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Home › Events › Smithsonian Events for Saturday, June 28
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Saturday, June 28
9:30 AM-4:15 PM
Lecture The Medici Dynasty: Patronage & Power in Renaissance Florence
All-Day Seminar
The flowering of arts and letters in Renaissance Florence is unimaginable without the Medici. By the early 15th century, this family had risen from being relative parvenus to become bankers to the popes and the most influential political players in Florence. Over the next few generations, their artistic and architectural commissions would reshape the social, religious, and cultural life of the city. In this seminar, art historians Philip Jacks (associate professor of art history, GW University) and Aneta Georgievska-Shine (adjunct art history lecturer, University of Maryland) explore Medici patronage and how this unique family left its imprint on the Renaissance city.
$120, general; $85, members; call 202-633-3030

Resident Associate Program
Location: S. Dillon Ripley Center
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11 AM-12 Noon
Family Performance Storytelling in the Griotte Tradition
Let's Read About Africa: Summertime Stories
(for ages 5 and up) This program introduces young audiences to current and classical children's literature about Africa. In this performance, Diane Macklin tells a story in the griotte tradition. An arts activity follows.
Free; for groups of 10+, please RSVP at 202-633-4640
Repeats July 12 & 26
National Museum of African Art
Location: Lecture Hall, Sublevel 2
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11 AM-5:30 PM
Performance Family 42nd Smithsonian Folklife Festival
Annual Event
The Smithsonian's annual Folklife Festival brings together hundreds of performers, artists, storytellers, craftspeople, cooks, and workers to explain, demonstrate, and celebrate their cultural traditions. This year's themes include:

Bhutan: Land of the Thunder Dragon: Situated in the eastern Himalayas and bordered by China and India, Bhutan is an agrarian society where approximately 95% of its people practice traditional farming. To celebrate their special approach to life in the 21st century, more than 100 Bhutanese artists, dancers, craftspeople, cooks, carpenters, farmers, weavers, and representatives of monastic life demonstrate their living traditions that define and sustain their culture.

NASA: Fifty Years and Beyond: To showcase the role NASA has played in broadening the horizons of American science and culture, a cross-section of its 18,000 employees and 40,000 contractors -- astronomers, astronauts, astrophysicists, educators, and engineers -- provide living presentations; hands-on educational activities; demonstrations of skills, techniques, and knowledge; narrative "oral history" sessions; and exhibits that explore the agency's spirit of innovation, discovery, and service.

Texas: A Celebration of Music, Food, and Wine: The Lone Star State shares its proud history and contemporary traditions through its music, dance, and food. Hear presentations of Texas blues, swing, country and western, gospel, and tejano music; see demonstrations of wine making; and enjoy diverse culinary traditions from barbeque to Vietnamese specialties.

Sponsored by the Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage Program.
Free
Repeats June 29 & July 2-6

Special Smithsonian Sponsored
Location: National Mall near Smithsonian Museums
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11:30 AM & 1:30 PM
Family Workshop Hot-Air Henry
Flights of Fancy -- Stories for Children with activity
Enjoy a reading of Hot-Air Henry, written by Mary Calhoun, and create a drawing of Henry's rescue.
Free
Last day
National Air and Space Museum
Location: Pioneers of Flight, 2nd Floor, Center, Gallery 208
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12 Noon
Performance Music in Bhutan
Performance
Join Bhutanese singers and instrumentalists to learn about music in the Himalayas. Discover how their traditional collective songs play a role in farming, weaving, carpentry, and building homes. Part of the 2008 Smithsonian Folklife Festival.
Free; first come, first served
Repeats July 3 & 6
See related 2008 Smithsonian Folklife Festival programs
Arthur M. Sackler Gallery and Freer Gallery of Art
Location: Sackler Pavilion
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1-5 PM
Special Sale Family Richard Hilliard: Neil, Buzz and Mike Go to the Moon
Book Signing
Richard Hilliard signs copies of his children's books Neil, Buzz and Mike Go to the Moon, Ham The Astrochimp, and Godspeed, John Glenn.
Books available for sale in Museum Store
National Air and Space Museum
Location: Outside Museum Store
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1-4 PM
Special Sale Jane Gardner Birch: They Flew Proud
Book Signing
Jane Gardner Birch signs copies of her book They Flew Proud.
Books available for sale in Museum Store
Repeats June 29 at the Air and Space Museum on the Mall
National Air and Space Museum Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center
Location: Outside Museum Store
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1-4 PM
Workshop Family Postcard Art Connection
Workshop
One little postcard can say a lot. Design a postcard with your message of friendship, travel, and creativity and mail it to the museum before this June program to participate in a "mail art" display. On the day of the program, everyone is welcome to come see the display and be inspired to create mail art.

