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The Garrison Dam, whose construction displaced the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation in the 1950s. See a documentary on the dam’s effects on American Indians on Saturday.

Friday, March 22: Professor Wingnut Wants to Fly

Actor and educator Oran Sandel has a whole philosophy about the importance of playing with children, but his stage performances are all about making learning fun. Today, he teams up with puppeteer Dan Mori to make the duo Professor Wingnut and Seymour Seagull, an eccentric pair that teaches kids about the science of flight through song and dance. $8 adults, $6 children, $5 adult and child members, $3 children under 2. 10:15 a.m., 11:15 a.m. and 12:15 a.m. Air and Space Museum.

Saturday, March 23: Waterbuster

The construction of North Dakota’s Garrison Dam in the 1950s submerged 156,000 acres of fertile land and displaced the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation. Filmmaker J. Carlos Peinado, a descendent of relocated tribes, revisits his ancestral homeland in Waterbuster (2006) to study the dam’s history and the effects of the government’s relocation policies on sovereign American Indian nations. Check out a short trailer for the film here. Free. 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. American Indian Museum.

Sunday, March 24: Luce Unplugged, with Kindlewood

Kindlewood is a Washington, DC-based trio that plays what its members call “dream folk-rock.” Don’t worry about labels, though — just listen to the music! The band’s gorgeous vocals and lush instrumentations will fill the Luce Foundation Center this afternoon following an art talk on a piece selected by the group. Free. 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. American Art Museum.

Also, check out our Visitors Guide App. Get the most out of your trip to Washington, D.C. and the National Mall with this selection of custom-built tours, based on your available time and passions. From the editors of Smithsonian magazine, the app is packed with handy navigational tools, maps, museum floor plans and museum information including ‘Greatest Hits’ for each Smithsonian museum.

For a complete listing of Smithsonian events and exhibitions visit the goSmithsonian Visitors Guide. Additional reporting by Michelle Strange.

Nam June Paik’s “Electronic Superhighway” (he coined the phrase). See a curated selection of short films by the video artists on Wednesday at the American Art Museum. Photo by ekai courtesy of Flickr Creative Commons.

Tuesday, March 19: Verbal Gymnastics

Poet, playwright and Verbal Gymnastics founder John Johnson is in the house this morning to help you unlock your inner poet. In line with his mission to use the arts to tackle troubling social issues, Johnson will show participants how to use their personal observations of and experiences in their communities to create original verse. Free. 10:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. Anacostia Community Museum.

Wednesday, March 20: The Films of Nam June Paik

Nam June Paik (1932-2006) was an avant garde musician, installation artist and the world’s first video artist. The American Art Museum opened a retrospective of his career earlier this year (see some of his work at his website), and this evening curators at the museum will introduce a series of short films and video works by the multi-media pioneer. Free. 6:30 p.m. American Art Museum.

Thursday, March 21: Wahzhazhe: An Osage Ballet

The history of the Osage people comes alive this afternoon through a unique medium–ballet. The performance features the traditional dance, music and design of the Oklahoma-area Native people, and shows the triumphs and tragedies of their complex history, from their relocation from their homeland on the Osage River to the discovery of oil on their reservation to their lives today. Free. Daily at 3 p.m. through March 23. American Indian Museum.

Also, check out our Visitors Guide App. Get the most out of your trip to Washington, D.C. and the National Mall with this selection of custom-built tours, based on your available time and passions. From the editors of Smithsonian magazine, the app is packed with handy navigational tools, maps, museum floor plans and museum information including ‘Greatest Hits’ for each Smithsonian museum.

For a complete listing of Smithsonian events and exhibitions visit the goSmithsonian Visitors Guide. Additional reporting by Michelle Strange.

An artist’s rendering of Curiosity, the rover that is currently exploring Gale Crater on Mars. Learn about the rover from the scientist in charge of its mission this Tuesday at the Air and Space Museum. Photo by NASA, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

Tuesday, March 12: Curiosity’s Mission of Exploration at Gale Crater, Mars

Scientists are looking for a lot more than life on Mars. Mars Science Laboratory‘s Curiosity rover landed on the Red Planet last August, and now is on a mission of investigating Gale Crater, a 91-mile-wide crater that is estimated to be more than 3 billion years old. The crater has preserved an extensive series of geologic layers, which the rover studies to get a look into the planet’s environmental history. Mars Science Laboratory Chief Scientist John Grotzinger visits Smithsonian this evening to explain the rover’s mission and to share some of its latest pictures. (For updates on the rover’s progress, check out the videos here.) Free, tickets required. 8 p.m. to 9 p.m. (come at 7:30 p.m. to meet Grotzinger; stay after 9 for stargazing in the public observatory). Air and Space Museum.

