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Portrait of an American Indian (ca. 1900). Artist unknown. Image courtesy of the American Art Museum.

Friday, November 13: Vice Adm. Donald D. Engen Flight Jacket Night: A Conversation with Alan Bean

On November 19th, 1969, Alan Bean became the fourth man to set foot on the Moon during the second lunar landing as the Apollo 12 lunar module pilot. After a distinguished career at NASA, he retired in 1981 to pursue painting and public speaking—and both of those talents will be on display this evening at the Air and Space Museum. Alan Bean will discuss his life and career and be available for book signings. And don’t forget to explore the galleries of his otherworldly artwork in the companion exhibit, Alan Bean: Painting Apollo, First Artist on Another World. Air and Space Museum, 8:00 PM.

Saturday, November 14: American Indian Heritage Month Two-Day Family Program: From Deer to Dance

Come celebrate American Indian Heritage Month with a two-day festival chock-full of family fun at the American Indian Museum. From 10:00 AM to 3:00 PM, enjoy Native culture, music, dance and art; and learn how Native Americans turn the hides or skins of animals into the beautiful dresses or regalia worn during traditional ceremonies and powwows. At 12:00 noon, swing by to see—and participate in—a social dance led by the White Oak Singers. Free. This event repeats on November 15. American Indian Museum, 10:00 AM-3:00 PM.

Sunday, November 15: Sesame Street’s 40th Birthday Party

That’s right—Sesame Street hits the big 4-0 this year and the Discovery Theater is throwing a birthday party with Elmo, Abby Cadabby, Zoe, and Prairie Dawn, along with Muppeteers Kevin Clash, Leslie Carrara-Rudolph, and Fran Brill, join Sesame Street executive producer Carol-Lynn Parente and Sonia Manzano (‘Maria’) to talk about the show’s 40 years of fun and learning. They share clips from the first season in 1969 and scenes from new episodes. Also, don’t forget to swing by the American History Museum where you can see Kermit the Frog, who was a regular on the show and check out Abby Callard’s piece on Sesame Street around the world. Tickets are required for this event. Prices and additional information are available through Smithsonian Associates. Discovery Theater, 1:30 PM.

The long-awaited Brian Jungen solo exhibition opens this Friday at the National Museum of the American Indian. Pictured here is Jungen's artwork, People's Flag. Photo by NMAI staff photographer Katherine Fogden.

Brian Jungen is quite the craftsman. The Vancouver-based installation artist is known for using common objects as raw materials in the construction of playful, and often provocative, sculptures. For example, he’s built whale skeletons from plastic patio chairs, totem poles from golf bags, an enormous turtle shell from trash bins and ceremonial masks from Nike Air Jordans.

Jungen—half Dunne-za (a Canadian Indian tribe), half Swiss— credits his Dunne-za relatives, who repurposed everything from boxes to car parts, for his resourcefulness. “It was a kind of salvaging born out of practical and economic necessity,” he has said.

Critics say his use of consumer products in native art shows the commodification of Indian culture. And his interest in sports objects emphasizes how professional sports fill the need for ceremony and ritual within society. (I sense a bit of a love-hate relationship here: “…if it’s okay for North American sporting teams to use imagery and language and even some crude ceremonial practices of Native Americans, then I feel I have every right to use sports equipment,” says Jungen.)

And the overall effect is entertaining, intriguing, thought provoking—well, you be the judge. Tomorrow, “Brian Jungen: Strange Comfort” opens at the National Museum of the American Indian. The show is the first solo exhibition of a contemporary artist at the museum since it opened five years ago, and it features pieces in Jungen’s body of work that have never been seen before in the United States.

For a preview, see our photo gallery and Smithsonian’s September-issue story on Jungen. Even better yet, attend the sneak peek of the exhibition tonight from 8:30-10:30 p.m. at the museum. Works like his People’s Flag, a red banner made of clothing, thrift-store bags, hats and umbrellas, are large in scale and, at the same time, so intricately detailed that photos don’t do them justice.

Jungen will be be in town for a “Meet the Artist” program this Friday, 7 p.m. at the Hirshhorn Museum. The artist will talk about his work and influences with curator, art historian and critic Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev.

Detail of Crux (as seen from those who sleep on the surface of the earth under the night sky) (2008) by Brian Jungen. Photo by Ernest Amoroso, courtesy of the National Museum of the American Indian.

Monday, October 12: Book Signing

Robert F. Door will be available to autograph his book Hell Hawks!: The Untold Story of the American Fliers Who Savaged Hitler’s Wehrmacht. Free. Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, 12:00-5:00 PM.

Tuesday, October 13: Celebramos Panama: A Musical Extravaganza

Celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month with Grupo Folklorico de Panama, which will demonstrate Panamanian music, dance and culture. Tickets are required. Rates are: $6 for adults; $5 for children (ages 2-16); $4 for Resident Members. Call 202-633-8700 to purchase. Natural History Museum, 10:15 AM.

