museum

Save the Petting Zoo & Pizza Playground at the National Zoo!

By Prince Of Petworth

“Dear PoP,

Would you be willing to do a post on an impending change at the National Zoo that local parents are trying to stop? We desperately need help getting the word out. Here’s the issue:

The Zoo currently has a petting farm with cows, donkeys, pigs, etc. that kids can visit and touch (my 2.5 yr old son loves it so much that he knows most of the animals by name). The Zoo also as a “pizza” playground that is one of the best outdoor spaces in the city for little kids/toddlers to play. The Smithsonian (which runs the Zoo) is saying that it’s going to close both the farm and the playground and shift the funds to other “priorities” even though the press is saying that the overall budget for the Smithsonian is going to actually INCREASE this year by $100mm.

Local parents have started to organize to resist these changes, but we’re just getting started and are a little bit at sea. But we do have a facebook group started.

More importantly, we’re trying to organize a “protest” at the farm for Saturday. The idea is to just show our support by having as many families come as possible between 10:00 am and 12:00 pm on the 26th.”

Good luck!

Dear PoP – What to do with a 7 and 10 Year Old from Upstate NY?

By Prince Of Petworth

“Dear PoP,

We have our 7 and 10 year old nephews coming into town from upstate New York for a visit with us. We’ve done the Natural History, Building, Air & Space, Native American, you name it museum with them before. We’re trying to plan something fun to do down here for the 7 year olds birthday that A) we haven’t done before; B) a 7 and 10 year old would find really fun; C) Something they wouldn’t be able to do up in upstate New York (that part shouldn’t be that hard to accomplish). We don’t have kids ourselves and our general knowledge of things for kids to do in DC is pretty lacking. Does anyone out there have suggestions of places to go or things to try?!”

Hmm, looks like you hit all the big ones – I’m gonna say (while it’s not as good as Baltimore’s aquarium) the National Aquarium in the Commerce Dep’t (14th and Constitution Avenue, NW). Or of course the National Zoo.

What would you guys recommend?

Dear PoP – Favorite Smithsonian Spots for a Scavenger Hunt?

By Prince Of Petworth


Photo by PoPville flickr user Mr. T in DC

“Dear PoP,

Living in DC, friends and family come to visit all the time. I enjoy taking them to museums, but I find myself always going to the same exhibits. Several years ago, I was living in Paris, and my art history professor made a kind of treasure hunt in the Louvre where each step led you to a new piece of artwork and a new set of clues. It was pretty much the most fun I’ve ever had in a museum, and I’d like to do a similar version across the entire Mall. Instead of just using all the most famous exhibits, I’d like to find quirkier and less-visited things to add to the list. I have my own favorite spots in each Smithsonian, but I’d love to hear some of your readers’ favorite things to see.”

This sounds like a really fun idea. Back in Sept. we talked about some of our favorite museums. But specific to the question, what Smithsonian exhibits do you guys think would make for good clues for a scavenger hunt?

The 5pm Post – Movies and Literature Thurs. Evening

By Prince Of Petworth

This is timely:

This year’s film festival at the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art focuses on the films of Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco and Algeria. Bound by geography, these disparate films capture the complexity of recent movies from and about North Africa. From contemporary Cairo and Marrakech, to the shifting sandscapes of Tunisia and Iran, to Algiers and Paris, these films are intimately tied with place, and show different sides of these often stunning and sometimes gritty backdrops.

Free and open to the public. Seating is first come, first served.

Thursday evenings at 7:00PM
950 Independence Ave
Lecture Hall, Sublevel 2

More info from 826dc here.

The 5pm Post – Artist Talk: Theo Eshetu at African Art Dec 16 @ 7pm

By Prince Of Petworth


Theo Eshetu, Brave New World II, 1999 (2006 Edition). Multimedia and video installation. Photograph by Chris Ward Jones, courtesy of the artist.

From an email:

“Artist Talk: Theo Eshetu

Date: Thursday, December 16
Time: 7:00 p.m.
Place: National Museum of African Art

lecture hall, sub-level 2
950 Independence Avenue, SW
Take Metro to Smithsonian Station

Video artist, filmmaker and photographer Theo Eshetu discusses his recent projects with a focus on his video installation Brave New World II, now on view at the National Museum of African Art. He shows how aspects of his biography—born in London to Dutch and Ethiopian parents, raised in Senegal and other countries, and now residing in Rome—as well as circumstance influence his life and art.

