As spring and summer roll in, D.C.’s museums offer a great way to get out of the heat and boost your brain power. And, after spending most of your free time relaxing at outdoor happy hours, who couldn’t use a brain boost? DCist has gathered some of May’s best museum exhibits and events. While some of the exhibits are long term, now’s as good a time as any to check them out, as we'll have......

Jet packs, hover boards and robot maids. That future has yet to come true. But The New Future, now on view at DCAC, gives us a glimpse into what our next future holds, while reflecting on what didn’t come to pass. Curated by Kristina Bilonick, the exhibit brings together a collection of four artists and their eclectic mix of old and new, pointing out disappointment in what could have been and small wisps of......

My mother and I used to think we were so clever sneaking out of the house after the post-pumpkin pie haze to spend our tryptophan relaxing time at the movie theater, while our extended family lay sprawled on the couches in front of the boob tube ... until a few years later when the entire world caught on and every theater had lines around the block on Turkey Day. Lucky for you, we're in Washington,......

The newest exhibit at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History is not exactly a headliner for the museum, seeing as it is housed in just one small room inside an already existing exhibit. Despite not receiving top billing, Discovering Rastafari has made the absolute most of of its limited allotment, filling it to the brim with the colorful images and stories of a vibrant faith. The exhibit's hand-painted sign draws you in, clashing with......

With the surprising lack of Halloween aftermath photos in the DCist pool today, we did a little browsing back through the past week and found this interesting shot by Flickr user chapulin colorado. Using a fake tilt shift, he turned this photo of real life visitors at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History into a diorama you might find in an exhibit of the museum. Tilt-shifting distorts the focus so that viewers believe they're......

Classical music has come back from summer vacation, and that means you actually have a choice of concerts this week. Most importantly, many of the city's leading groups are opening the season with glittering events. Look for reviews next week. >> Washington National Opera is opening its fall season with one of the most popular operas in the repertoire, Puccini's La Bohème (September 15 to 30). For all its audience-pleasing qualities, this opera is a......

Yesterday, we told you about the Associated Press' story that claimed Smithsonian officials altered a Museum of Natural History exhibit on climate change in order to make it less controversial. Subsequently, the Smithsonian issued a statement denouncing the AP report and the allegations made by Robert Sullivan, a former associate director at the National Museum of Natural History. The statement also claimed that the exhibit was not the subject of either internal or external political......

As if things couldn't get any more rocky for the Smithsonian Institution, it is the subject of yet another controversy. The AP reports that an ex-Smithsonian official says the institution toned down an exhibit on the effects of climate change in the Arctic out of fear that the exhibit would draw the ire of Congress and the Bush administration. Among other things, the script, or official text, of last year's exhibit was rewritten to......

A month and a half after former Secretary Lawrence M. Small read the writing on the wall and left the Smithsonian Institution with his tail between his legs and an investigation committee on his back, the Smithsonian board of regents has begun its search for his replacement. The Associated Press reports that the search committee, formed yesterday but not fully yet, will include six board members, including Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), and one of Chief......

A new permanent exhibit at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History is already making its own history as the first to require entrance fees. One part of Butterflies and Plants: Partners in Evolution, planned to open in November, will cost visitors about $5. Much of the exhibit will be free, but an admission fee will be attached to a two-tier butterfly pavilion, similar to New York's American Museum of Natural History butterfly habitat. We're......

The Smithsonian Institution's woes have been front and center in the news lately, and now it has sent its first victim to the chopping block. In the wake of last week's fairly crushing – though not entirely surprising – report on the state of the museums, Secretary Lawrence M. Small has submitted his resignation, announced today by the Board of Regents Executive Committee. Some have noted that Small may only be the first of the......

Our friends over at the Associated Press have dug deep into a story that's weighing heavily on all of our minds today: Why is it that the National Air and Space Museum, once the proud champion of the Smithsonian's annual Awesomest Awards for Attendance, has fallen from favor with the museum-attending set. Air and Space's attendance fell below that of the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History for the first time in recent memory last......

MONDAY Murder, urban intrigue, and the promiscuous pen of Edgar Allan Poe are the ingredients of Daniel Stashower’s treatise on the evolution of the detective story, The Beautiful Cigar Girl: Mary Rogers, Edgar Allen Poe, and the Invention of Murder. Chapters, 445 11th Street, NW., 1pm. TUESDAY Head on over to the Baird Auditorium at the National Museum of Natural History to hear Andrea Mitchell discuss Talking Back: . . . to Presidents, Dictators, and......

Oh look, we have our very own Hiroshi Sugimoto. As you may have seen first-hand during his retrospective at the Hirshhorn last spring, Sugimoto got his start in photography by taking images of the exhibits at the Natural History Museum, turning them inexplicably into real-life scenes. Maybe Flickr user xtol7's photo didn't quite convince you that triceratops are roaming the D.C. area willy-nilly just waiting to be photographed, but it kind of makes you......

Our inbox runneth over here at Overheard in D.C. headquarters. Nice weather, busloads of tourists, and a plethora of outdoor events have all come together to give us some amusement for a Friday afternoon. Keep 'em coming to overheardindc (at) gmail (dot) com. Quote of the Week Museum of Natural History information desk: Two women: "Where here can we find the baby Panda?" Information Clerk: "You have to go to the zoo to see the......

We'll admit that the mayor's blog hasn't quite lived up to our expectations. But we still believe that blogs are a great way for institutions to make themselves accessible to their customers, patrons or constituents. The Smithsonian American Art Museum seems to agree with us: today they've launched Eye Level, a new blog helmed by veteran art-blogger and friend-of-DCist Kriston Capps. The idea seems to be that posts will feature items from the museum's collection......

MONDAY >> E.L. Doctorow has had a storied career -- a National Book Award for 1986’s Ragtime, a pair of film adaptations, and a prestigious position at New York University. Keep this in mind and don’t ask him about whether that story you heard about your Spring Breaking friends getting pulled over in Atlanta and tossed in the clink for joking about General Sherman’s relative velocity is an urban legend or not. He’s just got......

(Editor's Note: This is the third in an ongoing series on the D.C. area's overlooked museums. Here are Parts I and II.) Nothing to do this weekend? Stuck in town while your friends go to the beach? Make them wish they had been around and gone with you to one of these sleeper museums. You’re sure to have a story to tell. And if you don’t, make one up. Kick Memorial Day Weekend off right......

FROSTBURG, Md. -- From the DCist mobile command center on I-68, we present to you our picks for stuff you should do this weekend. (Actually, we did this early this morning, we think we'll be around Frostburg around lunchtime. But wouldn't it be cool if we did have a mobile command center? C'mon Jake, can you spare a few pennies for that? We promise we won't take it on any joyrides ...) Anyhow, with Catherine......

With the holiday season upon us, DCist is bracing for the usual phalanx of seasonal activities. There's a number of events around the mall of interest. Now that we've answered all your questions about the National Christmas Tree, you can head down to the Ellipse tonight to see it lit. To the right is a photo of Lynn Cheney putting the finishing touches on it last week. If the idea of a family-friendly Pagent of......

With new security closure announcements coming everyday it seems like, DCist found it odd that among federal installations slated for perimeter upgrades is the National Arboretum. Not only would terrorists have trouble finding the Arboretum way out on Bladensburg Road in Northeast, they may run into trouble with some of the local residents. (But then again, maybe the Arboretum is a viable target on a symbolic level. It is, afterall, on the colonial road......