Syrian landscape. In “Up Close from Afar: Photographic Records of the Middle East,” two curators discuss how Western media’s depictions of the Middle East affect our perception of the region’s culture. Photo by delayed gratification, courtesy of Flickr Creative Commons.

Tuesday, February 5: Faster-than-Light Particles

Line anything up against a beam of light in a race and the beam’s always going to win. Light is the fastest thing there is, and much of our modern understanding of the universe is based on this barrier. But what if in fact there is some undetectable thing that is speedier? A tachyon is a hypothetical particle that always moves faster than light. Proposed in the 1960s, the possible existence of this elusive particle has enormous implications for science and the way we view the fabric of our reality. George Mason University professor of physics and astronomy Robert Ehrlich discusses the evidence for the tachyon this evening, and why it would turn our world upside down if discovered. $25 general admission, $18 member, $16 senior member. 6:45 p.m. Ripley Center.

Wednesday, February 6: Up Close from Afar: Photographic Records of the Middle East 

What images come to mind when we think of the Middle East? According to artist Jananne Al-Ani, Americans tend to associate the region with barren land, which suggests low populations and little history or culture. Al-Ani’s exhibit in the Sackler Gallery, “Shadow Sites,” explores how Western media’s depictions of the Middle East’s landscapes have enforced the 19th-century stereotype of the Arab in the desert. In a talk this evening, curators Mitra Abbaspour and Carol Huh use Al-Ani’s work to probe this issue of media and archival documents’ effects on our current perceptions of this often-misunderstood region. Free. 7 p.m. Freer Gallery.

Thursday, February 7: Curator Tour of Ai Weiwei’s Work

Ai Weiwei is a controversial figure in the contemporary art world. Known for his political activism, the Chinese sculptor, photographer and instillation artist often uses his work to criticize political corruption, especially in his home country. In 2011, he was arrested and held for two months without official charges, which prompted protests for his release around the world. Understanding the social and political implications of his works can be difficult, so curators Mika Yoshitake and Carol Huh team up this evening for a tour of his two exhibits at Smithsonian, “According to What?” and “Circle of Animals / Zodiac Heads.” They will contextualize the exhibits and interpret his works from multiple perspectives.  Free. 7 p.m. Hirshhorn Museum.

Also check out our specially created 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 also 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.

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.”

How much is the Hope Diamond worth? Ask Smithsonian.

Our inquisitive readers are rising to the challenge we gave them last month. The questions are pouring in and we’re ready for more. Do you have any questions for our curators? Submit your questions here.

How much is the Hope Diamond worth? — Marjorie Mathews, Silver Spring, Maryland

That’s the most popular question we get, but we don’t really satisfy people by giving them a number. There are a number of answers, but the best one is that we honestly don’t know. It’s a little bit like Liz Taylor’s jewels being sold in December—all kinds of people guessed at what they would sell for, but everybody I know was way off. Only when those pieces were opened up to bidding at a public auction could you find out what their values were. When they were sold, then at least for that day and that night you could say, well, they were worth that much. The Hope Diamond is kind of the same way, but more so. There’s simply nothing else like it. So how do you put a value on the history, on the fact it’s been here on display for over 50 years and a few hundred million people have seen it, and on that fact it’s a rare blue diamond on top of everything else? You don’t. – Jeffrey E. Post, mineralogist, National Museum of Natural History

What’s the worst impact of ocean acidification so far?- Nancy Schaefer, Virginia Beach, Virginia

The impacts of ocean acidification are really just starting to be felt, but two big reports that came out in 2011 show that it could have very serious effects on coral reefs. These studies did not measure the warming effect of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, but rather its effect of making the ocean more acidic when it dissolves in the ocean. Places where large amounts of carbon dioxide seep into the water from the sea floor provide a natural experiment and show us how ocean waters might look, say, 50 or 100 years from now. Both studies showed branching, lacy, delicate coral forms are likely to disappear, and with them that kind of three-dimensional complexity so many species depend on. Also, other species that build a stony skeleton or shell, such as oysters or mussels, are likely to be affected. This happens because acidification makes carbonate ions, which these species need for their skeletons, less abundant.

