Display, In the Field, In the Lab: 100 years at the National Museum of Natural History,” highlights the behind-the-scenes research efforts of its staff in curating the museum’s collection of 126 million specimens that includes 30 million insects, 4.5 million plants, 7 million fishes and 2 million artifacts, drawings and documents.

Tonight at 10 PM, be sure to catch the new show, “Smithsonian Spotlight: 100 Years of Natural History,” on the Smithsonian Channel, check local listings.

Happy 100th Birthday Natural History!

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 Hirasuna, 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 Hirasuna 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, Hirasuna 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.