Wednesday, October 14: The Nectar of Enlightenment: Buddhist Ritual Song and Dance from Korea

Come enjoy the pageantry of ancient Korean Buddhism, courtesy of the Young San Preservation Group. Arrive early to partake of a gallery tour of Buddhist art and stay for the show, which is full of dancing, chants and elaborate costumes. Free, but tickets are required. For ticket reservation information, visit the Freer’s website. Freer, 6:45 (gallery tour), 7:30 (concert)

Thursday, October 15: Punball: Only One Earth

So, you think you’re a sensation when it comes to pinball—if not a total pinball wizard? Come check out the whimsical new show by artist William T. Wiley and enjoy a rare opportunity to play one of his artworks: Punball: Only One Earth, a pinball machine with a worldly message. Free. American Art Museum, 5:30-6:30 PM. This event repeats October 29, November 12, December 3 and December 17.

Friday, October 16: Meet the Artist: Brian Jungen

Brian Jungen has a penchant for turning trash into artistic treasures, in his hands baseball gloves and discarded Air Jordans become fanciful works of sculpture. Meet the artist at the American Indian Museum where the Jungen will discuss his work and influences. Free. American Indian Museum, 7:00-8:30 PM

More than 800 RIT students, alumni, faculty and staff as well as several volunteers from the Washington, D.C., area participated in this year's RIT Big Shot at the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian. Photo by Matthew Breitbart

This past Saturday, I kept nervously glancing out my window hoping the rain would eventually stop. I had agreed to participate in Rochester Institute of Technology’s Big Shot Photo that night. While I was excited about the event, standing in the rain for 45 minutes seemed like a less-than-ideal way to spend a Saturday night. This year’s photo, the 25th shot, was slated at none other than the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian. Because the photos are taken at night, proper exposure relies on flashlight-toting volunteers to provide lighting. That’s where I came in.

It never did stop raining, so I headed out, Smithsonian umbrella in hand, partly comforted by the words of one of the event’s organizers, Michael Peres: “Sometimes a little bit of inclement weather might provide some interesting outcomes that none of us expect. The intrigue is what’s going to happen.” For instance, the wet, slick rock of the building could reflect the light in a more interesting way than a dry surface would. He had a point.

As I turned the corner near the front entrance of the museum, the crowd came into view. My worries about a skimpy turnout disappeared. A volunteer would later lament that he had too many people and wasn’t sure where to put them. Peres estimated the crowd at 800. I got ushered off to the rear of the building to help light the trees. Our leader assured us that every job was important, even that of us “Tree People” as the group took to calling itself. (If you look at the image, we lit the trees between the Washington Monument and the museum.) Most of the group was RIT alumni—the large number of DC-area alum was one reason the project ended up on the mall, Peres said.

Shouting and cheering signaled the opening of the shutter, and we all began waving the flashlights up and down. The exposures were about a minute each. The concept is to “paint with light” using the flashlight beam and camera flashes. Because of the long exposure, motion is blurred and the individual paths of the flashlight are lost in a seemingly uniform illumination. The whole thing was over in less than 30 minutes.

Some of the volunteers escaped the rain at the sold out reception inside the museum. Museum director Kevin Gover said he was thrilled when RIT approached him about doing the shot here. “We like to think of ourselves as one of the fun museums, and the Big Shot fits right in,” he said. During the ceremony, two Native American students from RIT donated art to the museum, a Native American professor offered a traditional prayer and Grammy-award winning singer Joanne Shenandoah (mother of one of the students) sang with her daughter.

At the end of the ceremony, Peres and others projected the image onto the wall above the atrium. In the final shot, the building seems to loom over the viewer, a result of the wide-angle lens used. The sky took on a surprising reddish hue. What do you know, the poor weather did make for a great photo after all.

Sweden's Royal Palace. Image courtesy of the Rochester Institute of Technology Big Shot.

Friday, September 25: Staged Stories Artists’ Roundtable

Artists Christyl Boger, Mark Newport, Mary Van Cline, and SunKoo Yuh work in the traditional mediums of ceramics, fiber, and glass—but they take their art in very nontraditional directions. Their work is currently on display in the exhibit Staged Stories: Renwick Craft Invitational 2009. The artists will take part in a roundtable discussion moderated by exhibition curator Kate Bonansinga. Free. American Art Museum, 6:00 PM

Saturday, September 26: RIT Big Shot 2009

Come help the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) celebrate the 25th anniversary of its “Big Shot” event! Each year, RIT selects a building for a dramatic nighttime photo shoot—and this go-round, it has selected the National Museum of the American Indian. RIT invites you to bring a flashlight to help illuminate the exterior of the building and contribute to an eye-catching piece of photography. Free. American Indian Museum, 7:45 PM.

Sunday, September 27: Poetics of Labor: A Reading Series for Bittersweet Harvest

In honor of Hispanic Heritage month, come hear readings from poets Diana Garcia and Quique Aviles that deal with the issues of migration, labor and community. And don’t forget to tour the companion exhibition, Bittersweet Harvest. Free. American History Museum, 12:00 PM

For more information on events and exhibitions at the Smithsonian museums, check our companion website, goSmithsonian.com, the official visitor’s guide to the Smithsonian.

