Art Cart: Build a Butterfly
Explore nature’s beauty inspired by artist Jessica Diamond and her work Butterfly Incantation (Polygonia Comma, Polygonia Interrogationis, Plebejus Melissa Samuelis). Artists will look closely at Diamond’s work on view and create their own nature-inspired works of art!
Find the Art Cart on the Second Level to pick up your butterfly materials.
Do this at home! If you could be anything from nature, what would you be? Inspired by artist Thierry de Cordier, create a self-portrait using natural items. Instructions here.
ABOUT THE ART CART
Want to make art inspired by your favorite Hirshhorn works on view? The Art Cart offers young artists a hands-on maker experience during their visit to the Hirshhorn. Each week’s Art Cart offers a fresh and fun theme featuring an artwork on view, an artmaking activity to do at the Museum, and kids projects to extend the fun at home!
The Art Cart is free; no registration required. Drop in any Saturday between 10 am and 1 pm.
Nursing caregivers are welcome. Stroller parking is available in the Hirshhorn Lobby. If there are access services or accommodations that can make your experience more inclusive (e.g., ASL interpretation, live captioning, etc.), please contact hmsgeducation@si.edu. 1-2 week’s advance notice is recommended but not required.
Art Cart: Coming Full Circle
Join us for a morning of play and poetry inspired by Jessica Diamond: Wheel Of Life and the Museum’s round galleries. Look closely at Diamond’s work and stick around to write magnetic poems, create unique books in the shape of a circle, and do more inspired by Diamond’s work.
Find the Art Cart on Second Level inside Jessica Diamond: Wheel Of Life.
Do this at home! Repurpose old comics into works of art inspired by artist Tony Lewis. Instructions here.
ABOUT THE ART CART
Want to make art inspired by your favorite Hirshhorn works on view? The Art Cart offers young artists a hands-on maker experience during their visit to the Hirshhorn. Each week’s Art Cart offers a fresh and fun theme featuring an artwork on view, an art-making activity to do at the Museum, and kids projects to extend the fun at home!
The Art Cart is free; no registration required. Drop in any Saturday between 10 AM and 1 PM.
Nursing caregivers are welcome. Stroller parking is available in the Hirshhorn Lobby. If there are access services or accommodations that can make your experience more inclusive (e.g., ASL interpretation, live captioning, etc.), please contact hmsgeducation@si.edu. One to two weeks’ advance notice is recommended but not required.
Storytime: Motion of the Ocean
Storytime is currently a drop-in experience. Join Hirshhorn educators any time between 10 am–noon; we will host read-alouds at 10:30 am and 11:30 am. ASL interpretation is provided at the 10:30 reading.
Use your imagination to travel to the ocean with us and educators from the Smithsonian’s Zoo and the National Museum of Natural History at this week’s Storytime. Young artists will look closely at Figure for Landscape, by Barbara Hepworth; read Over in the Ocean: In a Coral Reef, by Marianne Berkes; and use their imaginations to build a water-inspired world!
Meet on the Plaza.
Do this at home! Imagine a faraway world and paint it with layers of watercolor. Instructions here.
ABOUT STORYTIME
Join Hirshhorn Kids on Wednesdays for a one-of-a-kind Storytime experience! Each week offers a fun and fresh theme for our youngest artists and their adults. Get a fun and hands-on introduction to a new artwork each week, and participate in a joyful read-aloud filled with music, stories, and tons of movement. Then, stay and play while your little artist creates. No reservations or tickets required. Nursing caregivers are welcome. Stroller parking is available in the Hirshhorn Lobby. ASL is provided at the 10:30am reading. If there are additional access services or accommodations that can make your experience more inclusive, please contact hmsgeducation@si.edu; 1–2 week’s advance notice is recommended but not required. Groups of ten or more, should contact hmsgeducation@si.edu with their requested program date and group details.
Storytime: Becoming Butterflies
We’re switching up Storytime to a drop-in experience while we prepare new exhibitions for spring openings. Join Hirshhorn educators any time between 10 am–noon; we will host read-alouds at 10:30 am and 11:30 am.