Nancy Knowlton, marine biologist
National Museum of Natural History

Art and artifacts from ancient South Pacific and Pacific Northwest tribes have similarities in form and function. Is it possible that early Hawaiians caught part of the Kuroshio Current of the North Pacific Gyre to end up along the northwest coast of America from northern California to Alaska? — April Amy Croan, Maple Valley, Washington

Those similarities have given rise to various theories, including trans-Pacific navigation, independent drifts of floating artifacts, inadvertent crossings by ships that have lost their rudders or rigging, or whales harpooned in one area that died or were captured in a distant place. Some connections are well-known, like feather garment fragments found in an archaeological site in Southeast Alaska that appear to have been brought there by whaling ships that had stopped in the Hawaiian Islands, a regular route for 19th-century whalers. Before the period of European contact, the greatest similarities are with the southwest Pacific, not Hawaii. The Kushiro current would have facilitated Asian coastal contacts with northwestern North America, but would not have helped Hawaiians. The problem of identification is one of context, form and dating. Most of the reported similarities are either out of their original context (which can’t be reconstructed), or their form is not specific enough to relate to another area’s style, or the date of creation cannot be established. To date there is no acceptable proof for South Pacific-Northwest Coast historical connections that predates the European whaling era, except for links that follow the coastal region of the North Pacific into Alaska.

William Fitzhugh, archeologist
Natural History Museum

The Art of Video Games exhibit opens at the American Art Museum on March 16.

We know you’ve got enough “looking forward to 2012″ lists under your belt by now; our Who to Follow post alone will keep you pretty busy. But we can’t resist sneaking in just one more. Here’s our guide to the exhibitions we’re most excited for this year. Mark your calendars now so you’ll have no excuse to say you’re bored later.

A new look at Monticello: Founding father Thomas Jefferson called slavery an “abominable crime”. . . but owned more than 600 slaves who sustained his plantation, Monticello. “Slavery at Jefferson’s Monticello: Paradox of Liberty,” opened on January 27 in the American History Museum‘s National Museum of African American History and Culture Gallery, and focuses on the long-overlooked history of slave life at the third president’s Virginia home. Be sure to keep up with the latest news from Monticello on Twitter at @TJMonticello.

Happy birthday, Jackson Pollock: If he were alive today, Jackson Pollock would have turned 100 on January 28. To honor the stormy life and revolutionary work of the modern art icon, the Archives of American Art presents Pollock’s personal family photos, letters, and writings in “Art Memories Arrested in Space, a centennial tribute to Jackson Pollock” at the Reynolds Center through May 15.

Game on: Can video games be art? To answer that question, the American Art Museum‘s upcoming exhibit, “The Art of Video Games,” pulls together the most arresting graphics and innovative designs in the gaming world, on view March 16 through September 30. Even if you forgot to vote for your favorite game, don’t miss out on GameFest, which kicks off the exhibit with three days packed with open play, panel talks with artists and designers, and live-action gaming. To tide you over til March, follow curator Chris Melissinos at @CMelissinos for updates and teasers.

Hokusai: In anticipation of the Cherry Blossom Centennial, the Sackler Gallery presents a study of Katsushika Hosukai, Japan’s most famous artist (yes, that’s his Great Wave that has probably graced every college dorm wall in America). “Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji,” his most acclaimed woodblock print series, was first published in 1830 when Hokusai was in his 70s and goes on view on March 24 through June 17. The gallery has set up an interactive website with more information on Hokusai’s life and artistic technique.

Ai Weiwei: The controversial Chinese artist Ai Weiwei, arrested last year, brings a new installation, “Fragments,” to the Sackler Gallery beginning May 12. Using antique wood salvaged from Qing Dynasty temples, Ai worked with skilled traditional carpenters to create what he calls an “irrational structure” that both affirms and defies centuries of architectural traditions. In October, the Hirshhorn gets in on the action with an exhibit of 25 of Ai’s recent works entitled “Ai Weiwei: According to What?” For an English translation of Ai’s Twitter, follow @aiwwenglish.

Still from "67 Bows" (2006) by Nira Pereg. Courtesy of the artist.

If flamingos were able to watch the new Hirshhorn “Black Box: Nira Pereg” presentation of the looped video 67 Bows (2006), no doubt they’d warn each other about Israeli digital artist Nira Pereg. In her video, she explores herd response theory when she appears to disrupt the serenity of a German zoo’s flamingo community with the repeated cocking and firing of a gun.

But all is not what it seems.

