Explore

• Exhibitions
• Events
• Museums

Plan

• Lodging
• Dining
• Transportation

• How to use the calendar and itinerary >>

  Make the most of your visit to Washington DC. To begin your search select a week from the calendar below or browse from week to week. To learn more about any of our museums or events simply roll over an item and an overview will appear. Once you've selected your travel dates and are ready to create your itinerary click on the events and museums you'd like to visit and they will be added to your itinerary. You're ready to explore!

  Click to close this note

Calendar

Make the most of your visit to Smithsonian museums in Washington, D.C. with our easy-to-use Calendar and Itinerary. To browse current exhibitions, scroll over the names of the museums.

• next week
• previous week

• Anacostia Community Museum

  Add to Itinerary

  Anacostia Community Museum

  A dynamic, community-oriented exploration of the cultural expressions and social experience of African Americans awaits visitors of the Anacostia Community Museum.

  Exhibits:

  • Separate and Unequaled: Black Baseball in the District of Columbia - 05/18/2008 - 10/05/2008
  • East of the River: Continuity and Change - 09/15/2007 - 11/09/2008
  Lecture

  1 PM William S. Keyes Collects Negro League Baseball Memorabilia

• Arthur M. Sackler Gallery

  Add to Itinerary

  Arthur M. Sackler Gallery

  Together, the Sackler Gallery and the Freer Gallery of Art form the national museum of Asian art for the United States.

  Exhibits:

  • Moving Perspectives -- Yang Fudong/Cao Fei and Ou Ning - 09/06/2008 - 11/30/2008
  • Seascapes: Tryon & Sugimoto - 07/12/2008 - 01/25/2009
  • Sculpture: Monkeys Grasping for the Moon - - Ongoing
  • Yellow Mountain: China's Ever-Changing Landscape - 05/31/2008 - 08/24/2008
  • Sculpture of South and Southeast Asia - 11/26/1992 - Ongoing
  • Contemporary Japanese Porcelain - - Ongoing
  • The Arts of China - 11/18/1990 - Ongoing
  • Perspectives -- Y.Z. Kami - 03/15/2008 - 10/13/2008
  • Taking Shape: Ceramics in Southeast Asia - 04/01/2007 - Ongoing

• Arts and Industries Building

  Add to Itinerary

  Arts and Industries Building

  The Arts and Industries Building has a special role among Smithsonian buildings as the original home of the National Museum.

• Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum

  Add to Itinerary

  Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum

  Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, Smithsonian Institution is the only museum in the nation devoted exclusively to historic and contemporary design.

  Exhibits:

  • Multiple Choice: From Sample to Product - 11/09/2007 - 09/01/2008

• Discovery Theater

  Add to Itinerary

  Discovery Theater

  Live Performances for Young Audiences in Washington, DC

  Family

  10 AM-2 PM Henson Open Cinema

• Freer Gallery of Art

  Add to Itinerary

  Freer Gallery of Art

  The Freer holds one of the finest collections of Asian art and the greatest collection of work by the American artist James McNeill Whistler in the Western world.

  Exhibits:

  • Guests of the Hills: Travelers and Recluses in Chinese Landscape Painting (new title) - 08/23/2008 - 02/22/2009
  • Japanese Arts of the Edo Period, 1615-1868, Part 2 - 03/08/2008 - 09/07/2008
  • Freer & Whistler: Points of Contact - 02/23/2008 - Ongoing
  • Tea for Everyone: Japanese Popular Ceramics for Tea Drinking - 03/08/2008 - 09/07/2008
  • Surface Beauty: American Art and Freer's Aesthetic Vision - 02/23/2008 - Ongoing
  • Black & White: Chinese Ceramics from the 10th-14th Centuries - 12/18/2004 - Ongoing
  • Arts of the Islamic World - 05/03/1998 - Ongoing
  • Arts of the Indian Subcontinent and the Himalayas - 10/16/2004 - Ongoing
  • Ancient Chinese Pottery and Bronze - 03/07/1997 - Ongoing
  • Campana Brothers Select: Works from the Permanent Collection - 02/15/2008 - 08/24/2008
  • Charles Lang Freer and Egypt - 06/13/1998 - Ongoing
  • Japanese Screens (rotating) - 05/09/1993 - Ongoing
  • Korean Ceramics - 03/01/1997 - Ongoing
  • Vietnamese Ceramics from the Red River Delta - 07/09/2005 - Ongoing
  • Small Masterpieces: Whistler Paintings from the 1880s - 04/02/2005 - Ongoing
  • The Religious Art of Japan (rotating) - 12/21/2002 - Ongoing
  • The Peacock Room - - Ongoing
  Film

