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This illustration, by Sara Schwartz, of James McNeill Whistler's Peacock Room now appears on an Anna Sui T-shirt. Image courtesy of the Freer Gallery of Art.

Smithsonian exhibits travel to museums across the country. Smithsonian scientists conduct research the world over. And Smithsonian magazine is delivered to the doorsteps of two million loyal subscribers.

There’s no doubt that the Institution has a commanding presence. But Smithsonian on the runway? That’s a new one.

Last Wednesday, during New York City’s Fashion Week in Bryant Park, American designer Anna Sui unveiled her fall 2010 line. In it is a T-shirt inspired by James McNeill Whistler’s elaborate Peacock Room in the Smithsonian’s Freer Gallery of Art.

Sui, a graduate of the Parsons School of Design in New York who staged her first show in 1991, is known for her self-described good-girl-meets-bad-girl style (think: military jacket with lace trim). Her fall collection continues in this same vein, but also employs an American “Arts and Crafts” theme. It was while Sui was studying this turn-of-the-20^th-century art movement that she zeroed in on Whistler’s Peacock Room.

Fashion designer Anna Sui with her Peacock Room-inspired T-shirt. Photo courtesy of the Freer Gallery of Art.

Whistler, an American-born artist, designed the ornate, blue and gold Peacock Room (aptly decorated with peacock feathers) in 1876 and 1877, when it served as the dining room in the home of English shipping magnate Frederick R. Leyland. (The story is steeped in controversy. Apparently, Leyland was not pleased with the outcome and never paid Whistler in full for his work.) Collector Charles Lang Freer purchased the room in 1904, and in 1923, it was put on permanent display at the Freer Gallery. The room is one of the museum’s biggest draws.

“I had always been familiar with the Peacock Room from photographs, and considered it to be the ultimate Art Nouveau interior,” says Sui. She was equally fascinated with the feud between Leyland and Whistler and visited the Freer Gallery a couple years ago. “It was such a treat to finally see the Peacock Room in-person. I can’t wait to see it again after its current restoration! I understand that details from the original room that had darkened with age are now revived to their former brilliance and clarity.”

Sui teamed up with artist Sara Schwartz, whose work has been featured in the New York Times, the Washington Post and various teen magazines, to create the T-shirt. Schwartz’s cartoon-like illustration is a view of two of the room’s walls. Whistler’s painting, The Princess from the Land of Porcelain (1863-64), hangs over the mantel and pieces of blue and white vases and dishes line the shelves, just as they do in the actual Peacock Room.

The T-shirts—black, with the image in silver—were given to 250 V.I.P. guests, mostly department store buyers and fashion reporters, at the show. But the public will be able to buy the shirts, in more colors, through the Freer and Sackler galleries’ shops and Web sites, Sui’s showrooms and Web site and some retail stores starting in September. Proceeds will go toward the Smithsonian’s Freer and Sackler galleries and their mission to support the study and appreciation of Asian art and culture.

Film still from Phoebe Greenberg's "Next Floor," (2008). Courtesy of the artist.

Based on the grotesque imagery of the screen shots of strange food and even stranger characters I saw beforehand, I was hesitant to go see Phoebe Greenberg’s critically acclaimed film, Next Floor. But as soon as I sat back in the Hirshhorn’s darkened Black Box theater, I immediately realized this visually stunning piece was going to be food for thought.

Filmed in a richly desaturated color palette (think The Sopranos) and occupied by characters extreme in appearance and appetite, it is gluttony at its finest. Lavishly dressed guests at a dinner party held in an abandoned house tear at an abundance of food in a visceral and carnal frenzy. The scene takes place on the  top floor of the building and the ever-increasing weight of the diners and their feast-laden table pushes the limits of the creaking floorboards. When the floorboards can bear no more, they burst, sending table and guests crashing through to the next floor. Yet servers keep serving, and the dinner guests keep dining, gorging themselves, even as boards of the consecutive floors continue to break. Undeterred, the diners eat their way to a Dante-esque descent into damnation, eventually plummeting into an endless abyss. Is this a post-consumption era morality tale?

The short film, just twelve minutes of highly-stylized suspense, has garnered many honors, including Best Short Film at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival and is on view at the Hirshhorn through April 11.

