What's On this July - Artist Talks, PORTRAITS with LL Cool J, Teen Portrait Competition Winners and More

A Message from our Director

“What have I, or those I represent, to do with your national independence? Are the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice, embodied in that Declaration of Independence, extended to us?” Frederick Douglass posed this uncomfortable question to a white Northern audience during Independence Day weekend in 1852, and Americans are still grappling with it this Fourth of July.

As we battle the COVID-19 pandemic and the structural inequalities born from the enduring presence of racism in the United States, I encourage you to spend some time this holiday exploring our online resources to discover the stories of those who have demanded America stand up to its highest ideals. Join us in celebrating the artists who are trying to change the world through the power of portraiture.

Kim Sajet
Director
National Portrait Gallery

Where Portraiture Meets Performance

Jeffrey Gibson and María Magdalena Campos-Pons in Conversation with Dorothy Moss 
Tuesday, July 7
5:00 p.m.
Online via Zoom

Join Portrait Gallery curator Dorothy Moss and artists María Magdalena Campos-Pons and Jeffrey Gibson as they discuss issues of identity and strategies for reinserting BIPOC histories into museum spaces through live performance and object making. Both Campos-Pons and Gibson have participated in the Portrait Gallery’s IDENTIFY performance art series. This program is part of the Greenberg Steinhauser Forum in American Portraiture Conversation Series and is organized by PORTAL, the National Portrait Gallery's Scholarly Center.

Free—Registration required

IDENTIFY: Performance Art as Portraiture

Expand your horizons with videos of works commissioned for IDENTIFY, the Portrait Gallery’s performance art series. Now in its sixth year, IDENTIFY has highlighted artists such as Jeffrey Gibson, María Magdalena Campos-Pons, Martha McDonald, Lee Mingwei, and Wanda Raimundi-Ortiz. See select performances on the "Visit from Home" page of the museum’s website.

Coming Soon

Love Letter, 2020:
A Celebration of Black Women in Portraiture  
Thursday, Aug. 13
3:30–5:00 p.m.
Eventbrite

Join the National Portrait Gallery for an online exploration of identity and biography through the lens of Black women in portraiture. Participants will discuss how visual culture lends itself to understanding the contributions of Black women in the history of art and in fields such as science, education, and politics. We will use the elements of portrayal—visual clues found in portraits—to discover deeper meaning in a selection of works and to share joy through the celebration of Black women in art. 

Free–Register at npg.eventbrite.com

Art AfterWords: A Book Discussion 
Tuesday, Aug. 18
5:30–7:00 p.m.
Eventbrite

The National Portrait Gallery and the DC Public Library invite you to a virtual conversation about visual culture, activism, and prose. Join us as we reflect on Gordon Parks’s portrait of Malcolm X from the Portrait Gallery’s collection and discuss the related book “Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women that a Movement Forgot” by Mikki Kendall. Participants are encouraged to explore “Talking About Race,” a new resource from the National Museum of African American History and Culture, before the event.

DCPL cardholders can access “Hood Feminism” here.

Free–Register at npg.eventbrite.com

Winning Portraits from our Teen Competition

In concert with “The Outwin 2019,” an exhibition presenting the finalists from the museum's 2019 Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition, the Teen Portrait Competition celebrates the art of contemporary portraiture. Works submitted by teens across 45 states were juried by the museum's Teen Museum Council, a group of 20 high school students from the Washington, D.C., metro area who create interactive programs and events inspired by the Portrait Gallery’s collection. All 15 finalists explore identity through the eyes of teens in America today and address themes such as urban life, family, climate change, race, and LGBTQ+ youth. Learn more about the 15 finalists through their artist statements. Works by the two first-prize winners of the Teen Portrait Competition can also be viewed here.

Weekly Online Programs

Young Portrait Explorers
Tuesdays, 11:00 a.m.
Instagram @smithsoniannpg

Explore portraits of astronauts and activists, scientists, and star athletes — and discover the stories behind them! Join us every Tuesday on Instagram Stories for  a close look at a featured portrait. Then we'll dig deeper with some discussion questions and get moving with fun activities on the day's topic. Download activity guides as PDFs from our website. For children ages 3 and up and their families.

