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Bugs Bunny Stamps, courtesy of National Postal Museum

What’s Up, Doc? His buck teeth and long ears may be timeless, but Bugs Bunny has reached a ripe old age. It was 70 years ago yesterday that everybody’s favorite “wascally wabbit” first popped his head out of his rabbit hole and posed the notorious aforementioned question to arch nemesis Elmer Fudd. Arguably the most famous cartoon character of all time, Bugs Bunny ushered in the Loony Tunes era that enraptured adults and children alike. Complete with slippery banana peels, plummeting planes and extensive carrot chomping, the Smithsonian Libraries blog posted a 1943 video of Bugs, alongside other links of interest, in tribute to his life in television.

Introducing the Art-O-Matic: Following the ban on cigarette vending machines in the late 1990s, artist Clark Whittington co-opted the machine and re-purposed it as an art dispenser for cigarette-sized, original works of art. The “Art-O-Matic” took off, and now Whittington oversees 83 over 90 such machines, one of which just arrived at the Luce Foundation Center for American Art. According to Eye Level, at five dollars per work, you can get your own miniature art straight out of this 60-year-old vending machine. Works include everything from jewelry to sculptures to collages, all handmade by an international array of artists.

It is an exciting time… As a result of a recent effort to broaden accessibility and searchability of all the Smithsonian has to offer, Smithsonian has produced a prototype of the Smithsonian Commons, a centralized online forum for the “Smithsonian research, collections and communities.” Featured recently by We Love DC, the Commons will open the doors to a global audience interested in the Smithsonian who aren’t necessarily able to travel to the museums in Washington, D.C. Explore, vote and comment on the prototype in order to shape the final product!

For lucky iPhone and Android owners, the Collections Search Center (CSC) has recently enhanced their mobile web portal, so that you can find any object in the collections that strikes your fancy while on the go. Simply visit the CSC Web site on your phone, and you’ll get to see the new and improved version.

Holy Mangrove! This past Monday, the National Museum of Natural History’s Ocean Portal blog celebrated International Mangrove Action Day. If you missed out this year, you can still listen to  a podcast of Dr. Candy Feller of the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC), in Edgewater, Md., speaking with SERC ecologist Dr. Dennis Whigham about the importance of these twisted, tropical plants. If you did take a moment out of your day for the mangroves, they invite you to share your celebration with other readers.

Photo by Brandon Springer

The Smithsonian museums may be associated with the institutional formality of its Beaux-Arts style buildings, not to mention its faux-Norman castle, but there is another Smithsonian.  A Smithsonian that is en vogue and hip, even a little bit bawdy. A Smithsonian that revels in campy fun and wild excess.

The fun emanates from the stark, cylindrical museum of contemporary and modern art, known as the Hirshhorn. And it takes place in the evening hours after the museum closes to the public and reopens as a hot nightspot, selling tickets to a crowd of art lovers and club crawlers. The Hirshhorn, which has celebrated the abstract and embraced the modern since it opened in 1971, clashes magnificently with its Beaux-Arts neighbors.

“After Hours,” the three-times-a-year event at the Hirshhorn has become wildly popular. Since 2007, the museum has given venue to underground and avante-garde local artists, allowing itself to be turned into not only a night club, but a club where the art on the walls is the real deal.

Last Friday, performance artist Shea Van Dorn Horn was the latest to take over the Hirshhorn with his cadre of bohemians: DJs Matt Bailer and Bil Todd (who both spin with Van Horn elsewhere), the collaborative theater group CRACK, and a harem of drag queens (Van Horn himself doubling as the ever-illustrious queen, “Summer Camp”).

Camp didn’t disappoint.

“Oh my God we’re in a giant donut!” Camp crowed as she hurled actual donuts at the enormous crowd that had gathered in the museum’s courtyard from a bright yellow rickshaw that was carting her around the Hirshhorn fountain, followed by her “Hirshhorn cheerleaders.” Camp, who emceed the latter half of the show, had told MetroWeekly’s Doug Rule that the event would be “gayer” than ever before. Indeed, the show included performances from CRACK and low-budget films—one video depicted Summer Camp being chased through the museum by Smithsonian guards.

Hipsters, party boys, party girls, interns, young professionals, art fanatics, students, unemployed post-grads, D.C.’s youth were out in force. The 2,000-plus crowd poured through the museum’s exhibitions (the galleries were open late until 10), they squinted particularly hard at Yves Klein’s blue monochromes, in the much-acclaimed exhibit, “With the Void, Full Powers.” The Washington Post‘s art critic Blake Gopnik has now twice reviewed the Klein exhibition, singing its praises. The crowd chattered and pointed and discussed Klein’s fire paintings and “air architecture.”

