Smithsonian Associates Presents January 2016 Program Highlights

The January issue of the Smithsonian Associates’ program guide features a variety of educational and cultural programs, including seminars, lectures, studio arts classes, performances for adults and children and local and regional study tours. Highlights this month include:

Sip and Sample: Try Your Hand at Three Studio Arts Classes

Fridays, Jan. 15, 22 and 29; 6:30 p.m. to 9 p.m.

Smithsonian’s S. Dillon Ripley Center

Participants have the opportunity to sample three of the Smithsonian Associates’ most popular eight-week courses—Introduction to Black and White Film Photography and the Darkroom, Painting is for Everyone and Relief Printmaking—for a single night each. Each class is taught by a professional artist, and participants will enjoy a glass of wine as they stimulate the artist within.

Emerson String Quartet 36th Season

Sunday, Jan. 17; 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.

National Museum of Natural History’s Baird Auditorium

Concert Program: Solo recital with violist, Lawrence Dutton

With Elizabeth Lim-Dutton, violin, and Michael Brown, piano

House of Cards: Politics, Television and Ethics

Wednesday, Jan. 27; 6:45 p.m. to 8:45 p.m.

Smithsonian’s S. Dillon Ripley Center

Stef Woods, instructor in the American Studies program at American University, analyzes the interplay among politics, ethics and the media in House of Cards, the Netflix series that centers on the scheming congressman Francis Underwood. Woods discusses issues such as government corruption, political ambition, the politics of race and gender, journalistic integrity and how the politically focused fictional series reflects and influences American popular culture—and, perhaps, voters’ perspectives.

Pluto’s Amazing Story

Thursday, Jan. 28; 6:45 p.m. to 8:45 p.m.

Smithsonian’s S. Dillon Ripley Center

In July 2015, NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft flew past Pluto after a 9½-year flight. Veteran space-science reporter Kelly Beatty will trace the history of Pluto from predictions of its existence to the discovery of its moons and to its “demotion” to dwarf-planet status. Then participants will take a tour of what New Horizons has revealed about Pluto and its moon Charon—truly the “odd couple” of the solar system.

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SI-585-2015