Afghan Storytelling and Preserving Culture
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Free. Registration required.
This hybrid program will also be presented online.
Register through Zoom to attend virtually
Celebrate and uplift Afghan cultural heritage through an afternoon of storytelling. Hear from people working across music, film, writing, and other creative forms to safeguard Afghan culture. Each storyteller offers unique perspectives on cultural resilience, memory, and identity.
This event commemorates the online launch of an important oral history. Over the last two years, we’ve recorded with Mr. Omara Masoudi, the former director of the National Museum of Afghanistan and a leading figure in the preservation of Afghan cultural heritage. To celebrate, we’re bringing Masoudi’s story into conversation with voices from the Afghan diaspora.
Schedule: 2 p.m.: Welcome remarks , 2:10–3 p.m.: Conversation with Chase Robinson and Omara Masoudi , 3:10–4 p.m.: Storytelling in the Afghan Diaspora, moderated by Amna Nawaz , 4–5 p.m.: Networking and…
Venue: Freer Gallery of Art. Building: West Building. Event Location: Meyer Auditorium. Cost: Free. Register in advance (required). Categories: Lectures & Discussions. Accessibility: ASL-interpreted program.
Saturday, September 20, 2025, 2:00 PM – 5:00 PM.
Forbes Colloquium on Conservation and Scientific Research: A Codex in Late Antiquity
In person registration by Wednesday, September 17, Virtual registration
The 2025 Forbes Colloquium will mark the launch of a major new research initiative focused on the Washington Gospels Codex—also known as the Freer Codex or Codex Washingtonianus. As one of the earliest surviving parchment codices of the Gospels and a significant object of the National Museum of Asian Art’s collections, this manuscript offers a unique opportunity for renewed scholarly and scientific inquiry.
This colloquium will introduce the project’s scope and goals, highlighting the collaborative efforts of an international, multidisciplinary team. Speakers will discuss the codex’s significance and outline ongoing and upcoming scientific and conservation research that will guide future studies.
The colloquium, organized by the National Museum of Asian Art’s Department of Conservation and Scientific Research, will be held in the Meyer Auditorium on September 24, 2025.
A reception will follow in the museum courtyard.
Speakers: Chase…
Venue: Freer Gallery of Art. Building: West Building. Event Location: Meyer Auditorium (Enter on Independence Avenue); Freer Courtyard (reception); Online. Cost: Free. Register in advance (required). Categories: After Five. Lectures & Discussions. Webcasts & Online. Accessibility: Wheelchair accessible. Captioning. Assisted listening devices.
Wednesday, September 24, 2025, 5:00 PM – 8:00 PM.
Conservation Cart Talk | Conserving a Japanese Folding Screen
Get a rare glimpse into a current conservation project: our remounting of a unique Japanese folding screen by Tawaraya Sōtatsu, which features six fan-shaped paintings attached to a painted background.
Our Japanese painting conservators will talk about the process of remounting folding screens. In this traditional conservation technique, a conservator removes the painting from its old screen, constructs a new screen, and carefully mounts the painting to the new surface. Explore models and materials from our conservation studio to see what this process entails, and learn why we do it.
Learn more about how we mount Japanese paintings. Image: Department of Conservation and Scientific Research.
Venue: Freer Gallery of Art. Building: West Building. Event Location: Gallery 5. Cost: Free. No registration or tickets (walk-up only). Categories: Gallery Talks & Tours. Lectures & Discussions. Accessibility: Wheelchair accessible. Assisted listening devices.
Friday, September 26, 2025, 3:00 PM – 4:00 PM.
Screening and Discussion: May All the Little Girls Win
Enjoy a screening of artist Charmaine Poh’s short films and a post-screening discussion in this special event organized with the Goethe-Institut Washington.
Working across film, photography, media, and performance, Charmaine Poh examines ideas of agency, repair, and the body across worlds. Her work is also influenced by Eastern philosophy, media criticism, and cyberfeminism.
Order of Screenings Kin (2021, digital film, 2:54 min.) , What’s softest in the world rushes and runs over what’s hardest in the world (2024, 4K digital film, 14:30 min.) , public solitude (2022, 2-channel digital video, synthetic media, 4:00 min.) , GOOD MORNING YOUNG BODY (2023, performance-lecture digital video, synthetic media, 6:23 min.) , in the shadow of the cosmic (2023, performance-lecture, 30:00 min.), Register in advance to get the best experience.
About Charmaine Poh
Charmaine Poh (b. 1990) is an artist from Singapore working across media, moving image, and performance to peel apart, interrogate, and hold ideas of agency,…
Venue: Freer Gallery of Art. Building: West Building. Event Location: Meyer Auditorium. Cost: Free. Register in advance (recommended). Get Tickets/Register: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/1596572233529?aff=oddtdtcreator. Categories: Films. Lectures & Discussions. After Five. Accessibility: Wheelchair accessible.
Tuesday, September 30, 2025, 7:00 PM – 9:00 PM.
Conservation Cart Talk | Preserving the Present
From fading colors to deteriorating plastics, contemporary art materials can pose unexpected preservation challenges. Join art conservator Kesha Talbert and lighting specialist Amber Meade to explore how science and technology help them monitor and protect these works. Get hands-on experience with damaged samples, see how tools like a light meter are used in real time, and learn how conservators and lighting experts work together to care for modern art both on display and in storage.
Learn more about how we preserve contemporary art. Image: Department of Conservation and Scientific Research.
Venue: Arthur M. Sackler Gallery. Building: East Building. Event Location: Gallery 25. Cost: Free. No registration or tickets (walk-up only). Categories: Gallery Talks & Tours. Lectures & Discussions. Related Exhibition: Cut + Paste: Experimental Japanese Prints and Photographs. Accessibility: Wheelchair accessible. Assisted listening devices.
Friday, October 10, 2025, 3:00 PM – 4:00 PM.