About the Artist:

Theo Eshetu received his degree in communication design from the North East London Polytechnic in 1981. Since then, he has taught film—most recently at the Accademia dell’Immagine in L’Aquila, Italy—and worked in a range of new media formats, from documentary and experimental films to video art installations and photography. His films include Traveling Light (1992), Art is Easy (1997), Blood Is Not Fresh Water (1998), Africanized (2001) and Body and Soul (2004). Eshetu’s work has appeared throughout Italy as well as in England, Germany, Sweden, South Africa, Canada, the United States, Brazil, China and Japan.”

Free Japanese Film Festival This Friday and Sunday at the Freer

By Prince Of Petworth

“Dear PoP,

On Friday, December 3 at 7 PM, we will show the ever popular comedy Linda Linda Linda. The film follows four girls as they prepare their band for their final school festival.  Accompanied by a great soundtrack, this film is funny, poignant, and will certainly have you longing for your school festival (and a karaoke box).  Click here to visit the film’s official English site.  (Japanese with English subtitles)

On Sunday, December 5 at 2 PM, we will screen The Harimaya Bridge, written and directed by former JET Aaron Woolfolk (Kochi Prefecture).  The Harimaya Bridge is a drama about an American man who must travel to rural Japan to claim some important items belonging to his late son, from whom he was estranged. While there, he learns several secrets his son left behind. Mr. Woolfolk will be in attendance during the screening and will stay to answer questions about his craft and his experiences.   Come see a film the Los Angeles Times calls “a unique, complex, consciousness-raising accomplishment,” and Derek Kester of the San Francisco Examiner labels one of the best films of the year.  Click here to visit the film’s official site.

Admission to both films is FREE and open to the public.  Seating in the Meyer Auditorium at the Freer (directions here) will be available on a first come first served basis. Auditorium doors will open approximately 30 minutes before each show.”

The 5pm Post – Patti Smith at National Portrait Gallery Sat. Dec. 11

By Prince Of Petworth

From an email:

“When: Saturday, December 11, 2010, 2pm

Venue: National Portrait Gallery

Event Location: McEvoy Auditorium (enter from G Street)

Seminal punk rocker Patti Smith discusses and signs copies of her book Just Kids, a memoir of early 1970s Manhattan and of her friendship with artist Robert Mapplethorpe. Books available for sale in the Museum Store.

Please note this is an Author Lecture – not just a book signing!”

I Think We All Need to See This Exhibit

By Prince Of Petworth

Right?

From Wikipedia:

Giuseppe Arcimboldo (also spelled Arcimboldi) (1527 – July 11, 1593) was an Italian painter best known for creating imaginative portrait heads made entirely of such objects as fruits, vegetables, flowers, fish, and books — that is, he painted representations of these objects on the canvas arranged in such a way that the whole collection of objects formed a recognizable likeness of the portrait subject.

The 5pm Post – Artist Talk: Ousmane Sow at African Art Sat Nov 20 @ 2pm

By Prince Of Petworth


Image: Ousmane Sow, Toussaint Louverture et la vieille esclave, 1989. Mixed media. Museum purchase, through exchange from Emil Eisenberg and Mr. and Mrs. Norman Robbins, and with funds from Stuart Bohart and Barbara Portman, 2009-8-1. Photograph by Franko Khoury.

Date: Saturday, November 20
Time: 2 p.m.
Place: National Museum of African Art
mezzanine, sub-level 1
950 Independence Avenue, SW
Take Metro to Smithsonian Station

“Senegalese artist Ousmane Sow will make a rare appearance at the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art to speak about his striking work, Toussaint Louverture et la vieille esclave (Toussaint Louverture and the elderly slave). The towering figure of Haitian leader Toussaint Louverture commemorates the bicentennial of the French Revolution and is the centerpiece of the museum’s new exhibition, African Mosaic: Celebrating a Decade of Collecting. The artist will discuss his monumental sculptures with his wife, photographer and filmmaker Béatrice Soulé. The event is free and open to the public.”

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