>> Conner Contemporary opens Academy 2007, their annual BFA/MFA art show featuring talented graduates from the region. The curators have been touring student shows since January to find the best from this year's class in a wide variety of media. Find the Next Great Artist this Friday at their opening reception from 6 to 8 p.m.

>> Art Enables is really settling into their new space, and are celebrating the induction of their official gallery -- and maybe more importantly, the brand new air conditioner -- with an exhibition that opens this Saturday. ICE: The Edible Bling features mostly folk art by 26 artists. Join them at the reception from 4 to 6:30 p.m. and you'll be treated to free ice cream as you come in from the heat.

>> Not necessarily art, but it's at an art museum and it sounds like a lot of fun: Nationals Baseball Family Day at the Smithsonian American Art Museum and National Portrait Gallery. Bring your kids at noon on Saturday to meet some of the Nationals team members, who will read that good ol' classic, Casey at the Bat, and its brand new sequel, Casey Back at the Bat. Get there in time for the scavenger hunt around the museum and the baseball card workshop.

Image is a still from Natalia Panfile's video, 'Pretty Girl', showing in Academy 2007 at Conner Contemporary.

>> Over in Mt. Rainer, Md., H&F Fine Arts opens a new exhibit this weekend featuring works by A.B. Miner, whose works you may have seen recently at Flashpoint and the Nevin Kelly Gallery. This artist explores hybrid or bifurcated states in one's sexuality and individual identity with oil impasto, a thickly applied painting technique. Opening reception on Friday from 6 to 9 p.m.

>> The Hillyer Art Space will soon be turned into an evolving time line by artist Monica Tinker. Her site-specific installation, Out of b[Order] tries to "fit" into the space, much as we attempt to alter our lives to fit with the world around us as time passes and experiences change us. Tinker, too, will change aspects of the installation every week to better utilize space and and purpose of the objects. See its first incarnation at the opening reception Friday from 6 to 8 p.m.