Embrace the season of change with us and educators from the Smithsonian’s Zoo and National Museum of Natural History! Explore spring inspired by Butterfly Incantation (Polygonia Comma, Polygonia Interrogationis, Plebejus Melissa Samuelis) by artist Jessica Diamond. Young artists will look closely at Diamond’s work on view, read The Making of Butterflies by Ibram X. Kendi and Zora Neale Hurston, and create their own spring-inspired works of art!
Meet on the Second Level.
Do this at home! If you could be anything from nature, what would you be? Inspired by artist Thierry de Cordier, create a self-portrait using natural items. Instructions here.
ABOUT STORYTIME
Join Hirshhorn Kids on Wednesdays for a one-of-a-kind storytime experience! Each week offers a fun and fresh theme for our youngest artists and their adults. Get a fun and hands-on introduction to a new artwork each week, and participate in a joyful read-aloud filled with music, stories, and movement. Then, stay and play while your little artist creates. No reservations or tickets required. Nursing caregivers are welcome. Stroller parking is available in the Hirshhorn Lobby. If there are access services or accommodations that can make your experience more inclusive (e.g., ASL interpretation, live captioning, etc.), please contact hmsgeducation@si.edu; 1–2 week’s advance notice is recommended but not required. For a group of ten or more, please contact mcgettigant@si.edu to reserve a program in advance.
Storytime: Dance with Diamond
We’re switching up Storytime to a drop-in experience while we prepare new exhibitions for spring openings. Join Hirshhorn educators any time between 10 am–noon; we will host read-alouds at 10:30 am and 11:30 am.
How do you move your body? Join us for a reading of Tap! Tap! Tap!: Dance! Dance! Dance! by Hervé Tullet, and a close look at the artwork Samba to the Reckoning by Jessica Diamond. We’ll perform with our bodies and stretch the possibilities of our art-making materials.
Meet on the Second Level.
Do this at home! Play with texture using playdough and a few simple materials. Instructions here.
ABOUT STORYTIME
Join Hirshhorn Kids on Wednesdays for a one-of-a-kind storytime experience! Each week offers a fun and fresh theme for our youngest artists and their adults. Get a fun and hands-on introduction to a new artwork each week, and participate in a joyful read-aloud filled with music, stories, and movement. Then, stay and play while your little artist creates. No reservations or tickets required. Nursing caregivers are welcome. Stroller parking is available in the Hirshhorn Lobby. If there are access services or accommodations that can make your experience more inclusive (e.g., ASL interpretation, live captioning, etc.), please contact hmsgeducation@si.edu; 1–2 week’s advance notice is recommended but not required. For a group of ten or more, please contact mcgettigant@si.edu to reserve a program in advance.
Curator’s Tour: Jessica Diamond: Wheel Of Life
FREE
Meet at the Information Desk in the Lobby
Hirshhorn curator Betsy Johnson will walk visitors through, Jessica Diamond: Wheel Of Life, an immersive installation that reveals the artist’s reflections on the life as a working artist.
About the Exhibition
Jessica Diamond: Wheel Of Life is the largest museum installation to date by American conceptual artist Jessica Diamond. Wheel Of Life fills the Hirshhorn’s second-floor inner-circle galleries with 15 text-and-image-based artworks to highlight the inventive nature of the artist’s practice. Diamond emerged in New York’s downtown art scene in the 1980s. Adopting language as her primary medium, the artist critiques contemporary American life, particularly commercialism, corporate culture and media. Literature also serves as a continual touchstone, with references in this exhibition to Henry David Thoreau’s Walden; or, Life in the Woods (1854), Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland (1865) and James Joyce’s Ulysses (1922). Taking inspiration from the Hirshhorn’s circular architecture, the installation offers what Diamond refers to as “meditations on the metaphysics of the circle.” The artist joins Laurie Anderson and Barbara Kruger in presenting site-responsive text-based work made for the Museum.
If you have questions or a request for access services or accommodations that can make your experience more inclusive, please contact hirshhornexperience@si.edu. 1-2 week’s advance notice is recommended but not required.
“Jessica Diamond: Wheel Of Life” Open House
Free. Registration recommended.
