Fun for kids

Storytime

Atrium, 10:00 – 11:00 a.m.

Let’s play together while reading aloud the children’s book We Are Water Protectors/Somos guardianes del agua by Carole Lindstrom in English and Spanish. We welcome all ages, especially our youngest visitors and nursing parents.

Performances

Miyabi Koto Shamisen Ensemble

East Building Library, Multiple Times, 11:00 a.m. - 1:30 p.m.

DC’s cherry blossoms date back to a 1912 gift from the mayor of Tokyo. Celebrate this season with music from the Miyabi Koto Shamisen Ensemble, performed on the koto and shamisen, two Japanese instruments. The group will present a selection of classical and contemporary pieces.

Drop-in Activity

Pop-Up Library: 19th Century Japan

East Building Concourse, 11:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.

Explore selections from the National Gallery of Art Library. To celebrate the Cherry Blossom Festival, this month’s pop-up showcases rare items from our special collections. Le Japon (Paris, 1818) by Jean-Baptiste Joseph Breton is one of the earliest European surveys of modern Japan with hand colored engravings and reproductions of prints by Kitao Masanobu. Also on display will be some of the earliest photographs to showcase Buddhist sculpture as an art form. Taken by Ogawa Kazumasa in 1888, these photographs were some of the first taken of statues that would become some of Japan’s national treasures. 

Image: Jean Baptiste Joseph Breton. Le Japon, ou, Mœurs, usages et costumes des habitans de cet Empire.1818. National Gallery of Art Library

Fun For Kids

Drop-In Artmaking

Atrium, 11:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.

All ages welcome; children must be accompanied by an adult.
First come, first served

Drop-in artmaking is a great way to try your hand at creating art in an informal, relaxed environment. Artmaking activities are designed for all ages and abilities.

Fun for Kids

Kids' Play Space

Atrium, 11:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.

Children must be accompanied by an adult.
First come, first served

Designed for our littlest art lovers. Play, build, sort, and stack in a hands-on space.

Fun for Kids

Face Painting

Education Studio, 11:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.

Become a work of art! Stop by the Cascade Café to get your face painted from The Face Paint Lady Inc. 

Fun for Kids

Sketching Lab

Mezzanine, 11:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.

Visit our sketching lab to activate your imagination and ideas.

Drawing activities are designed for all ages and abilities; children must be accompanied by an adult.

Focus: The Collection

The Lure of Japan in 19th Century European and American Art

East Building Auditorium, 12:00p.m. – 1:00 p.m.

There was huge admiration for all things Japanese in the second half of the nineteenth century both in Europe and America. In this talk, senior lecturer, David Gariff, explores the late nineteenth-century vogue for “japonisme” in the art of Claude Monet, Edgar Degas, Mary Cassatt, James McNeill Whistler, William Merritt Chase, and others. 

This hybrid lecture is offered in person and virtually. All registrants will receive a recording after the event.

Performances

Nen Daiko Ensemble

West Building, 4th Street Entrance Plaza, Mutltiple Times, 2:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.

DC’s cherry blossoms date back to a 1912 gift from the mayor of Tokyo. Celebrate this season with a performance of Japanese taiko drumming by Nen Daiko Ensemble.

Focus: The Collection

Gallery Talk: Dragons in Art

West Building, Main Floor - Rotunda, 1:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m.

Snakes and dragons have long had an important role in Western as well as Eastern art. This talk explores the significance of these animals in pagan mythology and, later, in Christian art. What does St. George have in common with Perseus, and what can a dragon on a 300-yr-old Qing dynasty vase tell us about its owner? Presented in honor of the Chinese Year of the Dragon, by Bela Demeter, museum docent and retired herpetologist, National Zoo. 

Film Screening: Kinuyo Tanaka Retrospective

The Wandering Princess

East Building Auditorium, 2:00p.m. – 4:00 p.m.

Director Kinuyo Tanaka’s first film in both color and Cinemascope is an epic about a woman caught in the torrents of history. Based on the memoirs of Hiro Saga, The Wandering Princess depicts the story of Ryuko (Machiko Kyo), an aristocrat who, at the outset of World War II, is forced to marry Futetsu (Eiji Funakoshi), the younger brother of the soon-to-be disposed Chinese emperor. Ryuko’s enmeshment in the Japanese occupation of Manchuria realizes with startling depth Tanaka's ambition to relate a historical saga from a critical female perspective. (Kinuyo Tanaka, 1960, Japanese with English subtitles, DCP, 102 minutes)

Part of the film series Kinuyo Tanaka Retrospective.

Focus: Exhibitions

In the Library: Latin American Architecture in Circulation

East Building, Ground Level - Library, 2:30p.m. – 3:00 p.m.

Join us for a tour of In the Library: Latin American Architecture in Circulation. This exhibition explores the transformation of buildings in Latin American through colonialism, independence, and contemporary history, as well as the people who used them. Architectural historian and Library image specialist for architecture Elisabeth Narkin will lead you through this collection of photographs and rare books from the Library’s collection.

Focus: Exhibitions

En la biblioteca: Arquitectura latinoamericana en circulación

East Building, Ground Level - Library, 3:30p.m. – 4:00 p.m.

Únete a un recorrido por la exhibición: En la biblioteca: Arquitectura latinoamericana en circulación, con Elisabeth Narkin, historiadora de arquitectura en nuestro departamento de colecciones de imágenes. A través de fotografías y libros raros de nuestra biblioteca, esta exposición explora la transformación de los edificios en Latinoamérica a lo largo de la colonización, la independencia y la historia moderna, y las personas que los utilizaron.

Break for Art

Barthé, Bellows, and Van Loo

Meet in the West Building, Main Floor - Rotunda, 4:00 – 5:00 p.m.

What drives our passion for certain art pieces?   

Join us for one-hour of gallery talks with National Gallery interns. This session includes dynamic presentations reflecting our interns’ diverse artistic interests and passions: Richmond Barthé’s Head of a Boy (c. 1930), George Bellows’ Blue Morning (1909), and Charles Amédée Philippe Van Loo’s The Camera Obscura (1764).