Member Events
As a Friends of the Smithsonian Member, you’ll receive complimentary tickets and invitations to exclusive, behind-the-scenes tours and private receptions. Click here to see a calendar of upcoming events.
Members of the Friends of the Smithsonian community have recently enjoyed these special opportunities:
January 2010 – National Portrait Gallery
Members-only viewing of 3 special exhibitions at the National Portrait Gallery that showcase the Gallery's educational and research programs.
December 2009 – Renwick Gallery
On December 10, Castle Circle members enjoyed behind-the-scenes tours in several Mall museums before gathering at the Renwick Gallery for an after-hours reception that features a new installation in the Grand Salon.
The Grand Salon now displays 70 paintings from the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s collection, featuring landscapes, portraits and allegorical works by 51 American artists from the 1840s to the 1930s. Many of these paintings have not been exhibited in a number of years.
October 2009 – Reception at National Museum of American History
Members at the Partner/Researcher level and above attended a special after-hours reception at the National Museum of American History, which had reopened to the public on November 21, 2008, following an intensive, two-year renovation.
Current exhibitions on all 3 floors were open for members’ viewing, with staff and docents present to guide members through the galleries. The evening included musical entertainment by a trio of musicians from the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra, and two historic theater performances - Join the Student Sit-Ins at the Greensboro Lunch Counter and War Letters Home. Museum Director Brent Glass hosted a special pre-reception exclusively for members of the James Smithson Society in the new exhibition, On the Water.
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