What’s Up
A list of events and exhibitions at the Smithsonian Institution
Special Delivery
Since 1776, the Postal Inspection Service has fought fraud and larceny. Investigate one of the nation's oldest law enforcement agencies at the Postal Museum starting February 7.
International Lampoon
When Spain colonized Mexico, indigenous artists caricatured the invaders. In that tradition, the Nahua mask shows a conquistador being eaten by an eagle. It appears with other eye-catching objects at the Museum of the American Indian's George Gustav Heye Center in New York City until September 23, 2008.
Strike Up the Band
For more than 150 years, Washington, D.C. public-school bands have turned the usual oompah fare on its head. Uniforms, photos, recordings and more artifacts recall all that jazz at the Anacostia Community Museum through May 14.
Pottery on Parade
The Freer Gallery invited the eminent Australian ceramicist Gwyn Hanssen Pigott into its Asian art storerooms to pick out pots that struck her fancy. The result? Seven artful arrangements of bowls, bottles, jugs and jars—many rarely displayed—on view until November 4.
Scan Artist
Baltimore-based Robert Creamer arranges feathers, flowers, frog skeletons and the like on a flatbed computer scanner. See 39 unique high-res images at Natural History until June 24.