And then they danced.  Oh, did they dance.

As revelers moved from the galleries down to the dance floor, the harried bartenders poured out specialty drinks, including a special “summer fling” involving ginger, rosemary and vodka. From La Roux’s “Bulletproof” and all the club hits of the moment, to an updated remix of “You’re The One That I Want” from the musical “Grease,” the music and the dancing and the drinks and the art trove drove the over-21-year-old crowd into a happy place.

But, then the clock struck midnight. The show was over and 2,000 young D.C. gadabouts were herded onto Independence Avenue.

For more photos of the event, check out our photo gallery.

There’s one more After Hours this year, date to be determined. Check-in regularly with the Hirshhorn for updates and get your tickets early, this show sells out fast.

Film still from BLOCK B (2008). Pang Khee Teck / Tanjung Aru Pictures 2007

All good things must come to an end and this week, we must bid adieu to several exhibits closing in early August. Be sure to see them before they close and are gone forever!

Black Box: Chris Chong Chan Fui — Closing August 1, 2010

The Hirshhorn’s Black Box theater showcases exhibitions of contemporary artists who use film or video as their creative medium. Chris Chong Chan Fui’s short film Block B captures dramas that unfold night and day on the various floors of a huge apartment complex, that houses Indian expatriates working on temporary contracts. The artist contrasts the static cinematography with vivid unpredictable narrative. Block B suggests issues related to surveillance and voyeurism, but also evokes the dramatic elements that are part of the fabric of daily life.

A Rare Encounter: Hope Diamond and Wittelsbach-Graff Diamond — Closing August 1, 2010

In this exhibit at the Natural History Musem, the Wittelsbach-Graff Diamond and the Hope Diamond are displayed together for the first time. The Wittelsbach-Graff’s deep blue color, flawless clarity, and royal history make it one of the most celebrated gemstones known. Its story goes back over 340 years, and the diamond has not appeared in public for more than 50 years. Both diamonds come from India and share the same rare blue color. Could they have come from the same mine? Smithsonian scientists compare the properties of both gems and explore this intriguing possibility. While the exhibit closes August 1, the Hope Diamond will continue to be on view on the second floor of the museum.

HIDE: Skin as Material and Metaphor: Part 1 — Closing August 1, 2010

The featured artists selected for this exhibition at the American Indian Museum’s George Gustav Heye Center in New York draw upon this rich subject in multifaceted ways, using both the material and concept of skin as a metaphor for widespread issues surrounding race, representation, as well as personal, historical and environmental trauma and perseverance. Part I includes solo installations by Sonya Kelliher-Combs (Inupiaq/Athabascan) and works by Nadia Myre (Anishinaabe).

Brian Jungen: Strange Comfort – Closing August 8, 2010

Brian Jungen's artwork, People's Flag, on display at the National Museum of the American Indian as part of his solo exhibition Strange Comfort. Photo by NMAI staff photographer Katherine Fogden.

Brian Jungen is widely regarded as the foremost Native artist of his generation; his art transforms the familiar and banal into exquisite objects that reference themes of globalization, pop culture, museums, and the commodification of Indian imagery. He first came to prominence with Prototypes for New Understandings (1998-2005), which fashioned Nike footwear into masks that suggested Northwest Coast iconography. His work has also included a pod of whales made from plastic chairs, totem poles made from golf bags, and a massive basketball court made from 224 sewing tables. This exhibit at the American Indian Museum in D.C. features some of these iconic works as well as some pieces which have, until now, never been shown in the United States.

Ramp It Up: Skateboard Culture in Native America – Closing August 8, 2010

This exhibition at the Heye Center features rare and archival photographs and film of Native skaters, as well as skatedecks from Native companies and contemporary artists, to celebrate the vibrancy, creativity, and controversy of American Indian skate culture. Skateboarding is one of the most popular sports on Indian reservations and has inspired American Indian and Native Hawaiian communities to host skateboard competitions and build skate parks to encourage their youth. Native entrepreneurs own skateboard companies and sponsor community-based skate teams. Native artists and filmmakers, inspired by their skating experiences, credit the sport with teaching them a successful work ethic.

