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Eileen Collins, the first female pilot and first female commander of a space shuttle mission, photographed by Annie Leibovitz, 1999. Photograph courtesy of NASA Art Program.

When you think about the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), art may not be the first, or even the second, thing that comes to mind.  A new traveling exhibition, “NASA|ART: 50 Years of Space Exploration,” on display at the Air and Space Museum from May 28 to October 9, just may change that.

The NASA|ART project was established in 1962 by NASA administrator James E. Webb. Its mission was simple—commission artwork that captured the essence of what the agency and the space program were all about, in ways that photographs simply could not, says Tom Crouch, senior curator of aeronautics and art at the museum.

Mercury Astronaut Gordon Cooper’s 1963 Faith 7 spacecraft launch, depicted in Mitchell Jamieson’s First Steps, marked the first time that an artist was sent to a space event. The program, initially launched by James Dean, still continues today, under the leadership of Burt Ulrich, the program’s curator at NASA Headquarters.

Dean helped select more than 70 works of art, including drawings, photographs, sculpture and other artistic renderings “that would both represent the NASA|ART collection as it was and is and celebrate the 50 year history of the agency,” Crouch says.

The collection, arranged chronologically, takes viewers through an exploration of space—from Mercury to Apollo to Gemini, to the space shuttle, aeronautics and beyond—as told from the perspective of artists including Annie Leibovitz, Alexander Calder, Norman Rockwell and Andy Warhol, among others.

“Artists are given this sort of back door view of what NASA’s all about and what’s nice is that they can share that experience through their own imagination to the public,” Ulrich says. “It really took a lot of foresight, I think, for James Webb who started the program. I think he had this idea that through the great ages of history, art is often the residue of that [...] and it’s such a wonderful way of looking back at history.” In addition to depicting the people, places and great events that viewers already know, the artists also introduce viewers to other astronauts and aspects of space exploration they may not.

Chakaia Booker uses rubber to commemorate the Columbia crew in Remembering Columbia, 2006. Photography courtesy of the NASA Art Program.

Native American artist Jaune Quick-to-See Smith uses various aspects of Native American symbolism in her painting Indian Science, which honors the first Native American astronaut John Bennett Herrington. Annie Leibovitz’s photograph entitled Eileen Collins captures the first female pilot (Discovery, 1995) and the first female commander of a space shuttle (Columbia, 1999) during training at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. Artist and fashion designer Stephen Sprouse (1953-2004) used imagery from the Sojourner Rover to create a work of art that was essentially a dress and a pair of slippers. The piece called NASA Rover Mars Pink, carried an additional twist. With a pair of 3-D glasses, the dress took on a whole new dimension. The designer debuted it in a line of clothing he showed at NYC fashion week in 2000.

Towards the end of the exhibition, artists commemorate the astronauts from the Columbia and Challenger missions in “Remembering Lost Crews.” Artist Chakaia Booker uses pieces of a space shuttle tire donated to her by NASA to create a sculpture, Columbia Tribute, which resembles a black star, hanging on the wall above the gallery.

The final piece, though, is an unexpected musical composition written by Terry Riley with a multimedia component designed by Willie Williams, and called “Sun Rings.” Performed by the Kronos Quartet, the piece incorporates actual sounds of space—radio waves from the far reaches of the universe converted into sound waves.

“The whole exhibit is the arrogance of man’s imagination,” says Nichelle Nichols, the actress who played Lt. Uhura on “Star Trek” and who later worked for NASA in the 1970s and 80s recruiting women and minorities to the space program. “I realize what a powerful word that is, [and] it’s not negative,” she continues. “This is what all the art is—to imagine what it is that takes us from ground zero to as far as the imagination can take you and then beyond; an incredible collection.”

“NASA|ART: 50 Years of Space Exploration is on display at the Air & Space Museum from May 28 to October 9. The museum is open daily (except December 25)  from 10AM to 7:30 PM for extended summer hours. See the website for more details.

Buzz Aldrin on the moon. Image courtesy of NASA Images

Tuesday, May 31 To the Moon!

A decade ago, on May 25, 1961, President John F. Kennedy announced his decision to send Americans to the moon. John Logsdon, author of John F. Kennedy and the Race to the Moon, is on hand to explain the behind-the-scenes scientific endeavors and the historical legacies of NASA’s Apollo program. Free. 1:00 PM. Air and Space Museum. If you can’t make it, check out this webcast of the event.