  7 PM Triangle
  Film

  1-8 PM Moving Perspectives: Yang Fudong: Seven Intellectuals in the
  Film

  2 PM Triangle

• Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden

  • FOOD: Outdoor Cafe

  Add to Itinerary

  Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden

  The eye-catching architecture of the Hirshhorn sets it apart from the other museums on the National Mall. The Hirshhorn is an arresting, elevated hollow cylinder that is 82 feet high and 231 feet in diameter.

  Exhibits:

  • Black Box: Semiconductor - 08/25/2008 - 12/14/2008
  • The Cinema Effect: Illusion, Reality,and the Moving Image: Part II - Realisms - 06/19/2008 - 09/07/2008
  • Currents: Recent Acquisitions - 10/18/2007 - 11/16/2008
  Film

  12 Noon & 1:15 PM Repetition and The Battle of Orgreave
  Film

  12 Noon & 1:30 PM Repetition and The Battle of Orgreave
  Film

  3 PM & 4:15 PM Repetition and The Battle of Orgreave

• National Air and Space Museum

  • FOOD: Boston
  • FOOD: Donato's Pizza
  • FOOD: Market Mezza Cafe
  • FOOD: McDonald's
  • FOOD: Outdoor Kiosk

  Add to Itinerary

  National Air and Space Museum

  Since the building opened in 1976, the National Air and Space Museum has been the most-visited museum in the world, and a must-see for visitors to Washington, DC.

  Exhibits:

  • Space: A Journey to Our Future - 06/14/2008 - 01/11/2009
  • Military Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) - 04/24/2008 - Ongoing
  • Looking at Earth - 05/08/1986 - Ongoing
  • Lunar Exploration Vehicles - 07/01/1976 - Ongoing
  • Pioneers of Flight, Barron Hilton - 07/01/1976 - Ongoing
  • Sea-Air Operations - 07/01/1976 - Ongoing
  • World War II Aviation - 07/01/1976 - Ongoing
  • Jet Aviation - 07/01/1981 - Ongoing
  • The Golden Age of Flight - 04/05/1984 - Ongoing
  • Exploring the Planets - - Ongoing
  • Apollo to the Moon - 07/01/1976 - Ongoing
  • Beyond the Limits: Flight Enters the Computer Age - 05/12/1989 - Ongoing
  • Early Flight, The Samuel P. Langley Gallery of - 03/26/1980 - Ongoing
  • The Wright Brothers & The Invention of the Aerial Age - 10/11/2003 - Ongoing
  • America by Air - 11/17/2007 - Ongoing
  • Space Race - 05/16/1997 - Ongoing
  • Milestones of Flight - 07/01/1976 - Ongoing
  • Legend, Memory, and the Great War in the Air (WWI Aviation) - 11/13/1991 - Ongoing
  • How Things Fly - 09/20/1996 - Ongoing
  • Explore the Universe - 09/21/2001 - Ongoing
  • In Plane View: Abstractions of Flight - 03/21/2008 - 01/02/2009
  Lecture

  12 Noon-12:15 PM Unveiling the Airplane: The Wright Brothers Introduce their
  Family

  11:30 AM & 1:30 PM Violet the Pilot
  Workshop

  7:45-11 PM (weather permitting) Saturday Star Party

• National Air and Space Museum's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center

  • FOOD: McDonald's McCafe

  Add to Itinerary

  National Air and Space Museum's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center

  The National Air and Space Museum's spectacular Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center is a massive complex displaying aviation and space artifacts both large and small.

  Exhibits:

  • Grand Opening: Took Place December 15, 2003 - 12/15/2003 - Ongoing
  • Boeing Aviation Hangar - 12/15/2003 - Ongoing
  • James S. McDonnell Space Hangar - 11/01/2004 - Ongoing
  • Case: Japanese American Pioneers of the Jet Age - - Ongoing
  • Balloonamania (2 large cases) - 12/15/2003 - Ongoing
  Culinary

  12 Noon-4 PM Robert F. Dorr: Hell Hawks! and Air Force One
  Culinary

  12 Noon-4 PM Robert F. Dorr: Hell Hawks! and Air Force One

• National Museum of African Art

  Add to Itinerary

  National Museum of African Art

  The National Museum of African Art is America's only museum dedicated to the collection, conservation, study and exhibition of African art in all its forms.

