Smithsonian.com

Come enjoy the butterfly pavilion! Image courtesy of the Natural History Museum.

Monday, May 18: Docent’s Choice Tour

Take a little risk at the art gallery today and let the docent lead you wherever they will! Will it be America’s President’s exhibition? Will it be one of the special shows on display? You won’t know until you come over here and enjoy the unexpected pleasures of the National Portrait Gallery. Free. Repeats daily. National Portrait Gallery, 1:00 PM

Tuesday, May 19: Mary Livingston Ripley Garden Tour

This time of year, I love spending my lunch hour in the gardens and enjoy the scenery. And since they’re only in bloom for part of the year, I can’t encourage you enough to come out and enjoy them too. What’s more, is that a horticulturalist will be available to walk and talk you through the gardens so that—if you’re like me and are totally ignorant about plant life—you can gain a heightened appreciation of the Smithsonian’s fabulous flora. Free. Repeats every Tuesday at 2:00 PM and Wednesday at 1:00 PM until October 27, 2009, weather permitting. Hirshhorn Museum, 2 PM.

Wednesday, May 20: Art 21: Consumption

The last in a series of films that features interviews with contemporary artists will feature Barbara Kruger, Michael Ray Charles, Matthew Barney, Andrea Zittel, and Mel Chin. Free. American Art Museum, 6:00 PM

Thursday, May 21: The Grapes of Wrath

I love Steinbeck, but the Grapes of Wrath is one big honkin’ novel to plow through. An amazing read, but it requires stamina. For those of you out there who have commitment issues—or for those who enjoy equally amazing cinematic experiences—check out John Ford’s 1940 film adaptation. In the throes of the Great Depression, the Joad family is driven from their native Oklahoma and tries to survive an arduous journey to California, where they hope to rebuild their lives. And if the ending doesn’t leave you with chills, please make sure you have a pulse. Free. American Art Museum, 6:00 PM

Friday, May 22: Butterfly Pavilion

Follow the butterflies at the Natural History Museum! Stroll the pavilion and enjoy a wide array of these exotic winged insects as well as eye-popping plants. Tickets required. Rates are: $6 for adults; $5.50 for seniors (60+); $5 for children (2 to 12); $5 for members. Tickets are available by phone at 202-633-4629 (IMAX) or 1-877-932-4629 (IMAX) (toll-free), in person at the Butterfly Pavilion Box Office or online. Natural History Museum, 10:15 AM-6:00 PM.

Cosmic Butterfly (1973) is part of "Universal Dimensions: The Space Art of Wang Ming" on display at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum until October 9.

“I have never limited myself to eastern or western standards of beauty. My standard of beauty comes from the beauty of the cosmic world in the infinity.” Wang Ming

An 86-year-old man’s dream came true this week.

Artist Wang Ming’s journey began in the 1940s. As he worked as an air traffic controller in Taiwan, he became interested in the beauty of the sky. He was a young man then, having fled from Japanese-occupied China in 1939 at age 18.

Discouraged from practicing art in the East, he emigrated to the United States in 1951. There he set up a frame shop and began experimenting with celestial images using his signature style of combining untraditional materials, like acrylic paints, with traditional Chinese forms and calligraphy.

Years before the Hubble Telescope began broadcasting images of rainbow clouds and blood red stars, Ming used art to convey what he imagined space to be. His work captured the attention of James Dean, the National Air and Space Museum’s first art collector, who purchased two of his pieces.

The Museum continued its relationship with Ming, and yesterday, as Ming stood in front of a solo exhibition containing over 30 of his works, he had many people to thank, including the country that for the past 58 years allowed him to practice his craft.

“He has a very positive outlook, “says curator Barbara Brennan. “He feels like he came to this country and had all these opportunities as an artist.”

It’s a historic moment for the National Air and Space Museum as well. The Wang Ming exhibit, marks the first time an Asian American artist has been featured in the museum’s galleries. The show is also unusual because it reflects an abstract expressionist approach. There are more than 4,700 art pieces in the Air and Space collection, and the majority are realistic illustrations.

According to Brennan, the aesthetics are a reflection of both eastern and western styles. Ming’s use of calligraphy and red, black and white reflect his upbringing in China. The large splashes of color are heavily influenced by 1950s American art.

“As an artist, I have been on two journeys in life,” Ming says. “One took me to a new and very different country. The other journey has been within myself.”

The exhibit “Universal Dimensions: The Space Art of Wang Ming” is on view through October 9 in the Air and Space Museum’s West End Gallery.

Cosmic Butterfly (Acrylic on Japanese paper – 1973) is part of Universal Dimensions: The Space Art of Wang Ming on display at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum April 9, 2009 through October 9, 2009.

