Smithsonian Events Week of 5/11-15: Portraits, Presents, Star Trek and Sailing
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Monday, May 11: Gallery Talk: June Wayne's Self Portrait
In tonight's gallery talk, National Gallery paper conservator Rosemary Fallon and Smithsonian American Art Museum curatorial associate Ann Prentice Wagner discuss June Wayne's technique in this self-portrait. While in the museum, be sure to check out the exhibit Reflections/Refractions: Self-Portraiture in the Twentieth Century. Free. Portrait Gallery, 12:00 PM.
Tuesday, May 12: The Safavid Gifts
You think you're hot stuff when you find that really cute, one-of-a-kind gift for someone special, right? Yeah, well, it's pretty darn hard to out-gift the Safavids of Iran. Between the 16th and 17th centuries, the Safavids—to strengthen their diplomatic relations with Russia—came bearing some serious bling, which is currently on display in the exhibition The Tsars and the the East: Gifts from Turkey and Iran in the Moscow Kremlin, on view until September 13, 2009. Today, Massumeh Farhad, Chief Curator and Curator of Islamic Art, will discuss the objects on display and how they impacted Russian life. Free. Sackler Gallery. 12:00 PM
Wednesday, May 13: Ask an Expert
We've all heard about the starship Enterprise and its five-year mission to explore strange new worlds, seek out new life and new civilizations and to go where no man has gone before. But how much to you know about the actual starship Enterprise—or rather, the prop used in the groundbreaking original series. Margaret Weitekamp of the National Air and Space Museum's Space History Division is on deck to talk about this pop culture icon—an iteration of which is sailing through space on the big screen this spring in a brand new movie. Free. Air and Space Museum. 12:00 PM
Thursday, May 14: Come Sail Away with the Conservators of "On the Water": Meet Our Museum
Come sail away with conservators Mary Coughlin and Michelle Savant who will discuss how they went about conserving the maritime objects to be displayed in the upcoming permanent exhibition On the Water: Stories from Maritime America, which explores life along our nation's waterways. A question and answer session will follow. Free. American History Museum, 12:00 PM
Friday, May 15: Asian Pacific American Heritage Music and Dance Performance
Come enjoy the School of Indian Odissi Dance Troupe and the Mongolian Dance perform traditional Asian Pacific music and dance. Free. Natural History Museum. 6:30 PM