Wednesday, June 1 Behind the Scenes of the Ocean Hall

Meet a Smithsonian scientist in the Sant Ocean Hall to see specimens up close, learn about science underway in the field, new discoveries, specimen collection and the highlights and rigors of pursuing a quest for knowledge working as a Smithsonian scientist. Free. 1:00 to 3:00 PM. Natural History Museum

Thursday, June 2 Ault’s Disquieting World

During the 1940s, a troubled and anxious artist named George Ault painted some of the most original works of art in America. Little was known at the time of Ault’s haunting rural landscape paintings, but they seem to reflect the trying times of a nation at the cusp of war. Perhaps his works were “a desperate attempt to control the muddled chaos not only in his personal life, but also in the world at large.” View the exhibition, To Make a World: George Ault and 1940s America and then come hear historian and writer Stephen May discuss Ault’s work and psyche in this lecture. Free. 7:00 PM. American Art Museum.

Friday, June 3 Mummies Sneak Peek

Explore Egyptian cosmology, learn about burial rituals, see a step-by-step tutorial on the mummification process and view a display of mummy masks in the sneak peek of the Eternal Life in Ancient Egypt exhibition. Full exhibition will go on display November 17. Natural History Museum

For updates on all exhibitions and events, visit our companion website goSmithsonian.com

Continuum, the 2011 National Design Award winner in the Product Design category, designed the air bladder fit control system for the Reebok Pump sneaker in the late 1980s, among other successful products. Photo by Mike Brzoza.

Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum Director Bill Moggridge announced the winners and finalists in the 12th annual National Design Awards competition yesterday. “As the nation’s design museum, Cooper-Hewitt raises awareness that design is everywhere,” says Moggridge (a former award winner himself), in a press release. With this in mind, awards are given in ten categories: Lifetime Achievement, Design Mind, Corporate and Institutional Achievement, Architecture, Communication, Fashion, Interaction, Interior Design, Landscape Architecture and Product Design.

“The work of this year’s National Design Awards winners represents extraordinary solutions to the design problems central to the landscape of daily life, from how we dress, shape our personal and private spaces, frame communication and interact with the world at large,” adds Moggridge. Lifetime Achievement winner Matthew Carter has spent 50 years designing typefaces, including the familiar Verdana and Georgia. The New York-based Architecture Research Office, selected as the Architecture Design winner, has taken on many innovative projects, such as a prototype for a low-income yet sustainable house. And Continuum, which takes the award for Product Design, is the studio behind Reebok’s Pump line of shoes and the now ubiquitous Swiffer.

This year, National Design Week will be held October 15-23, with the winners receiving their awards at a gala dinner at Pier Sixty in New York on October 20. Polls will be open for the People’s Design Award, which calls design enthusiasts to nominate and vote on products that constitute good design, from September 19 to October 18.

In the meantime, here is a roundup of our coverage of past winners:

Bill Moggridge, a 2009 winner in Lifetime Achievement, discusses the future of computing and design.

Tom Kundig, 2008 winner in architecture, designs little cabins on stilts.

David Rockwell, 2008 winner in interior design, talks about his design process.

Charles Harrison, 2008 Lifetime Achievement winner, designed some 600 household items in his 32-year career as an industrial designer at Sears.

Chip Kidd, 2007 winner in communications design, talks about book cover design.

(Also, former intern Jess Righthand gives us a first-hand account of last year’s awards gala.)

Damai, the Zoo's newest tiger. Photo credit: Mehgan Murphy/National Zoo

There’s a new tiger over at the Zoo. She is Damai, a 2 and 1/2 year old Sumatran tiger and yesterday, she came out of her month-long quarantine after arriving from the San Diego Safari Park on April 12.

Later this year, the Zoo is hoping to welcome a new male tiger. And Damai and her new mate will be encouraged to start a family. The Zoo has a special knack for getting Sumatran tigers to breed. In 2006, the 17-year-old Soyono had 3 cubs. (Her male cub, Guntur, celebrated his 5th birthday this week). Before that she delivered three cubs in 2004 and one in 2001. Breeding the highly endangered species is critical to the animals’ conservation in the wild. Fewer than 3,500 tigers remain now with poaching and habitat loss being the main culprits. And making sure that the limited number of animals held in captivity remain genetically diverse is a critical issue in animal husbandry.