Celebrate the opening of the Hirshhorn’s latest exhibition, Jessica Diamond: Wheel Of Life, with a special evening event featuring extended Museum hours and activities for all ages. Wheel Of Life will be on view from 5 to 8 pm. Journey through the circle of life with Diamond’s fifteen text-and image-based artworks reflecting her life as an artist. Throughout the evening, take a mobile video tour with Hirshhorn Eye; enjoy a drink or gelato on the Plaza (for purchase); and participate in activities including magnetic poetry, creating circular installations, a kid-friendly construction zone, a large-scale concrete poetry station, and a make-your-own Möbius loop project with educators from the National Air and Space Museum.
SCHEDULE
5 PM
Activities: make-your-own circular installations, Möbius loop, and concrete poetry
Plaza
6 PM
Curatorial introduction to Jessica Diamond: Wheel Of Life by curator Betsy Johnson
6:30 PM
All Ages Pajama Storytime featuring The Circles All Around Us by Brad Montague
Plaza
Activities: Magnetic poetry and kid-friendly construction zone
Level 2
WHAT’S ON VIEW?
Lower Level
Barbara Kruger: Belief + Doubt
Level 2
Jessica Diamond: Wheel Of Life
WHAT’S AVAILABLE?
Dolcezza Cafe will be open for drinks and gelato for purchase.
Art Cart: Apple of My Own Eye
What do you love about yourself? Join us at this week’s Art Cart to make a portrait inspired by your own traits and things you love. Artists will take a close look at Apple Season (Artist’s Life #2) by Jessica Diamond, explore their own identity, and make works of art that represent themselves!
Find the Art Cart on the Plaza and pick up your portrait materials. In case of inclement weather, check in the Museum Lobby for our indoor location.
Do this at home! Design a structure for your favorite thing or collection. Instructions here.
ABOUT THE ART CART
Want to make art inspired by your favorite Hirshhorn works on view? The Art Cart offers young artists a hands-on maker experience during their visit to the Hirshhorn. Each week’s Art Cart offers a fresh and fun theme featuring an artwork on view, an artmaking activity to do at the Museum, and kids projects to extend the fun at home!
The Art Cart is free; no registration required. Drop in any Saturday between 10am and 1pm.
Art Cart: Round and Round!
Join us for a day of play and poetry inspired by Jessica Diamond: Wheel Of Life and the Museum’s round galleries at the Art Cart this week. Young artists can look closely at Diamond’s artworks, write magnetic poems, and create unique books in the shape of a circle.
Find the Art Cart on the Second Level.
This project received support from the Smithsonian American Women’s History Initiative Pool.
Do this at home! Repurpose old comics into works of art inspired by artist Tony Lewis. Instructions here.
ABOUT THE ART CART
Want to make art inspired by your favorite Hirshhorn works on view? The Art Cart offers young artists a hands-on maker experience during their visit to the Hirshhorn. Each week’s Art Cart offers a fresh and fun theme featuring an artwork on view, an artmaking activity to do at the Museum, and kids projects to extend the fun at home!
The Art Cart is free; no registration required. Drop in any Saturday between 10 am and 1 pm.
Storytime: Under the Apple Tree
What makes you who you are? Join us at this week’s Storytime to explore self-identity with a close look at and reading of Apple Season (Artist’s Life #2) by Jessica Diamond. Together we will celebrate who we are with a reading of Why Am I Me? by Paige Britt and create works of art that represent ourselves.
Meet in the Museum Lobby.
Do this at home! If you could be anything from nature, what would you be? Inspired by artist Thierry de Cordier, create a self-portrait using natural items. Instructions here.
ABOUT STORYTIME
Join Hirshhorn Kids on Wednesdays for a one-of-a-kind Storytime experience! Each week offers a fun and fresh theme for our youngest artists and their adults. Get a fun and hands-on introduction to a new artwork each week, and participate in a joyful read-aloud filled with music, stories, and movement. Then, stay and play while your little artist creates. No reservations or tickets required. Nursing caregivers are welcome. Stroller parking is available in the Hirshhorn Lobby. An ASL Interpreter may be requested for this program; two weeks advance notice is appreciated. For a group of ten or more, please contact mcgettigant@si.edu to reserve a program in advance.