67 Bows was filmed during a snowstorm over Christmas in a nearly empty Karlsruhe Zoo. Though Pereg had initially desired to shoot a portrait of a flamingo, her project expanded into a study of group behavior utilizing the indoor colony of social birds.

“While visiting and studying the flamingo exhibit, [she] realized when visitors put their hands up, if one bird ducked, they all started to,” explained Hirshhorn curator Kelly Gordon. “This behavior inspired how this work was filmed and “scored.”” After shooting video of the flamingos being flamingos, making flamingo sounds, and then nodding and ducking in unison, the “score” was added.

The “score” in this case, being the repeated threatening sounds of a gun being cocked and then fired that break the silence and appear to shock the pink feathered video stars. Pereg synched her “score” with the pre-existing ducking “choreography” of the flamingos, making it appear as if they were reacting to the gunshots.

The timing of the gun soundtrack provides the illusion that the flamingos are actually responding to the sounds–and doing so in a Pavlovian manner. Initially, they only appear to duck when a shot is fired; however, eventually they cower at the sound of the cocking of the weapon and don’t even wait for the sound of the blast. The sight of flamingos bobbing their heads in unison almost in rhythm with the gun blasts is almost hypnotic. View a clip of the piece here.

Born in Tel Aviv in 1969, Pereg was raised in an environment where the threat of  terrorism loomed daily. So was this piece designed to see if a potential threat affects individuals in a community the same way? “I was trying to make them [the flamingos] do a certain move in order to see the ones who don’t move,” Pereg said in a July 2010 Artis Video Series interview. “So 67 Bows is a lot about the ones who don’t bow.”

Addy's World is a self-guided tour at the American History Museum. Photo courtesy of the museum.

Monday, August 22 Addy’s World

Ever wonder what life was like for young African American girls during the Civil War? Addy Walker, of the popular American Girl doll series and heroine of the book, Meet Addy, is a nine-year old that was born into slavery who escapes to freedom during the Civil War. Trace the events in the story’s narrative using the museum’s downloadable guide, or pick one up free at the information desk. Claim a free gift at the gift shop when you have your guide stamped at each stop on the self-guided tour. Free. Continues through end of August. American History Museum.

Tuesday, August 23 Draw & Discover

Break out of your Tuesday routine by visiting the American Art Museum‘s Luce Foundation Center for American Art. Make your way to the 3rd floor of the West Wing of the museum at 3 p.m. to join a discussion about some of the works that line the walls of the museum. Then put your own spin on the masterpieces as you spend time sketching a few of your favorites. There are more than 3,300 artworks on display in the Luce Foundation Center so branch out and find a new favorite. Bring a small sketchbook and some pencils and enjoy the artwork as you spend an afternoon in the Luce. Free. 3:30 to 4:30 p.m.. American Art Museum

Wednesday, August 24 Civil Rights in America

Hear a renowned author talk about her work and have your copy of the author’s book signed at the National Portrait Gallery. Paula Young Shelton grew up among a host of civil rights activists, including her father Andrew Young and family friend Martin Luther King Jr. Her book, Child of the Civil Rights Movement, is an inspiring look at her childhood in the heavily segregated Deep South and her family’s struggle for civil rights, culminating in the historic march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama. Free. Noon to 1 p.m. National Portrait Gallery.

Thursday, August 25 Fragments in Time and Space

This Thursday evening, join Michael Fried, professor and author of Why Photography Matters as Art as Never Before for a tour of the Hirshhorn’s summer exhibition, “Fragments in Time and Space.” Get an expert’s take on works by Hiroshi Sugimoto, Douglas Gordon, and Tacita Dean while you still have the chance, as the exhibition will close on Sunday. The walk-through begins at 7 p.m. and lasts for about an hour. Free. Hirshhorn Gallery

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

Closing Soon: 1) "Calder's Portraits: A New Language;" 2) "Vantage Point: The Contemporary Native Art Collection;" 3) "Chinamania: Whistler and the Victorian Craze for Blue-and-White;" 4) "Fragments in Time and Space"*

With temperatures in the hundreds here in Washington, D.C., August is a fine time to seek out the glorious air conditioning of a museum. If you’re in town, take a moment to catch some of these great exhibits while you still can. The Around the Mall team alerts you to the upcoming final days of the following exhibitions. Hurry In.

