Friday, May 15 through Sunday, May 17: Some 19 professional artists living around Dupont and Logan circles are opening their studio doors to a public astonished that it’s still possible to make a living, period, let alone do it via art. The “cultural pub crawl,” which for the curious reportedly has some food and drink available, is a group effort by the Mid City Artists (many of whom will be showing their work) and local galleries and businesses. MORE »

Closing Sunday, May 10: OMG, Lincoln is dying ALL OVER AGAIN on Sunday, when the lovely Library of Congress exhibit boasting a gagillion artifacts in his honor is shutttered for all time. With Malice Toward None: The Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Exhibition includes such ephemera as the oldest known copy of the Gettysburg address, inaugural speeches noted by Lincoln himself, and the Emancipation Proclamation. MORE »

Opening Friday, May 1: PostSecret, the little art project-turned-meme that has joined Netflix in bravely justifying the continued existence of the US Postal Service, is returning to its roots with a month-long exhibit at Hillyer Art Center. MORE »

Closing Friday, April 17: We all know how your Wonkette feels about a certain New Yorker luminary, but one bad apple shouldn’t spoil the whole bunch. The Austrian Embassy is, for just a few more days, showing paintings and self-portraits by famous New Yorker cartoonist Peter Steiner. Free. [Embassy of Austria MORE »

Tuesday, April 7: Fans of Top Chef, you remember guest judge Wylie Dufresne — he runs WD-50 in NYC, and is famous for experimental molecular gastronomy. Well, he’ll be here in DC alongside tapas genius Jose Andres at the National Museum of American History to talk about Spanish food. No free samples, sorry. [Smithsonian] MORE »

Tuesday, March 31: Since the beginning of March, National Geographic Society has been playing films, TV programs and documentaries for free every Tuesday at noon for the Golden Triangle lunch crowd. Catch the Naked Science episode on time machines, then spend the rest of your day thinking about the space-time continuum. [NG] MORE »

Wednesday, March 25: As part of the Francophonie 2009 cultural festival, the Ripley Center will be playing a movie about a French-Canadian family in the ’70s, Histoire de Famille. Oh, goodie, can’t wait. [Francophonie] MORE »

New: What would the architectural model of the ocean look like? Maya Lin, artist, architect and designer of the Gash In The Earth, a.k.a. the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, has created sculptures and installations of natural landscapes using a series of very unnatural grids and maps. At the Corcoran, until July 12. [Corcoran] MORE »

Christopher Sims’ photographs of Guantanamo Bay are devoid of soldiers and prisoners. Rather, he captures objects and scenes of their everyday life: a Koran hangs from a fence, a drying Christmas tree is pushed to the corner of a room, an electronic menu board flashes the lunch specials. MORE »

Wednesday, March 4: The ambassadors of nine very tiny countries (including countries you didn’t even know were countries such as Malta, Liechtenstein and Monaco) will be coming together and reading poetry from their homeland in English and their quaint native tongues. MORE »