Writing Hour
Tuesdays, 5:00–6:00 p.m
Eventbrite

Join us for a virtual creative writing hour. We've set up an online space where writers can create, connect, and draw inspiration from the Portrait Gallery's online exhibitions on Google Arts & Culture.

Free—Register at npg.eventbrite.com

Introducing...
Wednesdays, 11:00 a.m.
Facebook @smithsoniannpg

Introducing… a new kind of story time! Each week we shine a light on some of this country's lesser-known history makers and their portraits. Join us on Facebook every Wednesday at 11:00 a.m. for Introducing… with a Portrait Gallery educator. Children will learn more about art, hear the stories behind the portraits, and even learn some new vocabulary. Select story times will be in Spanish. For children ages 3 and up and their families.

Drawn to Figures
Thursdays, 11:00 a.m.
Instagram Stories @smithsoniannpg

Discover your inner artist in this online workshop on sketching the human body. On Thursdays at 11:00 a.m., artist Jill Galloway will highlight the techniques and challenges of figure drawing while providing guided instruction and helpful tips. Open to all skill levels, ages 13 and up. Now available on YouTube.

Open Studios
Fridays, 11:00 a.m.
Facebook @smithsoniannpg

The Portrait Gallery is bringing its weekly art workshops to your home! Every Friday at 11 a.m., we will post a video with a new activity or technique. Grab a family member or your roommates or make a virtual date with a friend to get creative with artist Jill Galloway. Artists of all ages and skill levels will enjoy creating art inspired by the Portrait Gallery's collection. Now available on YouTube.

Podcast

Season two of PORTRAITS with host Kim Sajet, director of the National Portrait Gallery, is in full swing. Tune in on Tuesday, July 7, for a new episode featuring rapper, actor, and artist LL Cool J and scholar Richard Ormond, an expert on the famed nineteenth-century portraitist John Singer Sargent. Together with Kim Sajet, these cultural influencers explore a likeness of LL Cool J that is based on Sargent's iconic portrait of John D Rockefeller. LL Cool J talks about the importance of sitting for his portrait as a way to claim a place among historical representations of achievement and to visualize Black power, themes that still resonate today.

This season's episodes premiere bi-weekly on Tuesdays through early August and explore the lives of leading figures in American culture including María Magdalena Campos-Pons, President John F. Kennedy, Robert McCurdy, Will Rogers, Ruben Salazar, Harriet Tubman, and Madam CJ Walker. Listen now on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, PRX, Radio Public, Spotify, Stitcher, and npg.si.edu. 

Access a special bonus episode in which PORTRAITS host Kim Sajet appears as a special guest on the Smithsonian's SIDEDOOR podcast and goes behind the scenes of the episode "Growing Younger Harriet Tubman." Listen here. 

Tour the National Portrait Gallery with Google Arts & Culture

Missed it in person? Enjoy 10 online adaptations of National Portrait Gallery exhibitions and collection highlights, including "The Outwin 2019: American Portraiture Today" and "Votes for Women: A Portrait of Persistence," through our collaboration with Google Arts & Culture.

Access

Audio Descriptions of America's Presidents

Encounter the Portrait Gallery's signature exhibition from a new perspective! Our detailed audio descriptions of select presidential portraits are geared toward those who are blind or have low vision, but anyone can enjoy them! Available on our website and on SmARTify. This free and easy-to-use app allows you to explore more than 1,000 artworks from the Portrait Gallery’s collection.

ASL Exhibition Tours
 

Enjoy ASL tours of select exhibitions, including "The Outwin 2019: American Portraiture Today," which features works by contemporary artists that challenge the definition of portraiture. Our ASL tour of "One Life: Marian Anderson" explores the life and legacy of the acclaimed vocalist and symbol of the civil rights movement. Check them out on the Portrait Gallery's YouTube channel. 

EDUCATION RESOURCES

The National Portrait Gallery is meeting teachers and students where they are. Check out more than 150 Learning Lab collections created by Portrait Gallery educators and classroom teachers. The Learning Lab is a free, interactive platform for discovering millions of authentic digital resources, creating content with online tools, and sharing in the Smithsonian's expansive community of knowledge and learning.

All images belong to the National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, unless otherwise noted.