Wednesday, March 13: Why the Civil War Still Matters to American Artists

Terry Adkins, William Dunlap, Sally Mann and Dario Robleto are four contemporary American artists who work across a variety of mediums towards a variety of different ends — explorations of pop culture, family and places around the world. One thread unites them, however: the Civil War. The four artists come together this afternoon to discuss how and why they have tackled aspects of this monumental event in American history in their recent bodies of work. Free. 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. American Art Museum.

Thursday, March 14: Flatform: A Meditation on Imaginary Landscapes

In a preview clip of Sunday, 6th April, 11:42 A.M., a six minute film by the German and Italian media arts collective Flatform, a bird’s eye shot of a small Italian village shows dot-sized inhabitants going about their day as a narrator explains their movements. At first, the characters are difficult to follow, but slowly they become part of a larger pattern that reflects on the townspeople’s relations to their environment. Flatform creates time-based films and installations that explore landscapes and biopolitics. Tonight, artists from the collective present an overview of their short films as part of DC’s Environmental Film Festival. Free. 7 p.m. Hirshhorn Museum.

Also, check out our Visitors Guide App. Get the most out of your trip to Washington, D.C. and the National Mall with this selection of custom-built tours, based on your available time and passions. From the editors of Smithsonian magazine, the app is packed with handy navigational tools, maps, museum floor plans and museum information including ‘Greatest Hits’ for each Smithsonian museum.

For a complete listing of Smithsonian events and exhibitions visit the goSmithsonian Visitors Guide. Additional reporting by Michelle Strange.

Bette Davis and Henry Fonda star in Jezebel, the 1938 hit set in antebellum-era New Orleans. See it at the American History Museum this Friday. Photo courtesy of Flickr Creative Commons.

Friday, March 8: Jezebel

Beautiful dresses, high drama and plenty of southern drawl—it’s antebellum-era New Orleans on the big screen tonight in Jezebel, the 1938 black and white classic directed by William Wyler. Bette Davis stars as the haughty and temperamental Julie Marsden, whose fiancé (Henry Fonda) cancels their engagement when she behaves badly at a social event. Marsden attempts reconciliation, but learns that her ex-fiancé has taken a Yankee wife (Margaret Lindsay). Free. 7 p.m. screening, with a preceding discussion by NPR film commentator Murray Horwitz at 6:30 p.m. American History Museum.

Saturday, March 9: Africa in Motion

Rock the house at the African Art Museum in celebration of International Women’s Day today—the whole house. Artist Holly Bass coordinates a full-museum event in which performers lead spectators in a parade from the museum’s lowest level up to its ground-floor gardens. Song, poetry, dance and visual spectacles honor the strength and diversity of African women on the way. Free. 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. African Art Museum.

Sunday, March 10: Steinway Series: Left Bank Concert Series

Steinway’s D-274 concert piano is one of the world’s most celebrated instruments—so valued, in fact, that it was estimated ten years ago that more than 90 percent of concert grand pianos in the world are D-274s. At almost 9 feet long and more than 5 feet wide, and with a price tag of more than $100,000, it’s not a model you’re likely to come across in a friend’s living room anytime soon. Drop by the American Art museum this afternoon, though, and you can hear this magnificent instrument in action, under the hands of pianist Audrey Andrist. She joins clarinetist Paul Cigan and members of the Left Bank Quartet in performing Paul Moravec’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Tempest Fantasy, Janác˘ek’s String Quartet No. 1, “Kreutzer Sonata” and Dvo˘rák’s String Quartet in F, Op. 96, “American.” Free. 3 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. American Art Museum.

Also, check out our Visitors Guide App. Get the most out of your trip to Washington, D.C. and the National Mall with this selection of custom-built tours, based on your available time and passions. From the editors of Smithsonian magazine, the app is packed with handy navigational tools, maps, museum floor plans and museum information including ‘Greatest Hits’ for each Smithsonian museum.

For a complete listing of Smithsonian events and exhibitions visit the goSmithsonian Visitors Guide. Additional reporting by Michelle Strange.

Smithsonian in snow, circa 1977. Photo by Smithsonian Institution

Looking for something to do today, while the snowy weather conditions persist? The Smithsonian museums will be open for business today. But the National Zoo will be closed Wednesday, March 6, 2013.

Plan your visit, using our convenient Tours app, a free download is available here.