Mail your postcard art to:
Postcard Art Connection
National Postal Museum
PO Box 37012, MRC 570
Washington, DC 20013-7012
Free

National Postal Museum
Location: Atrium
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1-4 PM
Performance Family Workshop SAAM I Am -- Jewelry
Family Day
(for all ages) Discover the enchanting art of jewelry design. This afternoon, listen to a reading of A String of Beads, written by Margarette S. Reid; enjoy live music; view Ornament as Art for inspiration; then create your own pieces with jewelry designer Kathleen Manning.
Free
Related Exhibition: Ornament as Art: Avant-Garde Jewelry
Renwick Gallery
Location: Grand Salon
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1:30 PM
Special Tour Art + Coffee
Luce Foundation Center Activity
Discover the treasures of the Luce Foundation Center for American Art during a tour or talk. Afterwards, enjoy a complimentary coffee or tea.
Free
Repeats Wednesday through Sunday
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Location: Meet in the F Street Lobby
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2 PM
Performance Up at the Lab
Performance
Writer Gary Leon Hill, Catherine Castellanos, Frances Lee McCain, Luis Saguar, and director David Dower read from and discuss the script-in-progress of their play Up at the Lab, which weaves the oral histories of blue collar workers at New Mexico's Los Alamos Laboratory with those of the Pueblo communities surrounding the lab. The play addresses the history of the lab, its impact on the immediate region, and its continuing impact on the planet, all through first-person narratives of the people who lived and worked nearby.
Free
Last day
National Museum of the American Indian
Location: 1st Level, Rasmuson Theater (enter from Maryland Ave.)
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2 PM
Lecture The Benjamin Zucker Lecture on Mughal Art
Lecture
For this year's Benjamin Zucker lecture, Dr. Catherine B. Asher, a renowned scholar of Mughal art, discusses the cosmopolitan court cultures of northern India at the height of Mughal imperial power.
Free; first come, first served
Related Exhibition: MURAQQA'
Arthur M. Sackler Gallery and Freer Gallery of Art
Location: Freer, Meyer Auditorium
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2:30-3:30 PM
Special Sale Family Homer Hickam: Children's Books
Book Signing
Homer Hickam signs copies of his children's books Rocket Boys, Sky of Stone, Coalwood Way, Red Helmet, and We are not Afraid.
Books available for sale in Museum Store
Repeats June 29
National Air and Space Museum
Location: Outside Museum Store
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3 PM
Performance Dark Tower Revisited
Performance
Relive the exuberant days of the Harlem Renaissance in A'Lelia Walker's salon. Morgan State University's Theater and Music Departments perform classics by Fats Waller and Bessie Smith and present excerpts of plays and poetry by Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston.
Free, first come, first served
Related Exhibition: Aaron Douglas: African American Modernist
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Location: McEvoy Auditorium (enter from G St.)
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3 PM
Performance Masked Dances of the Monastery
Performance
Learn more about Bhutanese masked dancers and their costumes through close-up interactions with Buddhist monks and their interpreters. Part of the 2008 Smithsonian Folklife Festival.
Free; first come, first served
Repeats July 3 & 6
See related 2008 Smithsonian Folklife Festival programs
Arthur M. Sackler Gallery and Freer Gallery of Art
Location: Sackler Pavilion
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3 PM & 4:15 PM
Film Repetition and The Battle of Orgreave
The Cinema Effect: Part II Special Screenings
Note: Programs are unrated but may contain adult content.

• 3 PM: Jeremy Deller's The Battle of Orgreave (2001, 63 min.) is a re-enactment of the 1984 confrontation between striking miners and police near the Orgreave coking plant in England. The event provided an opportunity for several members of the parties participating in the original strike -- including miners and their families, policemen, the townspeople of Orgreave, the British media, and the viewing public -- to re-evaluate the chronology of the conflict and the way in which the televised images of the strike colored public opinion.

• 4:15 PM: Artur Zmijewski's Repetition (2005, 75 min.) re-creates the infamous 1971 Stanford Prison Experiment, but achieves a different result. Rather than accepting their roles and engaging in confrontational behavior, as in the original experiment, the modern-day "guards" and "prisoners," aware of the power of the camera to survey and control, ultimately unite against the producers to end the experiment.
Free; first come, first served
Repeats Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays through Sept. 6
Related Exhibition: The Cinema Effect: Part II - Realisms

Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
Location: Ring Auditorium
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5 PM
Film Lecture Apollo 13
Film Series, with discussion
In conjunction with the 2008 Folklife Festival celebrating NASA's 50th anniversary, the museum presents a series of three classic films about space exploration. Today's film is introduced by Jeannie Kranz (United Space Alliance, Houston, Texas), with additional remarks by T.K. Mattingly (an astronaut who stayed behind on Apollo 13, but helped bring the crew back):

Apollo 13 (1995, 2 hr. 20 min, rated PG, directed by Ron Howard) Apollo 13 was a routine space mission until the craft was crippled in space. Astronauts Jim Lovell (Tom Hanks), Fred Haise (Bill Paxton), and Jack Swigert (Kevin Bacon) -- along with mission control staff in Houston -- fought to bring the mission home.
Free; first come, first served
Series continues June 29
See related Folklife Festival programs

National Museum of Natural History
Location: Baird Auditorium (enter Constitution Ave.)
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Last update: July 1, 2008, 08:44
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