Closing Sunday, August 7:

“Chinamania: Whistler and the Victorian Craze for Blue-and-White“ at Freer

By the 1870s, Chinese blue and white porcelain had moved “from palace to parlor,” as one historian put it. The commodity, highly sought after by the Victorian middle classes, was a symbol of high culture and refined taste. Satirically labeled “Chinamania” by media of the time, the china craze was powered in large part the London-based American artist James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903), who became infatuated with blue and white Chinese porcelain in the early 1860s. Whistler’s work from this period is the subject of the Freer Gallery’s new exhibit “Chinamania,” which opened last summer and closes this Sunday. Don’t miss the collection of Whistler ink drawings and paintings inspired by Chinese porcelain.

“Vantage Point: The Contemporary Native Art Collection” at American Indian

At times provocative and at times moving, these works run the gamut from a blanket sewn out of thrift store fabrics to a photographic spoof of a Frida Kahlo self-portrait to a video installation projected on a screen of white turkey feathers. the museum’s acquisitions during the past several years. When the National Museum of the American Indian opened its doors on the National Mall in 2004, the museum had already begun to amass a rich collection of contemporary art by Native Americans. The museum’s exhibit, “Vantage Point,” a survey of 25 contemporary artists, opened last September and also closes this Sunday.

Closing Sunday, August 14:

“Calder’s Portraits: A New Language” at Portrait Gallery

You never knew Alexander Calder (1898-1976) in this way. The acclaimed painter and sculptor is best known for his avant-garde mobiles and stabiles and his colorful, geometric sculptures. Few of which are in this show. Instead, introduce yourself to an often overlooked side of Alexander Calder —that of the prolific portraitist. In March, the National Portrait Gallery’s exhibition of Calder’s drawings, sculptures and caricatures of celebrities like Josephine Baker, Jimmy Durante, Babe Ruth and Charles Lindbergh surprised and delighted visitors. You have less than two weeks to see it all; the show closes on Sunday, August 14.

Closing Sunday August 28:

“Fragments in Time and Space” at Hirshhorn

In a blink of the eye, this show is over before it can even get started. The Hirshhorn’s summer exhibition, on view for just two months, is a terrific presentation of works from the museum’s permanent collection. Thematically the curators have chosen pieces that focus on the interpretation of time and space since the beginning of modernism. Included are works from such artists as Thomas Eakins, Hamish Fulton, Douglas Gordon, Ed Ruscha and Hiroshi Sugimoto. Sunday, August 28, is the last day to see it.

*Image credits: 1) “Arthur Miller 1915-2005″ by Calder, @2010 Calder Foundation, NY/Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY;  2) “Blanket” by James Lavadour (Walla Walla),  Museum purchase with funds donated by Robert Jon Grover, 2007; 3) Incense burner, late 17th century, Qing dynasty; 4) “Five Past Eleven” by Ed Ruscha, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden

Film still from Earth vs. the Flying Saucers (1956). Courtesy of Hirshhorn Museum, SI

You want camp? You got it! But don’t delay, kids. The final film of the Hirshhorn’s “Summer Camp: Sauceriferous” film series, Earth vs. the Flying Saucers, the 1956 “classic,” will be showing tomorrow night at the Ring Auditorium at 7:00. Plus they’ll be giving out the last of the glow-in-the-dark Sauceriferous Frisbees!!! And yes, I did just use three exclamation points!

So what’s this movie about? Aliens, baby. And misunderstanding. Kind of like an episode of Three’s Company, minus Jack Tripper, but with laser beams. Basically, there’s an initial alien saucer visitation that goes awry–a “meet-cute” of sorts that ends up in death rays and destruction. Then the aliens come back with a bunch of their friends and invade, attacking five of the world’s largest cities. And it’s up to Hugh Marlowe’s character to stop them.

And how did the world feel about the Earth vs. the Flying Saucers back when it was released? It seems as though the film might have been exhibiting camp tendencies back in 1956, too. “If I have to see many more of these idiotic items,” panned the Chicago Tribune movie critic upon the film’s release, “I’m going to be in the market for a handy portable disintegrator myself.” Ahhhh…Camp at first sight.

Grazia Toderi, Orbite Rosse (Red Orbit), 2009. Installation view, The New Art Gallery, Walsall, UK. Courtesy of the artist.

