Museum Day Live! at the Portrait Gallery

On March 12 from 1:00 to 4:00 join us for a fun-filled afternoon of activities in the National Portrait Gallery Education Center and “Eye Pop: The Celebrity Gaze” exhibition honoring women of color! Museum Day Live! 2016 is a nationwide annual event in partnership with the Smithsonian and the White House Council on Women and Girls in which museums and other cultural institutions, zoos, and aquariums will join together to offer free programs in art, culture, history, and science. This year’s Museum Day is unique since it falls during Women’s History Month. What better way to celebrate women’s impact and achievements than by hearing the stories of historic and contemporary women of color? Throughout the afternoon, we will highlight their portraits. 

A themed scavenger hunt takes participants through the galleries in search of these women who have shaped this nation. The Teen Museum Council will lead groups in creating “word portraits” and poems that pay tribute to these leaders; and we want you to uncover your own leadership potential and create your own “I Am” poem. Every thirty minutes, the DC Public Library will lead a story time for the book Of Thee I Sing, written by President Barack Obama to teach his daughters about great figures of America’s past. Finally, make your very own “Eye Pop”–inspired sequined portraits similar to Mickalene Thomas’s portraits of Michelle Obama, Oprah Winfrey, and Condoleezza Rice. This day is about women and girls who shine! 

Come to the National Portrait Gallery to recognize these extraordinary women and hear their stories through portraiture and biography. Their significant contributions encourage the future voices of our young women and girls, so let’s celebrate!