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The artist who transformed the Hirshhorn will be in the building Thursday to explain why. Courtesy of the museum

Tuesday, December 11: Gallery360 with Lincoln Schatz

Join Chicago-based artist at the premier of his newest project, “The Network,” which features his signature “generative portrait” by randomly recombining clips from interviews with 89 D.C. movers and shakers. What do Nancy Pelosi, Karl Rove and Cokie Roberts have to say to each other? Apparently, quite a bit. Instead of the usual partisan bickering, the piece highlights the common ground many of these high-profile people share. The new work goes on view at the National Portrait Gallery. Free. 6:00 p.m. to 6:45 p.m. National Portrait Gallery.

Wednesday, December 12: Behind-the-Scenes Conservation at the Smithsonian

The Lunder Conservation Center provides support for both the National Portrait Gallery and the American Art Museum, conserving and protecting the many treasures of the two museums. Not only will you get the chance to learn more about how the team of conservators goes about saving America’s most cherished art, but you’ll also get to see some of that work up close. The event has limited space so you have to register at the Luce Foundation Center information desk (3rd floor, west wing, mezzanine) before 3 p.m. on the day of the program. Free, registration required. 3:00 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. Lunder Conservation Center.

Thursday, December 13: Artist Talk with Barbara Kruger

An iconic artist who left her stamp quite literally on the Hirshhorn (floor-to-ceiling black and white phrases all over the lobby and bookstore), Barbara Kruger will be in the very building she transformed to talk about this and other works. Known most for her phrase, I Shop Therefore I Am, her piece in the Hirshhorn bears the title “Belief+Doubt,” perhaps reflecting the political D.C. dialogue happening all around the Mall. Free. 7:00 p.m. Hirshhorn Museum.

Twitter users will have the chance to chat live with artist Barbara Kruger. Photo by Cathy Carver; installation by Barbara Kruger; courtesy of the Hirshhorn.

Tuesday September 11, When the Season is Good: Artists of Arctic Alaska

This 2005 film features four contemporary Alaska Native artisans, a sculptor, a painter, a skin sewer and an ivory carver, who tell their personal stories of inspiration and cultural heritage. In a land where survival often depends on hunting and gathering, artistic production has a complicated relationship with culture and economics, which the film explores. Learn about both the history and future of artists practicing at the edge of the Earth. Free. 3:30 p.m. to 4:45 p.m. American Indian Museum, Rasmuson Theater.

Wednesday September 12, Online Discussion with Barbara Kruger

The artist behind such slogans as “I shop therefore I am” and “Belief+Doubt=Sanity” will be available for questions on Twitter. Kruger’s new installation at the Hirshhorn opened August 20, covering the lower lobby and bookstore with giant phrases and provocative words. Use hashtag “AskKruger” to join the discussion. Free. 2 p.m.

Thursday September 13, Edvard Munch, The Scream Heard Round the World

Join art historian and National Gallery of Art senior lecturer David Gariff to discuss Edvard Munch’s most famous painting. The work recently sold at auction for a cool $120 million, begging the question: wait…why? Gariff will explore the artist’s participation in the Expressionist movement, which challenged the conventions of subject matter, and also explore what makes this particular image so popular—even ranking a mention on The Simpsons. $40, general admission. Buy tickets online. 6:45 p.m. to 8:45 p.m. S. Dillon Ripley Center.

For a complete listing of Smithsonian events and exhibitions visit the goSmithsonian Visitors Guide. And download our new Visitors Guide & Tours App for both iPhone and Android. Additional reporting by Michelle Strange.

Barbara Kruger offers words of wisdom at the new installation at the Hirshhorn, just in time for the political conventions. Photo by Cathy Carver, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden

Tuesday August 28, Belief + Doubt

Just in time for the kickoff of the political conventions, Barbara Kruger‘s new wall-to-wall installation in the Hirshhorn shows us the writing on the wall. Black, white and read all over, the lower lobby of the museum and its bookstore got a makeover thanks to the provocative artist behind slogans like “I shop therefore I am.” This election year, her monumental statements take aim at our political climate with phrases including “Belief + Doubt = Sanity.” Free. Hirshhorn Museum.