Portrait of Stephen Colbert, courtesy of National Museum of American History

10. Recession buster! Can’t make it to Cabo this year? Put on your flip-flops and floral print shirts and enter the Smithsonian’s very own tropical oasis, the Butterfly Pavilion at the National Museum of Natural History. It promises 95 degrees F and 80 percent humidity.

9. Prepare a Smithsonian-wide scavenger hunt for your kids, nieces or nephews with clues leading to treasures like Dorothy’s ruby slippers, a giant squid and the Wright Flyer.

8. After seeing Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian, opening May 22, try to retrace the steps Ben Stiller must have made in filming it.

7. Enter the National Museum of American History’s National Anthem singing contest on YouTube, which will launch in February, for a chance to win a trip to DC and the opportunity to perform your rendition of the “Star-Spangled Banner” on Flag Day, June 14.

6. Eat a meal from every region—Northern Woodlands, South America, Northwest Coast, Meso America and the Great Plains—featured at the National Museum of the American Indian’s café.

5. Sleep over at the Smithsonian National Zoo through its Snore & Roar program. How many people can say they’ve camped out next to a lion’s den? Check this out.

4. Enter a kite in the 43^rd Annual Smithsonian Kite Festival on March 28, 2009. Just make sure its bridle is on the right way. I speak from experience. And, speaking of festivals on the National Mall, go to the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, which runs June 24-28 and July 1-5.

3. Meet Secretary Clough, the Smithsonian Institution’s new Secretary as of 2008—even if it’s just through reading ATM blogger Beth Py-Lieberman’s interview with him.

2. Attempt a Stephen Colbert-esque quest to get your portrait in a Smithsonian museum. (You didn’t hear it here!) Or, at least, take a snapshot with his portrait (above), which now hangs next to Dumbo the Flying Elephant on the National Museum of American History’s third floor.

1. Propose to your girlfriend in front of the Hope Diamond in the National Museum of Natural History. Tell her that you wanted to get her the 45.52 carat blue diamond, but the museum just wouldn’t part with it.

Recent visitors to the United States Capitol might have noticed the frescoes. The building’s frescoes are like a sailor’s tattoos: each one tells a story. Take the famous Apotheosis of Washington, which dangles overhead in the Capitol rotunda and shows George Washington surrounded by Liberty, Victory, Science, War, and other allegorical figures. Or the naturalistic scenes that dot the Senate-side corridors.

At a sneak-peek press preview of the Live Butterfly Pavilion at the Natural
History Museum earlier this week, a distinctly handsome specimen sporting
bold, gold spots on its black wings alighted on my chin.

Of the dozen or more reporters crowding into the new 1,200 square-foot steel
and glass pod that houses hundreds of tropical butterflies, the Grecian
Shoemaker butterfly chose me, and I was honored. I put my head back to make
my face a more level surface for my new companion and rather directly,
the exhibition manager Nate Erwin explained, “It’s because you’re sweating.”
And then he added, “It’s attracted to the salt in your, ah, lady’s glow.
That’s why many of the butterflies like the Gatorade. It’s the electrolytes.”

Indeed, I was way overdressed for the 95 degrees F and the 80 percent
humidity maintained inside the new Live Butterfly Pavilion, which opens to
the public today. Winter attire is way out of place here.

The beautifully lit feeding stations and plants and warm summer-like
atmosphere create a kind of surreal experience. It’s as if you’ve entered
another realm. And in fact, you have. This is where Clippers, Morphos, owls,
grey pansies, common sailors, blue glassy tigers, monarchs and sunset moths,
to name a few, will live out their adult life spans gorging themselves on the nectar from plants (grown without pesticides) like jasmine, lantana, verbena and clerodendron, to name a few.

The butterflies can eat all they want, but reproduction, according to USDA regulations, is strictly prohibited. (And any butterfly eggs found will be collected by museum staff.)

The reason: There are more than 30 species in the pod hailing from Central
and South America, North America, and Africa and Asia. If any foreigner were
to escape and reproduce in the wild, this could threaten North American
ecosystems. So all host plants (where butterflies lay eggs) like the pink
ginger that attracts the Owl butterfly and the passionflower and the pipe
vine and the milkweed, are not present in the pavilion.

“Butterflies + Plants: Partners in Evolution” is on the second floor of the museum. The exhibition hall is free, but admission to the Live Butterfly Pavilion is $6 ($5 for children, 2-12). Entrance to the Pavilion will be free on Tuesday on first come, first serve basis.

(Photograph by Chip Clark, courtesy of the National Museum of Natural History)