Cultural Tourism DC Calendar

When caravans transported commodities to the Mediterranean world and Indian subcontinent, cities along trade routes like Timna (in today’s Yemen) became known for artistic production. Fine alabaster figures, impressive metal work, and funerary busts became hallmark’s of Yemen’s ancient cultural traditions. Long-distance trade with the Greeks, Romans, and Persians introduced artistic and cultural traditions to ancient Arabia. A Glimpse of Ancient Yemen highlights a selection of objects excavated from the region by the pioneer archaeologist Wendell Phillips and his team in 1950 and 1951. See this exhibit on display at the Freer|Sackler until August 2019.

Henry Clay Folger and his wife Emily wanted to create a monument to Shakespeare in the U.S. capital. This would be their gift to the American people, an architectural presence on Capitol Hill, and an anchor to the nation’s cultural mile. This exhibition shows how Henry, and after his death, his wife Emily, worked with architect Paul Philippe Cret to create a marble building that looks like a book, and speaks to the hope that Washington DC would become a cultural center.

Roughly 320,000 objects relating to the built environment reside inside the National Building Museum. In Animals, Collected, the museum showcases the treasures that connect to the animal kingdom specifically. Architectural pieces that showcase both real and mythological animals are on display. These objects – found ornamenting municipal buildings, churches, warehouses – will have you pondering why animal objects were chosen for said locations and what they mean to the structure and inhabitants of the space.

We are proud to offer our newest, affordable sightseeing option – AUDIO TOURS.  Can’t make one of our guided tours?  Well, we have recorded some of our best tour guides giving their tours and put them on a GPS enabled app.  We’ve also included downloadable PDF maps of each walk, so that you don’t need to have GPS maps running with the app (save your battery).

1. Download our free app on (iTunes) or (Android)
2. Download any audio tour (Free – $1.99/each)
3. Enjoy the tour 

Even if you don’t download any tours, you will still have access to valuable information on sightseeing, eating and playing in the Washington, D.C.

Available Tours:

• Arlington National Cemetery
• Historic Georgetown
• Georgetown University

By the late 1960s, the United States was in pitched conflict both in Vietnam, against a foreign power, and at home—between Americans for and against the war, for and against the status quo. Artists Respond: American Art and the Vietnam War, 1965–1975 presents art created amid this turmoil, spanning the period from President Lyndon B. Johnson’s fateful decision to deploy U.S. ground troops to South Vietnam in 1965 to the fall of Sài Gòn ten years later.

Artists Respond is the most comprehensive exhibition to examine the contemporary impact of the Vietnam War on American art. The exhibition is unprecedented in its historical scale and depth. It brings together nearly 100 works by fifty-eight of the most visionary and provocative artists of the period. Galvanized by the moral urgency of the Vietnam War, these artists reimagined the goals and uses of art, affecting developments in multiple movements and media: painting, sculpture, printmaking, performance, installation, documentary art, and conceptualism.

MARCH 15, 2019–AUGUST 18, 2019

Smithsonian American Art Museum (8th and F Streets, NW)

Public gardens across America are engaging, inviting, and dynamic. Gardens are living creations, as they display seasonal changes along with a constant ebb and flow. This exhibit celebrates American gardens created or renovated within the last five years. These gardens showcase new plant collections, create spaces for people to connect with nature, and foster sustainability. Come explore what’s new in public gardens!

For an artist, it is always a unique challenge to glean new insights from complex phenomena, such as that of human migration—an ancient, mysterious process that involves many peoples and nations and a welter of data and cultural forces. In CONSTELLATIONS/MIGRATION, Rome-based artist Pietro Ruffo draws inspiration from the geographers, cartographers, and astronomers of antiquity to tackle the timeless mysteries of human movement, conflict, and assimilation. Assuming that migration and resettlement have always been central to the survival of all species, the artist explores these elusive themes in a series of extraordinary works that reflect on the ancient frictions and fusions between peoples, places, and cultures of the world.

There are many other bus tours currently running. Be sure to read our comparison post on Washington, D.C. bus tours to help you navigate all the different bus tour options available to you, from open-top double-deckers to small group sprinter vans, from day trips to night tours. We cover it all and provide you with the insight necessary to choose what is best for you.

Meet America’s most popular First Ladies at Madame Tussauds Washington, DC.

Madame Tussauds is an international chain of wax museums, and the Washington D.C. location opened in 2007 and is the 12th of their many locations. These museums are popular due to their themed rooms featuring famous people from politicians to actors to athletes. with one of D.C.’s most popular rooms being the President’s Room. This tourist stop is the perfect place for photo ops and “Instagrammable” moments.

Movie theaters are where our culture’s dreams and desires have been projected since the arrival of nickelodeons, providing an enchanting portal into a world where moviegoers could escape their everyday lives. Yet many historic theaters have not escaped the impact of social and technological change, nor the abandonment that has diminished our aging cities. Baltimore, thriving at the dawn of the cinema age, has been home to more than 240 theaters since its first Nickelodeon opened in 1905. Only a handful still function as theaters, but many survive in some form—ghosts on the gritty main streets of Charm City.

NOVEMBER 17, 2018 – OCTOBER 14, 2019

Explore headline-making FBI cases and learn how the bureau is fighting terrorism and cybercrime in this special update to one of the Newseum’s most popular exhibits.

