Exploring the National Portrait Gallery with Kids

The National Portrait Gallery hosts an impressive array of family-friendly programs. Best of all, they are all FREE (some require advance registration).

I've taken both kids to several of the Saturday "Portrait Story Day" programs, where you read a book about someone whose portrait hangs in the museum, then do an art project based on that person's story. We love to pack a lunch and play in the museum's large glass-enclosed courtyard, and we often make a day of it by visiting the MLK Library across the street before the museum opens at 11:30am. The building houses both the Portrait Gallery and the American Art Museum. Between the two museums, there seem to often be special events happening in the courtyard on the weekends. Last spring we happened across traditional American music and dancing. This fall we went to a "Day of the Dead" event with crafts, music, and face painting.

On Monday, K & I made our first visit to the National Portrait Gallery for one of their "Young Portrait Explorer" programs for toddlers. On select Mondays - check the schedule - the Gallery holds a class to help little visitors explore one of the portraits in their collection.

Monday's class was about Georgia O'Keefe. We arrived at 10:30am and met up with some friends and others who registered for the class, which is limited to a total of 25 adult and child participants. We walked down the hall to a black and white photograph of Georgia O'Keefe, where the class leader handed out a copy of the portrait to each child. We talked for a few minutes about the different things we noticed about the portrait before heading to the Gallery's education room.

We gathered on a carpet for a story about Georgia O'Keefe and we talked about her paintings. Then we all got a plastic magnifying sheet and a silk flower to examine close up. We experimented with how close or far away to hold the magnifying sheet to see the most detail in the flower.

After that, we headed over to tables set with real flowers to examine, paper, and oil pastels. The kids were encouraged to draw the flowers. Let's just say that my 2 year old is not quite ready to do representational drawing, but she really enjoyed drawing with the oil pastels and exploring all the different colors.

 

When she'd had enough of drawing, we headed to the courtyard to have lunch. When there isn't a special event happening, the museum has a very unique water feature that kids LOVE to run through. These water fountains are about 5 feet wide and run the length of the  courtyard with small breaks at the doorways, and the water is maybe a half centimeter deep. I forgot how much fun these were and in retrospect I should have dressed K in better shoes (kids are not allowed to run barefoot) and brought a change of pants.

The museums themselves are fun to walk through, too. You can see some of the most well known portraits of our country's founders as well as interesting exhibits of more contemporary icons and artists in both the Portrait Gallery and American Art wings of the museum. The upper floor of the museum is incredibly ornate and worth a visit just to marvel at the beautiful details. This museum is less well-known and visited than some of the other Smithsonian museums because it is not on the mall, but it is definitely one of our favorites.

Getting there: 

Green/Yellow Line Metro to Gallery Place - exit at 9th Street

Things to know:

Museum does not open to the public until 11:30am

MLK Library across the street has a lovely children's area

Bring shoes that can get wet and a change of pants

Check the schedule online for special events and programs for kids