Graphic Masters III: Highlights from the Smithsonian American Art Museum — Closing August 8, 2010

On view are watercolors, pastels, and drawings from the 1960s to the 1990s, to celebrate the extraordinary variety and accomplishment of American artists’ works on paper. The works on view reveal the central importance of this medium for American artists, both as studies for creations in other media and as finished works of art. Artists represented include such masters as Robert Arneson, Jennifer Bartlett, Philip Guston, Luis Jimenez, and Wayne Thiebaud.

Cajal's Revenge, by Katherine Sherwood. Image courtesy of the artist.

The painting is the kind that makes me tilt my head in wonderment. What is it exactly? A shrub atop a world of subterranean passageways?

The piece’s title, Cajal’s Revenge, offered little in the way of explanation until I spoke with the artist, Katherine Sherwood of Berkeley, California. “Ramón y Cajal is one of the only anatomists that would do his own illustrations,” said Sherwood. As it turns out, the shrub is no shrub at all. It’s Cajal’s rendering of a Purkinje cell, one of the largest neurons in the human brain.

Cajal’s Revenge is one of 130-plus works of art by 54 contemporary artists with disabilities featured in “Revealing Culture,” a juried, VSA exhibition on display at the Smithsonian’s International Gallery in the S. Dillon Ripley Center through August 29.

Sherwood, who teaches a course at the University of California, Berkeley, on the intersection of art, medicine and disability, came upon Cajal’s work during her 2005-06 Guggenheim fellowship. Her project was to utilize neuroanatomy from the 16th century up through the present in her mixed-media paintings.

“I call it Cajal’s Revenge because he always wanted to be an artist. His father was also an anatomist so he refused his son to go into something like art,” said Sherwood. “But it’s funny to me. The revenge comes in that he used his skills of drawing to garner the Nobel Prize [in 1906].”

One could also say that Sherwood’s art is a beautiful revenge on the the personal hardship she herself has faced. She juxtaposes century-old illustrations with 21st century brain scans—often her own. “I was immediately taken with them,” said Sherwood, of her scans. She suffered a stroke in 1997, which paralyzed her on her right side and forced her to teach herself to paint with her left hand.

To create her works of art, Sherwood adheres digital prints of her angiograms, for example, to her canvas, then paints with latex and acrylic and applies a transparent oil glaze to the top. ”They [viewers] won’t know that it is my arterial system that they are looking at,” said Sherwood. “But I hope to reposition those things for spiritual means.”

Last year's Portraits Alive! series had teens portraying personalities like actor Rudolph Valentino and opera singer Leontyne Price. Image courtesy of the National Portrait Gallery.

Monday, July 26: The Americans with Disabilities Act Turns 20: Objects Out of Storage

Today marks the 20th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) being signed into law. To celebrate the occasion, curator Katherine Ott will show and discuss objects in the museum’s collections that tell the story behind ADA. Free. American History Museum, 1:00-2:00 PM.

Tuesday, July 27: The Fight for the Chesapeake Bay Watershed

Maintaining the ecological health of the Chesapeake Bay watershed is an ongoing battle. Tonight, professor at the US Naval Academy Howard Ernst is joined by senior advisor to the EPA Chuck Fox on what has been done—and what still needs to be done—to save the bay. A book signing follows the discussion. Free. Anacostia Museum, 7:00 PM.

Wednesday, July 28: Portraits Alive!

It’s back! By grace of DC Mayor Adrian Fenty’s 2010 Summer Youth Employment Program, a troupe of teens scattered throughout the Portrait Gallery bring the art on the walls to life though short, biographical sketches. Not able to make it out today? Worry not. Portraits Alive repeats throughout the month of July. Check goSmithsonian.com for a full listing of dates. Free. Portrait Gallery, 2:15 PM

Thursday, July 29: Goombay: The Caribbean Experience

Today’s program is perfect for persons ages 5-12 and will teach them about the Bahamian musical tradition of Goombay. With David Boothman on keyboard and steel drums, Diann Marshall singing and dancing and Elizabeth Melvin on marimba and percussion, you’ll take a musical journey through the Caribbean Islands. Not able to make it out today? No worries, this event repeats on July 22, 27, & 29. Free, but registration is required. To register, call 202-633-4646. African Art Museum, 11:00 AM.

Friday, July 30: HOT (Human Origins Today) Topics: Dialogue on the Relationship Between Scientific and Religious Perspectives on Human Origins

The subject of the origins of human existence will always be a hot topic. Today you have the opportunity to hear an informal discussion on the relationship between scientific and religious perspectives regarding human evolution. Free. Natural History Museum, 3:00-4:00 PM.

For updates on all exhibitions and events, visit our companion site goSmithonian.com