From the Boston Marathon bombing to the Internet’s sinister Silk Road, go behind the scenes with the FBI to explore how crime and crime-fighting have evolved in the post-9/11 age. As the nation’s top crime-fighting force embarks on its second century, the exhibit will explore how the FBI detects and disrupts terrorists both at home and abroad, and thwarts powerful cyber criminals who steal data and money.

On display September 7, 2018 — July 7, 2019

John Lennon’s boyhood stamp album—including 565 stamps on more than 150 pages is on display at the Smithsonian’s National Postal Museum. The exhibition coincides with the U.S. Postal Service’s issuance of the John Lennon Forever stamp, honoring the legendary singer and songwriter. The stamp is part of the USPS’ Music Icons series.

Lennon’s older cousin, Stanley Parkes, inspired the future Beatle’s interest in stamp collecting and gave him the album. Lennon rubbed out Parkes’s name and address on the album’s flyleaf, replacing it with his own signature and the address at Mendips, the home he shared with his aunt Mary (“Mimi”) Smith and her husband George. Already a budding artist, Lennon sketched beards and mustaches in blue ink of the likenesses of Queen Victoria and King George VI on the album’s title page.

Mark Bradford’s new work at the Hirshhorn spans roughly 400 linear feet inside the cutting-edge Smithsonian museum. Pickett’s Charge is a series of eight abstract paintings that depict the final charge of the Battle of Gettysburg, commonly noted as the most important battle of the Civil War. The result is a thought-provoking rumination on how we interpret history and the complexities of war. Bradford’s installation will also suggest issues faced by the American people today.

10 a.m. – 5:30 p.m. | Free admission

The Old Korean Legation is the cradle of Korea-U.S. friendship. In 1889, Korea (then Joseon) established her first diplomatic mission in the U.S. at Logan Circle, Washington, DC, but lost ownership of the legation building in 1910. 102 years later, Korea repurchased the building in 2012; restored it to its original 19th century beauty; and opened it to the public as the Old Korean Legation Museum in May 2018.

ㅇ Open from 10:00 to 17:00
ㅇ Closed on Mondays
ㅇ Free Admission / Free Tour (Both Group and Individual visits)
ㅇ Reservations available at website
ㅇ Tel : (202) 844 – 3330
ㅇ Email : info@oldkoreanlegation.org

Pioneering feminist artist Yun Suknam (born 1939) uses portraiture to gain insights into the lives of women, past and present. A wood assemblage portrait of her mother is the centerpiece of this exhibition, which includes portraits of American artists, such as Louise Bourgeois, Louise Nevelson, Marisol, Kiki Smith and Nancy Spero. This presentation focuses on shared themes and artistic approaches that have activated women artists from different parts of the globe. Robyn Asleson, the National Portrait Gallery’s associate curator of prints, drawings and media arts, is the curator of this exhibition. “Portraits of the World: Korea” is the second exhibition in a series dedicated to highlighting the global context of American portraiture and follows the series’ inaugural focus on Switzerland.

Interested in taking a private walking tour? If you’re flexible with your timing and can book a private tour at the time listed, we can offer a discounted rate! These tours are offered at 10am-12pm or 2pm-4pm or 7pm-9pm.

You can choose either our National Mall tour, Lincoln Assassination or Arlington National Cemetery Walking Tour. We also offer a 7pm private option to take one of evening tours – Ghosts of Georgetown, Haunted Georgetown (Adults Only) or White House at Night (Secrets and Scandals – Adults Only)

No adjustments or customizations, please. If you need a customized tour or different time, please contact us at info@dcbyfoot.com. Any of our tours are available for private bookings but our online booking at this discounted rate is only available for our three most popular tours.

Rate: $195 for up to 10 persons. Groups larger than 10 must contact us first.

BOOK NOW

Tour must be booked at least two days in advance. Last minute tours may be accommodated but must be booked via emailing us to check on availability.

Palm Springs, California is known as a playground for the rich and wealthy. However, the area was once a desert outpost and home to Native Americans. This exhibit focuses on the conflict that arose over a one-square-mile-tract of the city’s downtown, which formed the heart of the reservation belonging to the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians. Section 14 will show how the area became a hotbed for issues like tribal sovereignty, economics, race and land zoning from the 1940s through the 1960s.

Six new solo exhibitions open May 2

Opening Reception with the Artists: Wednesday, May 8, 6:30-8:30 pm

Paula Cleggett: Shine the Light (oil painting)
Elizabeth Dranitzke: Portraits of Women (photographs)
Jenny McGee: Reality No More (oil painting)
Mike McSorley: Introspection/Inspection (oil painting)
Andrea Ottesen: B o t a n i k a ! (photography, acrylic painting, mixed media)
Yemonja Smalls: MetamorphoSIS (mixed media)
Desiree Sterbini: With These Hands (oil paintings)

Gallery Hours

Monday-Thursday: 8 a.m.-7 p.m.
Fridays: 8 a.m.-6 p.m.
Saturdays: 8 a.m.-5 p.m.
Sundays: 10 a.m.-5 p.m.

Occasional closings for special events—please call (202) 549-4172 for confirmation of open hours on a particular day