A Guide To DC — My (Nearly) Exhaustive Guide to Art, Events, & Newsletters for the Greater DC Area
Sometimes I’m asked how I find the art exhibits that I go to, the lectures that I attend, and the news that I chat about , especially as a young person who made their way into both professional & “adult” DC without a degree — so I’ve put together a list of some of the lesser known resources of DC, in addition to a few other pieces of my media diet, that I use frequently!
(The majority of these are free because I rarely believe in paying for events.)
ART:
- Dupont Underground: Abandoned subterranean streetcar station that hosts concerts, art exhibits, conference receptions, and more.
- Von Ammon Co.: Brand new art space tucked away in Georgetown, with exhibits unlike anything else you can find in DC.
- Dumbarton Oaks Museum: Historic estate with collections of Byzantine and Pre-Columbian art, as well as European artworks and furnishings.
- The Kreeger Museum: The museums hosts modern and contemporary art, and is worth visiting for its architecture alone.
- Rhizome: Artspace that “promotes creativity in all forms”- which includes concerts, workshops, performances, talks, exhibitions, and demonstration projects in areas such as art, music, technology, theater, local food, poetry, and more.
- Glenstone: A stretch in terms of the “greater DC area” and reservations must be made far in advance, but described as “ a holistic experience of art, architecture and landscape.”
EVENTS:
Science Lectures
- Carnegie Science: Wide-ranging lectures
- American Association for the Advancement of Science: Events and conferences
- National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine: Events, meetings, committees, and more on any STEM topic you can imagine.
- Philosophical Society of Washington: Lecturers from around the world (since 1871) at the historic Cosmos Club!
Humanities Lectures
- National Endowment for the Humanities: Exhibitions, lectures, and other events
- Dumbarton Oaks: Lectures and concerts on Byzantine, Pre-Columbian, and garden and landscape architecture.
General Lectures
- NYU DC: All types of lectures (& workshops!)
- Sixth&I: Historic synagogue that hosts events for arts, entertainment, and ideas
- The Atlantic Live: Short events sponsored by the Atlantic on all topics
- Axios: Excellent short live interviews on all sorts of topics, but keeps them fairly small, you can RSVP by joining their newsletters, which will get you on the event emailing lists!
- Politico Live: wide-ranging conferences and shorter events
General
- 7:30 DC: Trendy, wide ranging events
- LinkTank: Aggregator for every type of event
- Technical.ly: Aggregator for every type of technical event
Meetups
- DC Tech Meetup: Stay up to date on the innovation ecosystem and see demos & product launches. Meet technologists, entrepreneurs, and investors.
- Code for DC: meet programmers and data scientists across the city.
Policy/ Think Tanks
- Defense Innovation Board: Participate in meetings between the Department of Defense & The DIB- which include members such as Eric Schmidt & Eric Lander (see members here)
- Wilson Center: Wide ranging non-partisan policy events
- Center for Strategic and International Studies: 2500+ events a year, from major public speeches to small briefings.
**Also — get on embassy event mailing lists! They host concerts, classes, tastings, screenings (the Russian embassy has a separate theatre just for screening events), and more. It’s easier to register for some than others, but my general advice is RSVP to any public event they have, and wait for invites more up your alley to roll in.
NEWSLETTERS:
DC Specific:
- 7:30 DC: Fun, general guide to DC happenings
- A Beast in a Jungle: music, opera, theatre, and more performing arts news
- Georgetown Center for Security and Emerging Technology: Although they’re just getting started, CSET is on its way to becoming the nations largest center focused on AI policy, with a $55 million grant in their back pocket.
- Defense One- The D Brief: Defense news aggregated by Nextgov, The Atlantic, CityLab and more.
- Data Community DC: Data science events and news for the DC area.
Other:
- Arts & Letters Daily: Excellent aggregator of writing on philosophy, literature, ideas, criticism, history, art, and music
- China AI: Weekly translations of writings from Chinese thinkers on China’s landscape
- STAT-Cancer Briefing: Weekly look at the latest in cancer research, treatment, and patient care
- MIT Technology Review- The Download: Emerging tech stories every day
- Other newsletters: Y Combinator, Technical.ly DC, O’Reilly Data & AI Newsletters, Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, TechCrunch, OpenAI, Machine Learnings
Let me know if you find this list helpful & please send me your own resources that I’ve missed!
