Participating members will enjoy viewing “No Spectators: The Art of Burning Man" at the Renwick Gallery followed by the musical production “DAVE” at Arena Stage.

"No Spectators: The Art of Burning Man" at the Renwick Gallery, Smithsonian American Art Museum

Each year in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert, a city of more than 75,000 people rises out of the dust for a single week. During that time, enormous experimental art installations are erected and many are ritually burned to the ground. The thriving temporary metropolis known as Burning Man is a hotbed of artistic ingenuity, driving innovation through its principles of radical self-expression, decommodification, communal participation, and reverence for the handmade. Both a cultural movement and an annual event, Burning Man remains one of the most influential phenomenona in contemporary American art and culture.

No Spectators: The Art of Burning Man brings the large-scale, participatory work from this desert gathering to the nation’s capital for the first time. Taking over the entire Renwick Gallery building and surrounding Golden Triangle neighborhood, it brings alive the maker culture and creative spirit of this cultural movement. Immersive room-sized installations, costumes, jewelry, and ephemera transport visitors to the gathering’s famed “Playa,” while selected photographs and archival materials from the Nevada Museum of Art's show City of Dust: The Evolution of Burning Man trace Burning Man’s growth and its bohemian roots.
 

World-Premiere musical “Dave” – Adapted from the Oscar-nominated film  

From a Tony and Pulitzer Prize award-winning creative team, Dave tells the story of high school teacher (and presidential lookalike) Dave Kovic, who is hired by the Secret Service as a stand-in for the Commander-in-Chief. When the President falls ill under less than “presidential” circumstances, Dave is thrust into the Oval Office to avoid a national scandal, and must find a way to gain the trust and love of the American people … and the First Lady.