This Thursday, February 25, from 7 to 8 PM, meet the woman behind the vision, creator and producer Phoebe Greenberg will discuss her work in the Lerner Room at the museum.

A sculpture bathing in the snow in the Hirshhorn Museum's Sculpture Garden. Photo courtesy of flickr user vpickering.

It has certainly been an unprecedented winter here in Washington, D.C., where a grand total of 54.9 inches of snow had fallen as of February 10, breaking the previous seasonal snowfall record set in 1898-99.

So how has the Smithsonian been affected? Now that the skies and the streets are clear, we here at ATM take a look.

First off, the Smithsonian’s gardens took quite a hit. Throughout the storms, the horticulture team was working to clear walkways and desperately save some of the more valuable plants. With the gardens still buried in snow, the condition of the gardens is hard to assess. But Janet Draper, horticulturalist at the Smithsonian’s Mary Livingston Ripley Garden, says that colleagues of hers all along the Mall are reporting damage to Southern magnolias, hollies and elms. Many of the trees could not handle the extra weight of the snow, and branches bent over and cracked under the pressure. “The agaves are probably toast,” she adds. “But there’s a pro and a con to everything.” The snowfall will both raise the water table and act as an insulator, protecting the plants from further damage. According to Draper, the trees, though hard hit, look to benefit from the snow. A flash flood gets the ground’s surface wet, but the slow melting of snow cover like this provides a deep soaking. Plus, says Draper, “Sometimes this kind of damage is just the nudge we need to renovate an area.”

A break in a Harry Lauder's Walking Stick in the Mary Livingston Ripley Garden. Photo by Janet Draper.

Sculpture conservator Gwynne Ryan was relieved to find that none of the downed trees landed on sculptures in the Hirshhorn Museum’s Sculpture Garden. Every summer, conservators identify and address any structural weaknesses in the sculptures that may be especially vulnerable to the harsher conditions of winter. At this point, they clean the sculptures and apply a protective coating to them that reduces the amount of contact the sculptures have with moisture and pollutants. “The types of treatments that are in place are the same, pretty much, that are used in sculpture gardens around the globe,” says Ryan. Snowier places, included. Although no measures short of bringing the sculptures indoors can provide perfect protection against the elements, she is not expecting to see any unusual damages from the snowfall.

Many on staff at the National Zoo stayed overnight during the storms, working around the clock to make sure that the animals were fed and paths for both keepers and animals were clear. The commissary team managed to deliver meals to the animals on time every day, and some Friends of the National Zoo (FONZ) came in and opened a restaurant so that staff staying on site could have a place to eat. “It was an enormous team effort,” says Don Moore, the zoo’s Associate Director of Animal Care.

For any pending storm, be it a thunderstorm, hurricane, ice or snowstorm, explains Moore, they consider the animals’ well-being in the weather and possible containment issues. Luckily, many of the animals were taken indoors, because there were a bunch of downed trees and collapsed enclosures. (Two birds flew the coop!)

Pandas playing in the snow at the National Zoo. Photo by Ann Batdorf/NZP.

It must have been fun watching some of the animals react to the snow though. According to Moore, a particularly snowphobic Sumatran tiger had to be moved from one holding area to another. Keepers cut a path through the snow, and he “went out, looked at the snow, did one of those cat shake-your-paw-off-because-it’s-wet-kind-of-things and ran across to the other side to get back in.” Meanwhile, the pandas playfully tumbled around in the snow. After the storms, keepers dug paths in the outdoor exhibit spaces for the animals, just like many dog owners in the D.C.-area did.

As you probably heard reported, part of the roof and wall of one of the metal buildings of the Garber Preservation, Restoration and Storage Facility in Suitland, Maryland, collapsed under the weight of the snow. About 1,500 artifacts from the National Air and Space Museum, including 800 pieces of air and space-themed artwork, are stored in the building, though reportedly none are thought to be damaged. “The priority is to stabilize the building, take the artifacts out and relocate them to other places,” says National Air and Space Museum’s spokeswoman Claire Brown. Smithsonian Secretary G. Wayne Clough and others inspected the affected building and those around it, but nobody can enter and attempt to remove the artifacts until engineers assess the site.