Wednesday August 29, 40 Under 40 Gallery Talk

Join curator Nicholas Bell for a guided tour through the Renwick Gallery’s “40 Under 40: Craft Futures” exhibit. Marking the museum’s 40th anniversary, the exhibit includes work from 40 artists under the age of 40, presenting the best of contemporary craft. The wide range of works on view include cheeky teapots fused with pistols, edgy accessories and sleek furniture made from reclaimed wood from the Coney Island boardwalk. Learn more about the exhibit and the Gallery’s plans looking to the future. 12 p.m. to 1 p.m. Free. Renwick Gallery.

Thursday August 30, Baby Boom at the Zoo

Beat the weekend rush and get a peek at some of the new cuddly creatures on view at the National Zoo. Catch the three-month-old fishing cat kittens as they romp in their new yard along the Asia Trail. Or head over to the cheetahs to catch two new cubs on view. Then check on everyone’s favorite giant panda, Mei Xiang, who might just be expecting a baby of her own! Be sure to check the Zoo’s calendar for a daily schedule of feedings and viewings to catch the animals at their feistiest. Free. National Zoo.

For a complete listing of Smithsonian events and exhibitions visit the goSmithsonian Visitors Guide. And download our new Visitors Guide & Tours App for both iPhone and Android. Additional reporting by Michelle Strange.

The artist’s black, white and red phrases titled Belief+Doubt exist outside the traditional galleries. Barbara Kruger 2012, photo by Cathy Carver. Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden

Barbara Kruger’s iconic red, white and black words are finding their way back into a familiar place—one that is not a gallery. “Belief + Doubt,” the latest exhibition by the artist famous for slogans like “I shop therefore I am,” opens August 20 in the bookstore at the Hirshhorn Museum. Until then, visitors can preview a site-specific installation in the lower lobby that plasters the escalators, floors, walls and ceilings with words that portray themes from absolutism to consumerism.

The space is one of the Hirshhorn’s most highly trafficked locations, but it has long remained a subdued passageway that simply connected visitors to more contemplative, artistic galleries. Exhibition curator Melissa Ho says that the decision was “based on a larger effort by the museum to activate new parts of our campus to show art. The lobby is a place of total movement. It is not a sheltered place but one with lots of bodies, all going places.”

Kruger’s work was deemed a perfect fit for both the museum’s iconic architecture and for the bustling hum of the lobby.  “[Her] art operates outside of galleries, in the middle of everyday life. It really has the power to grab your eye and stick in your head. This space was previously ignored, but now people are riveted. They spend a long time reading down there.”

Taken from the piece’s title, Belief+Doubt, this phrase has particular resonance during election season. Barbara Kruger 2012, photo by Cathy Carver. Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden

“Belief + Doubt” invites its audience to participate in a lobby of language. The power of words can be found not only in meaning but also in size, with some words taking up entire walls, and open-ended questions covering the floors and ceilings. Kruger makes use of architecture so that reading, an act generally considered still and personal, becomes a much more physical experience.

Many of the themes represented in the exhibition will be familiar to Kruger fans, including consumerism and questions of the circulation of power. Different, though, is how these themes echo given their new context: the nation’s capital during the onset of an election year. The largest display and the inspiration for the exhibition’s title, reads: “Belief + Doubt = Sanity.” This language contrasts starkly with the absolutism that abounds in many political campaigns. “It’s telling us that ideological absolutism isn’t always a good thing,” says Ho.

The exhibition continues into the museum’s newly renovated gift shop, forcing shoppers to consider the act of purchasing while browsing. The words, “You want it, you buy it, you forget it” loom over museum-goers as they shop, a detail that Ho says makes the experience more valuable. “When those words are actually executed,” she says, “you understand them all the more.”