Step into either side of the gallery theatre at the Hirshhorn to see the new exhibition, “Directions: Grazia Toderi,” and one is greeted by the faint aroma of fresh paint that’s indicative of a new installation. Yet the smell is strangely comforting and exciting at the same time. It makes for a perfect environment for the viewer to settle back in the darkness and take in Italian video artist Grazia Toderi’s two looped digital projection pieces, Orbite Rosse and Rossa Babele.

“Toderi’s images suggest glistening, breathing, atmospheres which appear to be both earthly and celestial,” says Hirshhorn curator Kelly Gordon, and this is evident in the mesmerizing, twinkling, rose-colored cityscape of Orbite Rosse. Viewed with a faded binocular pattern projected atop the footage, a nighttime vista is seen from high, while low, rumbling murky noises complete the hypnotic ambience. The distinctive pale rose-colored tint derives from the interaction between the city lights and the vapors in the atmosphere.

Toderi uses computer-aided digital manipulation of video footage and pictures to compose her final creations with, as Gordon says, “painterly finesse.” The projection screens for the second piece, Rossa Bebele are placed next to each other, like opposite pages of an open book. Both screens appear to be half-full of what looks like a sea of magma (one filled from the top, one filled from below), and from each sea, a pyramid of light gradually builds and subsides. Appropriately, a slightly harsher audio component accompanies this piece, with a combination of what sounds like swirling thunderstorm effects and caldera atmospherics filling the chamber.

“Directions: Grazia Toderi” will be at the Hirshhorn through September 5, and ATM’s Jeff Campagna spoke to Toderi last week about her work.

Why did you choose to use this medium for your art?

I chose to use video because it was the medium that has more possibility to communicate everywhere in the world, especially here. It’s a kind of Utopian idea, to just be energy that can be transmitted everywhere. I looked at the moon landing when I was young, and for me it was a very important moment, because every person in the world could see the same important thing. So it has this kind of power… So I’m interested in this kind of relation between personal memory and collective memory.

Orbite Rosse and Rosso Babele seem to be more abstract than your previous works–is there a reason for that?

I think one of the reasons is that something has changed. With some of my previous videos, I was interested in taking something from television and adding this kind of relation with collective memory. Now I think it is different, and I don’t believe in the power of television anymore [laughs]. This is my problem. And I come from a country [Italy] where television was really terrible during the last year. I started to use video in a different kind of way. Because I’m more interested in creating something completely by myself in this moment, I’m not interested in taking something from television. I want to be alone on the other side.

Is there a certain feeling that you’re attempting to convey to the viewer?

I like to leave the viewer completely free. The most important thing to art is that everyone can be free.

How long does it take you to complete an average piece?

Months. Sometimes I start to draw about one idea, and it takes months to focalize, drawing and drawing. And after, when I finish this kind of first step, I’m ready to go around and take photographs of things that I need… It could be one or two months again. It also depends where I need to go. And I start to elaborate and work on all the images and put them in an archive. So I have thousands of images that I put together, and after I start to do the animation in the computer. I do it step-by-step. It is very long.

A portrait of young Kennedys by Richard Avedon. Courtesy of the Smithsonian National Museum of American History

At this time, all Smithsonian Institution museums and the National Zoo are open and the weekend’s events and exhibitions are ongoing. However, in the event of a government shutdown, please note that all Smithsonian museums and the National Zoo will be closed.

Friday April 8: Creativity

Dr. Johnnetta Cole, the director of the National Museum of African Art, will be chatting with philanthropist, educator and documentary maker Camille Cosby on the role of creative problem solving in her life and career. Cole was recently recognized with a Benjamin Franklin Creativity Laureate Award, which honors the world’s most creative thinkers and innovators in the arts, sciences and humanities, in both traditional and emerging disciplines. Previous recipients include Yo-Yo Ma, Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Eric Kandel, Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, Jules Feiffer, Ted Turner, Meryl Streep, Lisa Randall and Greg Mortenson. 7:00 to 8:15 PM. Tickets are $15 for members; $12 for senior members and $25 for nonmembers. Tickets may be purchased online or at the Resident Associate Program box office located in the Ripley Center on the National Mall. Hirshhorn Museum

Saturday April 9: Robots!

The Smithsonian celebrates National Robotics Week. Visit the Spark!Lab to hang out and play games with a robot, named Robbie. 10 AM to 4 PM daily through April 16. American History Museum. And check out our post from this week, “Robots Get Some Curatorial Respect.”

Sunday April 10: Your last chance to see the Kennedy portraits.

