October Museum Round Up
Mandara, Image courtesy of Lino Tagliapietra, Inc. Photo by Russell Johnson |
October at the Museums brings much photographic portraiture with a dash of holiday activity at the end of the month. Get your calendar out now so you don't miss a thing.
>> Opening October 3, Lino Tagliapietra in Retrospect: A Modern Renaissance in Glass is the first exhibition to thoroughly examine the art of Lino Tagliapietra, a master of glass blowing. Explore 140 works from the artist's 40-year career including items that have never been exhibited. Smithsonian American Art Museum's Renwick Gallery.
>> The DAR Museum celebrates childhoods of the past with a playful exhibition of late 19th- and early 20th-century toys. Opening October 3, Return to Toyland features antique toys from the Museum's collection including dolls and doll houses, military and vehicular toys, games and stuffed animals.
>> Winner of the 2008 Kreeger Museum Artist Award, Ledelle Moe will have selected work on view at The Kreeger Museum starting October 3.
>>The National Air and Space Museum celebrates Hispanic Heritage Month with Family Day on Saturday October 4 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Learn what's it's like to live and work in space, talk with former astronauts and discover how robotics are used in space exploration. All materials and demonstrations will be provided in Spanish and English and translators will be available.
>> Jim Henson's Fantastic World closes October 5. So if you haven't taken this trip down memory lane, get there quick before its gone. Smithsonian International Gallery.
>> For 30 years, Xavier Guerrand-Hermès of the renowned Paris-based fashion empire collected both stunning North African jewelry and historic late 19th- and early 20th- century photographs by some of the region's most prominent photographers. View highlights from his collection in Desert Jewels: North African Jewelry and Photography from the Xavier Guerrand-Hermès Collection at the National Museum of African Art opening October 8.
>> The National Portrait Gallery opens two new exhibits this month. Starting October 10, Women of Our Time: Twentieth Century Photographs, includes portraits of women who have reached the summit of achievement. View photographs of Margaret Wise Brown, Amelia Earhart, Althea Gibson, Billie Holiday, Helen Keller, Marilyn Monroe, Georgia O'Keeffe, Gertrude Stein, Gloria Steinem and Wendy Wasserstein. On October 24, explore rare and exquisite jewelry containing portraits in the 19th century's four main photographic processes—daguerreotypes, ambrotypes, tintypes and paper prints in Tokens of Affection and Regard: Photographic Jewelry and Its Makers.
>> Christo and Jeanne-Claude bring their latest work to the Phillips Collection on October 11. Christo and Jeanne-Claude: Over The River, a Work in Progress, will contain more than 150 photographs, collages, drawings, and maps, of the artists’ process as they prepare to assemble and suspend massive silvery fabric panels horizontally over the Arkansas River in Colorado. Stay tuned for our full review.
Over the River, Project for Arkansas River, State of Colorado Photographs by Wolfgang Volz and topographic map. Copyright Christo, 1998 |
>> The Sackler Gallery also opens two one new exhibit this month. On October 11, in Garden and Cosmos: The Royal Paintings of Jodhpur, over 99 paintings, many of monumental scale, which vividly evoke the lush beauty of gardens or the sublime mystery of the cosmos will be on view. And on October 24, explore divination manuscripts, created in Safavid Iran and Ottoman Turkey in the 16th- and early 17th- centuries, in Falnama: The Book of Omens. (This exhibit opens October 24, 2009; sorry.)
>> If your thirst for ocean knowledge hasn't been satiated by the new Sant Ocean Hall, then try the National Geographic Museum and Whales Tohorā which opens on October 15. A traveling exhibition from the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, the exhibit will highlight the interconnection between whales and the culture of the people of the South Pacific.
>> For more role models and photographic portraiture head over the the National Museum of Women in the Arts for Role Models: Feminine Identity in Contemporary American Photography. Opens October 17.
>> Timbuktu to Tibet: Rugs and Textiles of the Hajji Babas, opening October 18, will display objects from a wide geographic area encompassing Africa, West Asia and Central Asia at the Textile Museum. The show explores the central role that textiles have played in many disparate cultures across these regions.
>> Study up for your career in crime scene investigation with the National Museum of Crime and Punishment at their CSI Workshop: Fingerprints, Footprints, and Imprints on October 19 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Free with paid admission.
>> The ever popular Boo at the Zoo returns for its tenth year at the National Zoo. It's spooktacular fun for the whole family. Running October 23 through 26 from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. Tickets are $15 for FONZ members and $25 for everyone. Note Saturday is already sold out.
>> October 23, the Hirshorn opens two new exhibits with the Panza Collection and Ways of Seeing: Guiseppe and Giovanna Panza. The exhibits are complementary shows of recently acquired works from the collection of Dr. Panza and provides an overview of the critical premises driving Conceptual, Light and Space, Minimal, and Environmental art.
>> "What kind of community is green?" and "How can we make communities green?" are the two questions that the National Building Museum tries to answer in their coming exhibit Green Community. Broken into two parts, the exhibit explores sustainable planning strategies and sustainable technologies, among other themes. Opening October 23.
>> Like your Halloween a little less cute and fuzzy and more creepy/kooky? The National Museum of Health and Medicine will host a pasta skeleton craft activity and scavenger hunt good for the whole family. October 25 10:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.