Our main motivation for heading downtown was the opportunity to make our very own silkscreened tote bag. The Luce Foundation Center (my former workplace) hosted an artist talk and silk-screening workshop as part of their Art+Coffee series, and we just couldn't pass it up. (Note: The Luce Center can be a little tricky to find. It's on the third floor of the museum, on the west side of the building. There are three levels of art work, on 3, 3 mezz, and 4. The information desk is on 3 mezz...take the tiny elevator between floors in the Luce Center if you have a stroller. The Luce Center staff and volunteers are a wealth of knowledge, and you can ask them any question you want. Believe me, when I was there, we got some great ones. You can also pick up the latest scavenger hunt, always a favorite for kids and kids at heart.)
The talk was given by Kristina Bilonick, a Washington, DC native and current resident artist at Pleasant Plains Workshop. She described her work, methods, and inspiration and led a hands-on silkscreening workshop where participants (including me!) were able to print our own tote bags with an image of the Luce Center's unofficial mascot, the Black Hawk Horse Weathervane. Diggory was a pretty good sport about the whole, "Please be quiet while mommy and Julie listen to this nice lady talk"-thing, until the end where he was squealing with delight (at something) and I was trying to shush him. (My guess is that he was making lovey eyes with Mary, the Luce Center staff behind the camera and creator of the image below. Thanks for sending me the photo!)
Diggory needed lunch, so while the first batch of tote bag makers took their turn with the silk screen and ink, Julie and I took a coffee break and the babe got some snacks. I asked my friend Bridget, and former co-worker at the Luce Center (and my former intern at the Society of the Cincinnati - Anderson House), if I was allowed to feed Diggory in the Luce Center space. The last thing I'd want to do is be "that mom" and "that museum person" who breaks the rules. She said, "Yes, we allow mothers and babies to eat in here." Awesome. You can't take food up to 3 mezz or the 4th Floor, but you can find a nice quiet nook on the benches between the display cases if your baby needs a cat nap.
The silk screening process was fun, and our bags turned out great. Here's a few photos of Julie and me making our bags, just to prove we actually did it.
While we waited for the ink to dry, we explored the rest of the museum, starting on the third floor and working down. There are two museums in one building, the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the National Portrait Gallery. You can pretty much walk through the entire museum without noticing that you're in a different museum, unless you read the signs (which, let's face it, not many museum goers do) or really know where you are or where you want to be. It's a big building, and there's lots and lots to see. I won't go on and on. I encourage you to check out the museums' websites and calendars, or, better yet, just show up and explore on your own, with no particular agenda in mind.
First, we walked through the modern and contemporary galleries on the third floor. Big, colorful installations, sculpture, and paintings. Perfect for the wee ones. For all you breastfeeding moms out there, there is a bench inside David Hockney's Snails Space. Plus, it's really quiet and really dark, so dark, in fact, that you could practically sit on someone if you don't let your eyes adjust properly. Next, we took a moment to gaze at Electronic Superhighway by Nam June Paik. What's not to love about a neon map of the United States and hundreds of TVs showing images or videos reminiscent of each state. I especially like the seven TVs with videos of only potatoes. For Idaho, you see?! We made our way to the smaller gallery of video and time-based artwork, appropriately named Watch This! New Directions in the Art of the Moving Image. We were particularly drawn to the interactive nature of Kota Ezawa's LYAM 3D, which the viewer can watch with a pair of 3D glasses available in the gallery. When the time comes, March 16th, to be exact, these galleries will be an excellent transition to the upcoming temporary exhibition, The Art of Video Games. Shout out to my former boss and dear friend Georgina Goodlander, the exhibition's coordinator!
After a thorough review of the third floor, we ventured down to the second floor and made our first stop in the temporary exhibition, Annie Leibovitz: Pilgrimage, on view through May 20th. The grouping of photographs here is certainly a different approach than her usually carefully composed and dramatic portraits. There isn't a single portrait, and the artist lets the objects and places captured in her photographs speak for themselves as the things, places, and memories that have shaped her understanding of her self and cultural inheritance. I would have loved to linger and read each and every label, but the fact remains that the gallery was very crowded, I had a stroller, and Diggory was squealing. Needless to say, we moved on quickly. We made our way through some of my favorite spaces in the museum, the Early Republic, Impressionism, and Gilded Age galleries, then buzzed through the Portrait Gallery's temporary exhibitions and the America's Presidents gallery. Ah yes, and then we went back up to the Luce Center to pick up our now dry tote bags, and then all the way down to the first floor to the Folk Art galleries. Diggory was pretty impressed by the giant wooden animals.
No trip to the these two museums would be complete without spending a moment in the stunning Kogod Courtyard. The mix of modern and historic architecture is breathtaking, and the people watching is fantastic. Grab a snack at the cafe or just find a spot to sit and enjoy the scene. The children running through the ground level water feature is pretty entertaining too. And yes, I dipped Diggory's toes in, I just couldn't resist.
We quickly covered the rest of the museum's first floor, stopping to browse the gift shop and poke our heads into the small, but always exquisite temporary exhibition in the Archives of American Art gallery. Currently on view through May 15, 2012, the exhibition Memories Arrested in Space: a centennial tribute to Jackson Pollock celebrates the artist's achievements and legacy with over fifty photographs, letters and other documents. Fascinating, truly.
With our whirlwind tour complete, we decided that, yes, we were hungry and thirsty, so we ventured forth into the relative chaos of Gallery Place/Chinatown and settled on happy hour at Ella's. (Yes, they have happy hour on Sundays!) Diggory is great with these sorts of things, and he always makes friends with our server/the hostess/the bartender/etc. Plus, Julie and mommy needed more time to chat, for old times sake.
I suppose I should also mention that the two museums are located in the historic Patent Office Building. And, it's the building featured in the header image above, a collage generously designed for this blog by Denise Wamaling.
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