American History’s show, “A Look Back—The Kennedys 50 years ago,” closes April 10. Hurry in to see the elegant black and white photographs taken by Richard Avedon of the young couple on the eve of President Kennedy’s inauguration. The show is located adjacent to the popular “First Ladies” exhibit.  10 AM to 5:30 PM daily. American History Museum.

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

Five fossil human skulls show how the shape of the face and braincase of early humans changed over the past 2.5 million years. Photo by Chip Clark, Jim DiLoreto and Don Hurlbert. Image courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution.

Monday, March 14: Recreating Our Past: The Art of Human Origins

With only fossil records to go by, how do artists go about envisioning what our human ancestors looked like? In this Resident Associate Program event, paleoartists John Gurche and Karen Carr discuss the techniques and science behind their two- and three-dimensional hominid landscapes and likenesses that populate the Hall of Human Origins. Natural History Museum’s curator Rick Potts joins them to unveil the new recreation of Sahelanthropus, a 7 million-year-old hominid. Tickets are required. Rates are: $25 general admission; $12 for members; $12 for full-time students with valid IDs and docents for the Hall of Human Origins (must call 202-633-3030 to receive this rate). Tickets may be purchased online or at the Resident Associate Program box office which is located in the Ripley Center on the National Mall. Natural History Museum, 6:45-8:15 PM.

Tuesday, March 15: Community Development and the Arts: Future Possibilities for the East of the River Communities

Panelists from local community organizations and citywide arts activists discuss ideas to expand Anacostia’s creative horizons—from an arts district in old Anacostia to a creation of an arts avenue in Southeast. The panel discussion will be followed by an audience dialogue session. This forum is part of the “Call and Response: Community and Creativity Project,” which is documenting creative expression in Wards 7 and 8 in Washington, D.C. Free. Anacostia Museum, 7:00 PM.

Wednesday, March 16: Meet the Artist: Hans Op de Beeck

Belgian artist Hans Op de Beeck explores our problematic relationships with time, space and each other through a variety of artistic media, including sculpture, painting, drawing, installation, photography, video, animated film and short stories. Today, he discusses his recent work, including his video Staging Silence (2009) which is on view in the related exhibition. Free. Hirshhorn, 7:00-8:00 PM.

Thursday, March 17: Women in Art Docent Tours

March is Women’s History Month and in celebration the Smithsonian American Art Museum is offering a special series of Women in Art docent-led tours. Free. American Art Museum, 5:00 PM. This event repeats every Thursday in March at 5:00 PM and on Friday, March 25 at 5:30 PM.

Friday, March 18: Subramaniampuram

This low-budget film was hailed for its careful reconstruction of the 1980s: long-haired men, bellbottoms and sounds of our recent past. Stripped of the nostalgia associated with costume drama, the film offers an unvarnished look at the friendship of five men living in the neighborhood of Subramaniapuram in Madurai. These unemployed lads squander long days on liquor and dodging the law. But instead of celebrating such youthful indiscretions, the film dissects how stagnant days infect the bonds between men. Political ambitions, murder and romance mobilize a downward slide into betrayals and shifting alliances, further heightened by wanton murder and stabbings. The film will be presented in Tamil with English subtitles. Free. Freer, 7:00 PM.

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

“The best fashion show is definitely on the street,” says Bill Cunningham. “Always has been and always will be.”

The words ooze with the confidence of a fashion expert, and after decades of snapping pictures of bold hats, spiky heals and inventive necklines for his New York Times‘ column “On the Street,” that is exactly what fashion photographer Bill Cunningham is.

“No sooner does Bill call it a trend—observe it, organize it, and publish it—than it’s a trend,” Linda Fargo, vice president of visual merchandising for Bergdorf Goodman, once told The New Yorker. In the same article, the esteemed magazine deemed Cunningham’s column “as much a portrait of New York at a given moment in time as any sociological tract or census.”

“We all get dressed for Bill,” Vogue editor Anna Wintour has said.

But the cameras have turned. Film director Richard Press and producer Philip Gefter approached Cunningham in 2000 with the idea of making a documentary about him. It took eight years to convince the reluctant subject and then two years of production, but Bill Cunningham New York appeared at film festivals last summer and will be released in select theaters starting March 16. The Hirshhorn Museum will be hosting a special (FREE!) advance screening tomorrow night at 8 p.m.

