Written by DCist contributor Amy Cavanaugh The Tuareg people, who once roamed a region of the Sahara, are the subject of a new exhibit at the National Museum of African Art. Art of Being Tuareg: Sahara Nomads in a Modern World uses art to explore the present-day world of a nomadic tribe, and explains that though the end of French colonial rule and droughts made most Tuareg settle down permanently, many aspects of their lives…

The most recent exhibition at the Smithsonian’s Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, organized with help from the National Museum of African Art, Encompassing the Globe: Portugal and the World in the 16th and 17th Centuries, is as much a chronicle of history as it is a document for how art records history. Trying to pigeonhole this exhibition into a one category is difficult. It is more than just the fact the exhibition displays more than 260…

Written by DCist contributor Menachem Wecker. American sculptor Claes Oldenburg is famous for his work in the 1960s and 70s that inflated everyday objects to enormous proportions: safety pins the size of trucks, typewriter erasers ten times life-size (here at the National Gallery of Art), and hamburgers that would have comfortably served Goliath. BIG/small, one of the current shows at the National Museum of African Art, merges Oldenburg’s vision of the gigantic with a…

Chin up, art enthusiasts – the dismal month of August is finally coming to a close. With it are lots of closing gallery exhibits around town. Stay tuned for the barrage of shows that will be opening in area museums and galleries over the next few weeks. >> Heading back to class at The University of Maryland? Be sure to stop in the Union Gallery to see “Every Day,” featuring artwork by Barbara Bergstrom, Tracy…

Forget the heat – DCist is ready for fall so we’ll be able to see lots of new exhibits at area galleries. In the meantime, we’ve pulled together some highlights from the dreadfully slow month of August. >> Fine art photographer Tom Wolff and four of his former students are the focus of a new show at Spectrum Gallery in Georgetown. Wolff has taught at Glen Echo for 30 years and has picked some of…

This year marks the 25th anniversary of the National Museum of African Art as part of the Smithsonian Institution. The museum has kicked off the celebration with “Treasures,” an exhibit featuring 73 masks and wooden sculptures from the museum’s collections and private loans. The first in a new series, “Treasures” is an “old-fashioned” kind of exhibit, one without lengthy wall labels explaining the specific cultural context for the objects. Instead, the exhibit invites you to…