Bill Baker's U.S. Olympic hockey team jersey, 1980. Photo courtesy of the National Museum of American History.

As athletes continue to create new Olympic moments (I’m still coming down from Shaun White’s victory run), we here at ATM thought it a good time to reflect on a classic one of the past—the so-called “Miracle on Ice.”

Thirty years ago today, the U.S. men’s hockey team faced the Soviet Union in the semifinals of the 1980 Olympics in Lake Placid. A hockey juggernaut, and, of course, Cold War rival, the Soviet Union had taken home the last four Olympic golds and pummeled the U.S., 10-3, in an exhibition game just weeks before. The game was a nail biter, tied until the U.S. team’s caption Mike Eruzione scored a goal with ten minutes of play to go. “Do you believe in miracles?” sportscaster Al Michaels famously asked in the last frenetic seconds of the game. “Yes!” The U.S. won 4-3.

The victory advanced the U.S. to the final, against Finland, where they ultimately snatched the gold. But it is the against-all-odds semifinal win that left the indelible mark in Olympic history. Sports Illustrated voted it the greatest sports moment of the 20th century.

As I suspected, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History has a handful of related artifacts in its collection (but, unfortunately, not on display). According to Jane Rogers, associate curator in the division of music, sports and entertainment, the museum has an entire U.S. hockey uniform, the pieces worn by and collected from different players on the 1980 team. The ensemble includes forward Bill Baker’s jersey and the skates worn by fellow forward Phil Verchota. The museum also has a stick, not used, but signed by the Miracle on Ice players, as well as photographs from the game, including one of the team celebrating in a pileup on the ice.

Mary McLeod Bethune. Image courtesy of the Postal Museum.

Monday, February 22: Words Between Two Reformers: Mary McLeod Bethune and Eleanor Roosevelt: Cultures in Motion Performance

In this theatrical piece, learn about the friendship between Eleanor Roosevelt and Mary McLeod Bethune who was a member of the Black Cabinet, a collective of representatives working in New Deal agencies that worked to meet the needs of African Americans. Free, but seating is limited. To reserve your spot, call 202-633-8520 or e-mail NPGPublicPrograms@si.edu. National Portrait Gallery, 7:00 PM.

Tuesday, February 23: George Washington and John Adams, Two Founding Fathers

Author and Smithsonian magazine contributor John Ferling will talk about two famous founding fathers, George Washington and John Adams, and why the latter deserves more attention than he’s received. (And no, an award-winning HBO miniseries doesn’t count.) Tickets are required. Rates are: $25 general admission. Tickets may be purchased online or in person at the Resident Associates Program Ticket Window. Please refer to this page for additional ticketing options. Resident Associates Program, 7:00 PM.

Wednesday, February 24: Sukeyasu Shiba’s Gagaku Universe

Composer Sukeyasu Shiba, a long-time member of Japan’s Imperial Household Agency Gagaku Orchestra, leads his eleven-member Reigakusha ensemble of musicians and dancers in a performance of original music and choreography. Shiba’s works revitalize an ancient combination of ritual dance accompanied by mouth organ, lute, flute, double-reed, percussion and other instruments rarely heard in the West. Arrive at 6:45 and enjoy a a pre-performance gallery tour. Free. Freer, 7:30 PM

Thursday, February 25: All-American Music: Behind the Scenes with Porgy and Bess

George Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess, which tells the love story of a cripple and a woman of ill-repute living in the slums of South Carolina, has a fabulously complicated place in American popular culture. In a special multimedia presentation, learn about the opera, its legacy and enjoy performances from the Washington National Opera’s upcoming production of the piece. (Also check out ATM’s post on Todd Duncan, who originated the role of Porgy in 1935.) Free. American History Museum, 7:00-9:00 PM.

Friday, February 26: Sit Down. Stand Up!

In this Discovery Theater Presentation, learn about four black college students who fought for fair and equal treatment by sitting down at a whites-only lunch counter on February 1, 1960. Learn the songs they sang and how they spurred the Civil Rights Movement. Tickets are required. Rates are: $6 general admission; $5 children; children ages two and under are free. Tickets may be purchased online (click here for details) or in person at the ticket office in the International Gallery. American History Museum, 10:15 Am. This event repeats today at 11:30.