It turns out that the photographer is as fascinating as his body of work. At 81, Cunningham continues to bike around the harried streets of New York City, frequenting favorite spots like the corner of Fifth Avenue and 57th Street in search for what he calls “stunners.” His “stunner” could be Ms. Wintour in a fashion-forward ensemble or an interesting walk of life he encounters in one of New York City’s many parades. “I go to different places all the time. And I try to be as discreet as I can. My whole thing is to be invisible. You get more natural pictures that way, too,” wrote Cunningham in “Bill on Bill,” the only bit of autobiography he penned in the New York Times in 2002.

The photographer has been called a fashion monk, but a 2009 profile of Cunningham in The New Yorker described him as being “closer to an oblate—a layperson who has dedicated his life to the tribe without becoming a part of it.” He wears blue workmen smocks like those worn by street cleaners, for instance, and retires at the end of the day not to a chic loft but a cot amidst filing cabinets in his artist’s studio.

I could go on, but I’ll save some details for the viewing experience!

“Bill Cunningham New York” will be shown in the Hirshhorn’s Ring Auditorium. Doors will open at 7:30. Seating is limited and available on a first-come basis.

Installation view of Palermo's 1976 work "To the People of New York City." © 2010 Artists Rights Society (ARS), Photo by Bill Jacobson

It’s easy to be dismissive of minimalist artworks. Paintings of straight lines and geometric shapes can certainly frustrate viewers who prefer the aesthetics of more representational pieces. I heard the usual cynical comments while perusing the new exhibition, Blinky Palermo: Retrospective 1964-1977, now open at the Hirshhorn.

“Dude, what is this?” “Why is this even in a museum” “I have paint. I have a ruler. Can I get a exhibition?”

Blinky Palermo is a challenging show. The visitor is confronted with white walls that set off brightly colored geometric forms. There are few labels and benches to distract from the works. The show is divided into three seemingly biographical parts: the first section consists of objects from the artist’s time when he came of age as an artist in Germany, the second concerns photos and sketches of site-specific pieces and the third section is works from the artist’s time that he spent living in New York.

The artist, himself, is almost as illusive and complicated as his art. First, his name. Originally, he was Peter Schwarze. Adopted as an infant with his twin brother Michael, he became Peter Heisterkamp. But in the early 1960s, when he met Joseph Beuys and joined that great 20th-century artist’s class at the Dusseldorf Art Academy, Heisterkamp either was given the name or took the name of the Philadelphia mobster boss Blinky Palermo. (Frank “Blinky” Palermo was a 5-foot-tall, all-around bad guy–a Philadelphia mobster who was indicted, convicted and sentenced to federal prison, and who served 7 and a half years of a 15-year sentence for fight fixing and running an illegal numbers game throughout the 1940s and 1960s. )

Blinky, the artist, grew up in Germany. “But he was fascinated with America,” curator Evelyn Hankins told fellow ATM reporter Arcynta Ali Childs.  And after a visit to New York in 1970 with Gerhard Richter, her returned in 1973 and set up a studio in Manhattan. And in that short four-year period before he died mysteriously–perhaps of a heart condition, while vacationing in the Maldives–Blinky Palermo titled many of his works with names of places in New York City–Wooster Street, Coney Island, 14th Street. The title of a 1976 work of 39 aluminum panels painted in red, yellow and black, “To the People of New York City” (above), obviously expresses his affection for his adopted home.

It’s hard to peg Blinky to any one type of art, abstract, or art period, post World War II. His influences are as international, Piet Mondrian and Marcel Broodthaers, as they are American, Mark Rothko and Barnet Newman.

As Hankins says us. “Everything [Palermo] does, you can see the handmade-ness of it.” In 2003, British critic Adrian Searle defined Palermo’s art as “restrained poetry.”

The work “Schmettling II (Butterfly II),” is a fascinating three dimensional painting and relief sculpture that, alas, loses its magic in any photo. (So go see the show!) The ‘body’ of the ‘butterfly’ is made of a nonstandard plank of wood, painted black on its front face and red on its sides. The resulting effect is that of an ever-changing piece that twists and reveals vibrant reds as the viewer moves around it.

“Mirror Object” may appear flat black and white, but is actually made of two three-dimensional triangles, one of soft black and one of reflective metal. The reflectiveness of the piece is surprising. First appearing white, due to the gallery walls, but then reflecting a plethora of color from the works displayed on the other walls.