John Kapono’ai Molitau and Naomi Katherine Lake-Farm bless the traditional Hawaiian Canoe at the National Museum of the American Indian to commemorate the museum's fifth anniversary. Photo by Abby Callard.

John Kapono’ai Molitau chants as he turns to face the audience, which includes Senators Dan Inouye and Daniel Akaka from Hawaii. In one motion, Molitau dips woven leaves into a wooden bowl, snaps his wrist and lets the water fall to the floor near the traditional Hawaiian canoe in the  Potomac Atrium of the National Museum of the American Indian. His chant bounces off the walls and fills the entire space with his booming, sonorous voice.

Inside the bowl is a mixture of the waters collected and carried here from the four main fresh water streams cascading down the slopes of Maui’s mountain, Mauna Kahalawai. The waters serve as the physical manifestation of the Hawaiian deity, Kane, who emerged from darkness to create the heavens and the earth. The bowl also holds Hawaiian pa’akai, or salt from the ocean, the physical manifestation of Kane’s brother, Kanaloa.

The traditional blessing this morning celebrated the fifth anniversary of the museum, which opened with a great celebration in 2004.

With a green lei hanging around his nec, Senator Inouye told the story of the museum’s creation.  “Twenty years ago where we stand today and gather for this ceremony, nothing was here,” he said. “The trail to this site is an interesting one.” He recalled the founding of the Indian Affairs committee, which he chaired, the Smithsonian’s boundless collection of Native artifacts, obtaining the collection of George Gustav Heye and finally, the opening.

Senator Dan Inouye of Hawaii retraced the history of the National Museum of the American Indian. Photo by Abby Callard.

“Here we have a building that honors those who were here before the rest of us arrived, ” he said.

Senator Akaka, who served with Senator Inouye on the Indian Affairs committee, said that 20 years ago, the committee’s meeting place was “just a room with old furniture.” Senator Inouye transformed the space with new furniture and Indian tapestries. He did the same for the lives of native people in the United States, Senator Akaka said. The museum represents yet another step and skillfully showcases the “beauty, strength and resilience of the native people.”

Mahalo nui loa and aloha. Thank you and goodbye.

Zen for TV (1976) by Nam June Paik. Come on out to the Smithsonian this weekend for Saturday morning cartoons! Image courtesy of the American Art Museum.

Friday, September 4

Sorry kids, there aren’t any special events happening in the evening hours at the Smithsonian this Friday. Check out the Smithsonian’s events and activities calendar for a listing of regularly scheduled happenings at the museums.

Saturday, September 5: Saturday Morning Cartoons

I’m 24 years old and when the weekend comes, I wake up and start channel surfing because I want some cartoons! Unfortunately, what’s currently on the airwaves doesn’t seem half as good as what I remember watching when I was a kid. For a new twist on Saturday morning cartoons that also celebrates Hispanic Heritage Month, come on out to the American Indian Museum and enjoy family-friendly programs from Latin America in the Mitsitam Cafe and stick around for a host of educational activities. Cartoons are in Spanish and Portuguese with English subtitles. Free. American Indian Museum, 11:00 AM

Sunday, September 6: Art a la Cart: Family Program

For some, art museums may not be the most entertaining places to visit because it’s typically a very “hands off” environment—get too close to the goods on display and you’ll get into a little bit of trouble with the nearest security guard. However, the American Art Museum invites you to come out this afternoon and get your mitts on things–from brushes and palettes to bison hide and bottle caps—at interactive carts scattered all through the museum that will enhance your understanding of the art on the walls. Ideal for persons aged 7-12. Free. American Art Museum. 1:00-4:00 PM.

Dancer's Series: Steps (1979) by Jack Mackie. Image courtesy of the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

Friday, August 28: Forensic Friday

Join Smithsonian forensic anthropologists as they study new cases from America’s historic past. Take advantage of this opportunity to ask the forensic anthropologists questions and observe first-hand the basic methods used for documenting human remains recovered from archaeological investigations. Relates to the exhibit Written in Bone, which was recently covered in Smithsonian. Free. Natural History Museum, 1:00 PM

Saturday, August 29: Dance DC Festival

You can dance, you can jive—having the time of your life at the 6th annual Dance DC Festival. This year, the American Indian Museum is hosting performances by CapoeiraDC—a group that blends martial arts with their dance moves—and Hui O Ka Pua `Ilima showing off the traditional and modern moves of Hawaii, Tahiti and New Zealand. Free, but seating is first come, first served. American Indian Museum, 12:00 PM

Sunday, August 30: The Scurlock Studio and Black Washington

A docent will take you on a tour of the photography exhibition, The Scurlock Studio and Black Washington. The show celebrates and document’s black Washington DC through almost a century’s worth of photographs. Free. American History Museum, 10:30 AM

For more information on events and exhibitions at the Smithsonian museums, check our companion website, goSmithsonian.com, the official visitor’s guide to the Smithsonian.