  Exhibits:

  • TxtStyles: Fashioning Identity - 06/11/2008 - 12/28/2008
  • El Anatsui's Nukae-1 (2006) - 03/12/2008 - Ongoing
  • Treasures 2008 - 04/17/2008 - 08/24/2008
  • African Vision: The Walt Disney-Tishman African Art Collection - 02/15/2007 - 03/22/2009
  • Ceramics at the National Museum of African Art - 01/14/1998 - Ongoing
  • El Anatsui: Gawu - 03/12/2008 - 09/02/2008
  Film

  2 PM Clouds over Conakry (Il Va Pleuvoi Sur Conakry)
  Lecture

  2 PM El Anatsui: Gawu

• National Museum of American History

  Add to Itinerary

  National Museum of American History

  The National Museum of American History collects artifacts of all kinds, from gowns to locomotives, to preserve for the American people an enduring record of their past. The Museum has more than three million artifacts in its collection.

• National Museum of Natural History

  • FOOD: Atrium Cafe
  • FOOD: Fossil Cafe
  • FOOD: The Gelato Bar
  • FOOD: The Smithsonian Jazz Cafe

  Add to Itinerary

  National Museum of Natural History

  The wonders of the natural world await you beneath the dome of this classical building, which has recently been undergoing extensive renovation.

  Exhibits:

  • The Sant Ocean Hall - 09/27/2008 - Ongoing
  • House Proud: Nineteenth-Century Watercolor Interiors from the Thaw Collection - 08/12/2008 - 01/25/2009
  • Curators Select: Recent Acquisitions, 2003-2008 - 09/12/2008 - 03/01/2009
  • Science in the News Case: The Truth about Crystal Skulls - 07/10/2008 - 09/01/2008
  • Birds of the District of Columbia - - Ongoing
  • Research Case: Botanica Magnifica - 04/18/2008 - Ongoing
  • Nature's Best Photography: Ocean Views - 06/11/2008 - 10/26/2008
  • Dig It! The Secrets of Soil - 07/19/2008 - 01/03/2010
  • The Lost Amazon: The Photographic Journey of Legendary Botanist Richard Evans Schultes - 04/17/2008 - 11/02/2008
  • Garden: Butterfly Habitat Garden (outside, seasonal) - 06/30/1995 - Ongoing
  • Fossil Mammals: Mammals in the Limelight - 05/30/1985 - Ongoing
  • Fossil Plants and Animals: The Conquest of Land - 04/17/1980 - Ongoing
  • Life in the Ancient Seas - 05/18/1990 - Ongoing
  • Osteology: Hall of Bones - - Ongoing
  • Dinosaurs: Reptiles: Masters of Land - 12/04/1981 - Ongoing
  • Insect Zoo, O. Orkin - 09/10/1993 - Ongoing
  • Reptiles - - Ongoing
  • Western Cultures Hall: Origins of Western Culture - - Ongoing
  • African Voices - 12/15/1999 - Ongoing
  • Mammals, Kenneth E. Behring Family Hall of - 11/15/2003 - Ongoing
  • Korea Gallery - 06/08/2007 - Ongoing
  • Discovering Rastafari! - 11/02/2007 - Ongoing
  • Geology, Gems, and Minerals, Janet Annenberg Hooker Hall of - 09/20/1997 - Ongoing
  • Blast from the Past (case) - 06/27/1997 - Ongoing
  • African Elephant - 11/19/1999 - Ongoing
  • Butterflies + Plants: Partners in Evolution - 02/15/2008 - Ongoing

• National Museum of the American Indian

  • FOOD: Mitsitam Cafe

  Add to Itinerary

  National Museum of the American Indian

  The National Museum of the American Indian is home to one of the largest and most diverse collections of American Indian art and cultural objects in the world.

  Exhibits:

  • Circle of Empowerment: Education, Language, Culture, Tradition - 08/22/2008 - 09/22/2008
  • Sculpture: Sacred Rain Arrow - - Ongoing
  • Return to a Native Place: Algonquian Peoples of Chesapeake - 11/13/2006 -