Many of Palermo’s pieces invite exploration from various angles and distances. How else could one discover that “Untitled,” from 1967, is actually oil paint on linen stretched over a found chalkboard? The works may largely consist of painted geometry, but the unconventional materials and slight off-ness of the pieces give a quirky character to the show and illuminates the character of the painter.

In that regard, the show shares similarities with the Hirshhorn’s retrospective last summer of another artist taken before his time, “Yves Klein.“  Coincidentally, both artists died at 34 just 15 years apart.

“[Palermo]’s considered to be an artist’s artist,” says Hankins, “because he’s really interested in kind of the expressive possibilities and limitations of painting.”

“His was an art with a calm, clear voice,” wrote Searle, “though it often said quite complicated things.”

This is the first American retrospective of Palermo’s work and many of these pieces are borrowed from European collections that have never been seen in the United States.  Explore the colorful expressions of Blinky now through May 15, 2011.

1960 Lunch Counter Sit-Ins single. Image courtesy of the Postal Museum.

Friday, February 4: Teenagers are Taking Over the Hirshhorn

If you’re someone aged 12-21 and have a creative streak, come on out to the National Mall where the Hirshhorn is hosting an open mic night. Music, dance, comedy—the sky’s the limit as long as you keep it PG, keep it fun and bring your own equipment. Free, but registration is required. For more information and to sign up, visit the event’s Facebook page. Hirshhorn, 6:30-10:30 PM.

Saturday, February 5: Black History Month 2011 Family Day Celebration

The whole family is invited to the Smithsonian’s kickoff celebration of Black History Month. The day includes the award-winning interactive theatrical presentation “Join the Student Sit-Ins,” performances by the Washington Performing Arts Society, tours of the exhibition The Kinsey Collection: Shared Treasures of Bernard and Shirley Kinsey, the debut of an American Girl self-guided Civil War family tour (“Addy’s World”), and many interactive activities to celebrate family and heritage. Free. American History Museum, 11:30 AM-5:00 PM.

Sunday, February 6: Oaxaca Weaving Workshop

Join artisan Abigail Mendoza for a demonstration of the traditional weaving methods used by Mexico’s contemporary indigenous peoples. Mendoza’s expertise is featured in the documentary Woven Lives: Contemporary Textiles from Ancient Oaxacan Traditions, which examines how traditional art and design play an active role in the cultural sustainability of the Zapotec communities, living in Mexico’s Central Valleys and the Sierras. Her work is available for purchase after the demonstration. Free. American Indian Museum, 11:00 AM-1:00 PM. This event repeats today at 2:00 PM.

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

Untitled #121 (1983) by Cindy Sherman. Image courtesy of Hirshhorn Museum

Contemporary conceptual photographer Cindy Sherman (b. 1954) turns 57 today, so make sure you wish her a very happy birthday should you pass her by. Born in New Jersey and schooled at SUNY-Buffalo, with her edgy portraiture and ever-updating style, Sherman creates images that are among the most valued of today’s female photographers.

Feeling initially constrained by the painting milieu in art school, Sherman found greater satisfaction in photography.  She first hit it big in 1977 with her Untitled Film Stills, a series of 8-by-10, black-and-white glossy photographs of herself. Dressed in costume, Sherman portrayed the archetypical actress roles from a variety of film genres, including film noir, B-movie and foreign.

In what is seen by some as a comment on female roles and femininity, the characters ranged from “housewife” to “upset woman.” “She’s good enough to be a real actress,” pop art icon Andy Warhol once said of the series.

Sherman’s trend of image distortion and masquerade continued with her Disasters and Fairy Tales series (1985-1989); however, for the first time she wasn’t the model in all the images. Shot in saturated blues, greens and reds, she placed herself in strange, often disgusting settings, again dressed in bizarre outfits. A certain beauty emerged from the filth.

In an untitled 1983 work, held in the collections of the Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum, Sherman’s coy pose leaves the viewer wanting to understand the narrative behind the image. A 1995 MacArthur “genius grant” winner, Sherman has explored feminist issues in her different portrait series while serving as her own subject matter, yet she’s managed to reveal only just a small part of herself, keeping much hidden.

“I feel I’m anonymous in my work, ” she explained in a 1990 interview with The New York Times. “When I look at the pictures, I never see myself; they aren’t self-portraits. Sometimes I disappear.”