program
artist-in-residence
we believe in the power of the arts
about
The Museum partners with Washington, DC-based artists to provide arts programming and opportunities for children and families to explore creative collaboration. These offerings will complement the wonder of the Museum experience, spark creativity and curiosity within young learners, and draw inspiration from the Museum’s STEAM exhibits.
Supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts.
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meet our 2023-24 artist
katherine tzu-lan mann
Katherine Tzu-Lan Mann creates large scale paintings and paper installations that examine mythology, identity, and landscape. She is the recipient of the Sustainable Arts Foundation grant, a Fulbright grant, the AIR Gallery and Lower East Side Printshop Keyholder Fellowships, and the Mayor’s Award and Hamiltonian Fellowship in Washington, DC. Some of the venues where Mann has shown her work include the Kreeger Museum, Academy Art Museum, Walters Art Museum, American University Museum, Tides Museum, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Rawls Museum, the US consulate in Dubai, UAE, and the US embassy in Yaounde, Cameroon.
current installation
get ticketslight house
location: across from the tinkerers studio
Light House is an interactive installation created by our local community. Over the course of a year, artist in residence Katherine Tzu-Lan Mann facilitated 12 workshops with children in the museum and around the Washington, DC area. Together, the children painted, cut, and collaged these acrylic panels with painted vinyl, which are now assembled into a light-filled stained glass maze.
Look for the google-eyed dinosaurs, hearts with family names written on them, and Girl Scout troop numbers! Keep your eyes peeled for footballs, maple leaves and butterflies on the spinning circles throughout the space. Watch how colors change as you spin the translucent circles and as light shifts in response.
Thank you to the hundreds of children and caretakers who painted or cut vinyl stickers to make this piece possible.
images
past artists
tommy bobo, 2021
During his residency, Bobo engaged visitors in examinations of the sky. Visitors drew pictures of sky observations, which were added to a crowdsourced installation displayed in the Museum’s Entry Hall. Bobo’s residency was supported by the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities.