Conservation Cart Talk | Preserving Japanese Folding Screens
At our gallery cart, conservators demonstrate how paper hinges are attached to Japanese folding screens—a technique that lets panels open and close. Alongside this demonstration, learn about the full remounting process, from dismantling the old structure to creating a new one and reattaching the artwork. Explore tools and materials, see detailed models, and ask questions about this important work. Department of Conservation and Scientific Research, National Museum of Asian Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Venue: Asian Art Museum, West Building. Building: West Building. Event Location: Gallery 5. Cost: Free. No registration or tickets (walk-up only). Categories: Lectures & Discussions. Demonstrations. Gallery Talks & Tours. Accessibility: Wheelchair accessible. Assisted listening devices.
Friday, February 13, 2026, 3:00 PM – 4:00 PM.
Conservation Cart Talk | Jade Explained
What can science tell us about jade? Join conservation scientist Matthew Clarke to explore how mineral analysis reveals clues about origin, manufacture, and transformation over centuries. Scientific techniques shine light—figurative and literal—on why these stones appear in such a range of colors and patterns. Handle jade samples and see how research deepens our understanding of these objects. Image: Department of Conservation and Scientific Research, National Museum of Asian Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Venue: Asian Art Museum, West Building. Building: West Building. Event Location: Gallery 19. Cost: Free. No registration or tickets (walk-up only). Categories: Celebrations. Lectures & Discussions. Gallery Talks & Tours. Related Exhibition: Afterlife: Ancient Chinese Jades. Accessibility: Assisted listening devices. Wheelchair accessible.
Saturday, February 21, 2026, 2:00 PM – 3:00 PM.
Women Gathering for Tea: Global Perspectives from Edo to Meiji
Women’s participation is often excluded in discussions of chanoyu history, but research has shed light on how women were involved in both the practice and production of tea culture in Japan from at least the mid-eighteenth century. In this talk, Rebecca Corbett, USC, will give examples of Buddhist nuns who crafted their own tea utensils in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, discuss what we know of commoner and samurai women’s tea practice in the Edo period (1600–1868), and introduce new research about Western women who practiced chanoyu and, in some cases, wrote about it and collected tea utensils in Meiji Japan (1868–1912).
This program is part of the online series Perspectives on Japanese Tea Practice, which brings together various experts on Japanese tea practice, called chanoyu, to explore its evolution from the past into the present. Roundtable discussions and lectures with tea practitioners, collectors, curators, university professors, architects, and artists reveal how cross-cultural…
Event Location: Zoom. Cost: Free. Register in advance (required). Get Tickets/Register: https://smithsonian.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_Y8bWeN67TUyvA_4NrAx0KQ. Categories: Lectures & Discussions. Webcasts & Online. Accessibility: Captioning.
Tuesday, February 24, 2026, 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM.
Book Talk with Sam Dalrymple: Shattered Lands
We are excited to welcome Sam Dalrymple for a book signing and talk on his bestselling book Shattered Lands: Five Partitions and the Making of Modern Asia.
As recently as 1928, a vast swathe of Asia―India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Burma, Nepal, Bhutan, Yemen, Oman, the UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, and Kuwait―were bound together under a single imperial banner, an entity known officially as the “Indian Empire,” or more simply as the Raj. It was the British Empire’s crown jewel, a vast dominion stretching from the Red Sea to the jungles of Southeast Asia, home to a quarter of the world’s population and encompassing the largest Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, and Zoroastrian communities on the planet. Its people used the Indian rupee, were issued passports stamped “Indian Empire,” and were guarded by armies garrisoned in forts from the Bab-el-Mandeb to the Himalayas. And then, in the space of just fifty years, the Indian Empire shattered. Five partitions tore it apart, carving out new nations, redrawing maps, and leaving behind a…
Venue: Asian Art Museum, East Building. Building: East Building. Event Location: Flex Space. Cost: Free. Register in advance (recommended). Get Tickets/Register: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/book-talk-with-sam-dalrymple-shattered-lands-tickets-1981442618210?aff=oddtdtcreator. Categories: After Five. Lectures & Discussions. Shopping/Book Signing.
Thursday, February 26, 2026, 6:30 PM – 8:00 PM.