Celebrating 100 Years at the National Museum of Natural History

Where: National Museum of Natural History

When: through March 20, 2011

This exhibit is a lot of fun and very interesting. It's an exhibit about the museum itself, which I've not seen before - a self-referential exhibit, I guess you'd call it. It features great factoids; did you know that the museum used 7,200 rolls of toilet paper on Inauguration Day 2009? You do now.

In addition to a history of the museum, they have several great photos:

• a stegosaurus from the "Hall of Extinct Monsters," - you really have to love that name
• Theodore Roosevelt from 1909, collecting specimens for display
• Agnes Chase, an expert on grasses who had to finance her own expeditions, as it was considered inappropriate for women to do field work

Again, I was reminded of the common work of artists and scientists, as there was a display on illustrators traveling with scientists to record findings.

There are millions of objects that the museum owns that are not on display, and there are several photos of rooms full of the drawers that hold all of these items, and the people who care for them. The museum owns everything from a collection of meteorites to the last known passenger pigeon.

Something I had been curious about for some time is how the museum is able to take such an obviously pro-evolution stand, and not face constant criticism from those who believe the bible to be the literal truth. Turns out in 1979 they had their first exhibit on evolution (the first in any American museum), and faced a legal challenge. The museum won the court case and they've been putting evolution on display ever since.

I was quite interested to discover that at one time, fine art and history collections were also housed in the Natural History museum, until the American Art and American History collections were established in separate buildings.

Verdict: Don't miss this display. If you have any interest in museums as institutions, this is great stuff.

The Experience of a Lifetime: The Maid of Cotton Story, 1939-1993

Where: National Museum of American History

When: through March 25, 2011

I've written before about visiting the exhibits in the archives center of the American History museum - the one place you're guaranteed to get some "alone time," even in the summer. Frankly, these exhibits can be interesting or boring, and there is usually no media coverage to give you an idea of what you'll see.

The Maid of Cotton was the name of a beauty pageant that existed from the late 1930s through the early 1990s. Like most of these contests, the judges were looking for some model of virtuous young womanhood, never married, poised and pretty. (Pardon me while I roll my eyes and gag.) The point of this contest was to send this Southern belle around the world to act as a "goodwill ambassador" for the cotton industry. I noticed that none of the photos show an African-American contestant, not surprising for the early years of the contest, but pretty shabby for something that was run well into the modern era.

Some of the photos are interesting - the Maids traveled to Europe and Asia in order to promote cotton exports. Nixon appears more than once, smiling his creepy Nixon smile.

Verdict: If you're in the museum anyway, take a moment to have a look. Otherwise, you're not missing much if you skip it.

Several videos at the Hirshhorn

Where: Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden

When: through March 27, 2011

Once again, I made my way to the Hirshhorn, consciously lowering my expectations, hoping to be pleasantly surprised. Hit and miss, on this trip, in my view. At least I wasn't led down a dark corridor, only to be yelled at by a disembodied voice.

I saw three different installations this trip. In order to fully appreciate them all, you probably want to allow two trips for this. On the other hand, if two trips to the Hirshhorn are more than you can tolerate between now and the end of March, you can get some idea of what's going on in one outing.

The first exhibit I saw was the latest in the Black Box series of videos. I must admit, I've been pleased with this series. The videos tend to be short enough to fit within a lunchtime trip, and although they're a bit out of the ordinary, they are interesting. This video did not disappoint. It's "Staging Silence" by Hans Op de Beeck, a series of tableaux that each begin with hands coming in to set the stage (see picture above). It's obvious that these are simply little models, but once the hands move away, and the lighting changes, you can't help but be drawn in to the scene, as if it's real. The plastic trees become real, the sand swept into place becomes a stream; it's amazing that this happens over and over again, even though you know what's going on. The first tableau involved stringing street lights, and I was reminded of one of the videos I saw in the Fiona tan show at the Sackler. Yet again, one exhibit reminds me of another...

The other two shows are part of the museum's Directions series and feature works by Cyprien Gaillard and Mario Garcia Torres. The Mario Garcia Torres installation features a slide show of the Grapetree Bay Hotel in St. Croix. At one time a lovely beach destination for wealthy tourists, it's now been allowed to descend into ruin. When I say it's a slide show, that's literally what I mean. There's a slide projector that's showing slides on the wall, and you can hear the familiar click as it moves from one image to another. While I was watching, a small child, perhaps three or four years old, came into the room and remarked, "how ingenious." The exhibit, while interesting in its way, was not so riveting that I didn't hear this, and wonder how such a small child had learned such a big word. My reaction to the show was similar to my reaction to "The Pond" - let's do something about this. Yes, this hotel has fallen into disrepair, but is this a call to fix it? Tear it down? What are we supposed to do now?

The Gaillard show is less easy to describe. I admit that I didn't watch all of the videos, as I was running short of time, so perhaps if I'd seen the entire piece, I might be better able to comment. I walked into the room as a video of a riot was ending - some pushing and shoving, but not much else. This was replaced by a light show on a large building. This was interesting, but not enough to keep me in the room for the rest of the piece.

Verdict: "Staging Silence" is well worth a trip, as its predecessors in the Black Box series have been. The Directions pieces are okay, and if you're in the building anyway, you could have a look, but not worth a separate trip.