Hello! I am Hilary Cook, a sociologist and member of the Washington Evaluators Program Committee. I am excited to organize group tours during AEA’s Evaluation 2017, so conference attendees can meet each other and experience some of the amazing museums and institutions that DC has to offer! There are also useful links that may be of interest for individuals to organize museum visits on their own.
Rad Resource: Organized Group Tours
The LAWG will be setting up group tours of 15-20 people at several places. Tour times may change and will be scheduled to avoid conflicts with Evaluation 2017 concurrent sessions. If you are interested in joining a group tour, please SIGN UP so I can gauge interest and schedule tours as the time gets closer. Once you sign up for a given tour, I will keep you posted about the time and date! Here is a preliminary group tour schedule. All of these places can also be visited independently on your own schedule as well.
Rad Resource:
- Group tour of the Hirshhorn Museum of contemporary art and culture on November 6 at 10:30 AM.
- Group tour of the Postal Museum on November 6 at 11:00 AM.
- Group tour of the Renwick Gallery of contemporary craft and decorative art November 6 at 10:30 AM.
- Group tour of the National Portrait Gallery, which has both classic presidential portraits and wild installation pieces, on November 7 at 6:00 PM.
- NPR Headquarters on November 11 at 3:00 PM.
Please sign up to receive more information about group tours as the schedule is finalized!
Hot Tips: Suggestions for Independent Visits
There so many museums and institutions to visit in DC. Here are links to some of the public places that may be of particular interest.
Every museum that is part of the Smithsonian Institution has free access. Check out the website to plan your visit to any of the 19 museums, gardens, or the zoo while you are in town! The newest SI museum, the National Museum of African American History & Culture, is wonderful if you can land tickets! Timed entry passes for November will likely open late in July or early August, so conference attendees should keep an eye out for that on the website, and be aware that these free tickets go quickly! Please click on the link to learn about how to get timed entry tickets to this amazing museum. The National Archives is free to visit, although tickets can also be reserved online for a nominal fee.
There are also plenty of non-public museums and institutions that visitors may find interesting. Please feel free to make suggestions in the comments to your fellow Evaluation 2017 attendees on your favorite places to visit in DC!
We’re looking forward to November and the Evaluation 2017 annual conference all this week with our colleagues in the Local Arrangements Working Group (LAWG). Do you have questions, concerns, kudos, or content to extend this aea365 contribution? Please add them in the comments section for this post on the aea365 webpage so that we may enrich our community of practice. Would you like to contribute to aea365? Review the contribution guidelines and send your draft post to aea365@eval.org.