Damai has a highly valuable genetic lineage, according to the Association of Zoos and Aquariums’ Species Survival Plan (SSP), which acts as a matchmaking service, setting up breeding couples from a pool of animals across the country. The purpose of the SSP is to ensure genetic diversity among the population of captive animals.

The Zoo’s Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute is working in partnership with the World Bank and 13 countries in Asia where tigers live to double the number of tigers in the wild by the year 2022. We spoke with Leigh Pitsko, animal keeper of great cats and bears, about the zoo’s latest addition.

How is Damai taking to this week’s oppresive heat, the first of the summer season?

Damai spent the hot day yesterday in the AC! She was allowed access to the outdoor yard all morning, but everything is so new to her that she decided to observe all the sights and sounds of the tiger exhibit from the doorway. On Wednesday, she was out in the yard for a bit, and even took a swim in the moat! Every cat is different, so we’re allowing her to explore at her own pace and choose whether she wants to be inside or out until she’s completely comfortable with her new surroundings

I hear that Damai’s a sweet tiger and that she’s very calm and curious. How is she curious? What has she been doing to demonstrate that?

Damai is a very sweet and curious tiger. She has traveled here all the way from San Diego without a hitch and is settling into her new home nicely. Although Damai is not yet quite as confident as our resident tigers Soyono and Guntur, she is very observant of her surroundings and has been a pleasure to work with.

I understand you are training her so that she can undergo medical exams without any need for anesthesia. How do you go about training a tiger?

We do hope to train Damai to allow voluntary vaccine injections on her hip and blood-draws from a vein on her tail. We start by building a good relationship with her, then slowly beginning specific training steps to achieve these behaviors. She has a great training history from her previous home and is food motivated, so we are anticipating that she will be cooperative and interested in learning new behaviors here.

Damai is on view in her exhibit at the Zoo. Today, the Zoo reports she didn’t want to come outside, but who could blame her, given that Washington, D.C. temperatures soared into the 90s yesterday. You might catch glimpses of her roaming her compound on the Zoo’s tiger cam.

Abraham Lincoln's top hat (Courtesy of American History Museum

Friday, May 27 Lincoln Exhibit Closes Sunday

You mustn’t miss this show, Abraham Lincoln: An Extraordinary Life, which closes Monday, May 30. This is your last chance to see the American History museum’s unparalleled collection of artifacts from the life and times of the 16th president. See the gold pocket watch that carries a secret message inside, a patent model of Lincoln’s own invention, the top hat he wore the night he was assassinated at Ford’s Theatre and so much more. Exhibition photos are also online. Special guided tours offered daily at 2:00 PM. The museum will be open until 7:30 PM today and Saturday. American History Museum

Saturday, May 28 Spark!Lab

The Lemelson Center’s Spark!Lab offers young visitors hands-on experiments that teach about science, the invention process and the role of technology in American history. Activities rotate on a regular basis to provide visitors with new learning experiences. Staff-led experiments are offered most days at 11:00 AM, 12:00 PM, 1:00 PM, 2:00 PM, and 3:00 PM. Confirm schedule at either information desk. Free. American History Museum. 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM.

Please note: Roads around the National Mall will be closed Sunday for Rolling Thunder and Monday for a Memorial Day parade. Please see DC’s Department of Transportation web site for more information .

Sunday, May 29 Friendship Dance

The Children of the Four Directions sing, drum and tell of the ways of their tribe. Gifts from each tribe will be presented to the museum and a Friendship Round Dance ends the event. Free. 10:30 AM to 1:30 PM. Museum of the American Indian

Monday, May 30 Dinosaurs on the Big Screen

Dinosaurs 3D will take you into the world of the largest known dinosaurs, Argentinosaurus and Gigantosaurus. Experience their lives in the Early Cretaceous period as they struggle to survive in a brutal environment. Paleontologist Rodolfo Coria is your guide for a archeological dig in Argentina. The film is shown at 2:25, 4:25 and 6:25 daily, in the Johnson IMAX Theater at the Natural History museum. Tickets are $9 adults, $8 seniors, $6.50 members and $7.50 children ages 2 to 12. Toll free phone 866-868-7774 or online. Natural History Museum

For updates on all exhibitions and events, visit goSmithsonian.com