EVENT CATEGORIES

ART 

Nov. 1 to 7

Day of the Deal Altar

This well-known community event is a quintessentially Mexican tradition and one of our most colorful displays of the year. This year’s Day of the Dead Altar is dedicated to the life and work of Latin American literary giant Gabriel García Márquez.

Mexican Cultural Institute

Nov. 2 to Feb. 16

El Greco in the National Gallery of Art and Washington-Area Collections: A 400th Anniversary Celebration

On the 400th anniversary of El Greco’s death, the National Gallery of Art — with one of the largest number of the artist’s works in the United States — presents a commemorative exhibition of El Greco’s paintings.

National Gallery of Art

Through Nov. 3

Gabriel Figueroa: Cinematographer – Great Moments in Mexico’s Golden Era of Cinema

From the early 1930s through the early 1980s, the Mexican cinematographer Gabriel Figueroa (1907-97) helped forge an evocative and enduring image of Mexico. This exhibition features film clips, photographs, posters and documents, as well as works by contemporary artists and filmmakers that draw from the vast inventory of distinctly Mexican imagery associated with Figueroa’s cinematography.

Mexican Cultural Institute

Nov. 11 to Feb. 26

Decoding the Renaissance

During the Renaissance, the art and science of cryptography came into its own. The advent of printing, development of diplomacy and creation of postal systems created an obsession with encryption that produced some of the period’s most brilliant inventions, most beautiful books and most enduring legacies. This exhibition features the best collection ever assembled of early works on codes and ciphers.

Folger Shakespeare Library

Nov. 12 to Jan. 31

Contemporary Identities/Invisible Gestures

Showcasing the immense cultural diversity of Iberoamerica through the art of photography, this exhibit features work from artists from 18 different countries of Latin America, Portugal and Spain, centering on the relationship between identity and the self in a digital world.

Mexican Cultural Institute

Through Nov. 14

The First Woman Graphic Novelist: Helena Bochořáková-Dittrichová

Helena Bochořáková-Dittrichová (1894–1980) was a Czech graphic artist whose 1929 novel “Zmého dětství (From My Childhood)” is widely acknowledged to be the first wordless novel created by a woman.

National Museum of Women in the Arts

Through Nov. 14

Yearning: Sehnsucht

Painter Oskar Stocker presents the faces of women and men who for various reasons left their native countries to seek and find their fortunes abroad, but who in their hearts have always yearned for their homelands. For information, visit acfdc.org.

Embassy of Austria

Nov. 22 to May 31

Style in Chinese Landscape Painting: The Yuan Legacy

Landscape painting is one of the most outstanding achievements of Chinese culture. Key styles in this genre emerged during the Yuan dynasty (1279–1368) and are still followed today.

Freer Gallery of Art

Nov. 22 to May 31

The Traveler’s Eye: Scenes of Asia

Featuring more than 100 works created over the past five centuries, “The Traveler’s Eye: Scenes of Asia” provides glimpses of travels across the Asian continent, from pilgrimages and research trips to expeditions for trade and tourism.

Arthur M. Sackler Gallery

Through Nov. 30

Think With Your Hands

In this unique artistic collaboration, animation, video and augmented reality bring to life over 60 illustrations of two of Spain’s most interesting graphic artists working today.

Artisphere

Through Dec. 4

The Early Days: Hip-Hop Culture in the German Democratic Republic

As hip-hop spread around the globe in the early 1980s — and even behind the Iron Curtain — it also excited youth in the German Democratic Republic whose new passion not only challenged the People’s Police (Volkspolizei) and the Stasi, but also the socialist youth organizations whose plans did not allow for youth subcultures.

German Historical Institute

Through Dec. 15

The Wall in Our Heads: American Artists and the Berlin Wall

To mark the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, an exhibition of American artists’ reflections on the Berlin Wall and an outdoor installation of photos by German artist Kai Wiedenhöfer form the visual framework for more than a dozen events at the Goethe-Institut around the commemoration of the fall of the Berlin Wall and critical observation about the many new walls that have been put up since then.

Goethe-Institut

Through Dec. 18

Iter: Photo Exhibit by Renato D’Agostin

In Renato D’Agostin’s photographs, location immediately looses its identity, as images from around the world focus on the city, the one we all want to escape from but which sticks to us like an occasionally painful shell.

Embassy of Italy

Through Dec. 31

Cartier: Marjorie Merriweather Post’s Dazzling Gems

One of Cartier’s most important and enduring clients, Marjorie Merriweather Post commissioned some of the most exquisite jewelry sets, fashionable accessories and finely crafted jeweled frames of any American collector.

Hillwood Estate, Museum and Gardens

Through Dec. 31

Imagine Art in Nature

At Wanås, with its white castle and beautiful park, international artists create new site- specific sculptures and installations for the garden, the art gallery and various indoor spaces on the grounds. Now it’s your chance to see a selection of the actual site-specific pieces rendered by Swedish and American artists, together with films, models, photos and sketches.

House of Sweden

Through Dec. 31

Titian’s Danaë from the Capodimonte Museum, Naples

One of the most sensual paintings of the Italian Renaissance, Titian’s “Danaë” from the Capodimonte Museum in Naples will be on view to celebrate the commencement of Italy’s presidency of the Council of the European Union.

National Gallery of Art

Through January 2015

Celebrating 25 Years on Pennsylvania Avenue

To mark the Canadian Embassy’s 25th anniversary, this exhibit of photos, commentary, historical records and objects traces the evolution of Canada’s diplomatic presence in D.C., the history of the embassy at 501 Pennsylvania Avenue, and the many ways in which the embassy reflects and continues to shape the friendship between Canada and the United States.

Embassy of Canada

Through Jan. 4

Captain Linnaeus Tripe: Photographer of India and Burma, 1852-1860

In the first major traveling exhibition of photographs by Captain Linnaeus Tripe (1822-1902), some 60 works will include early pictures he took in England as well as the outstanding body of work he produced in India and Burma (now Myanmar) in the 1850s.

National Gallery of Art

Through Jan. 4

One Nation With News for All

Ethnic newspapers, radio, television and online publications have helped millions of immigrants to America become part of their new country while preserving their ties to their native lands. This exhibit tells the dramatic story of how immigrants and minorities used the power of the press to fight for their rights and shape the American experience.

Newseum

Through Jan. 4

A Tribute to Anita Reiner

The Phillips Collection hosts a tribute exhibition in memory of Anita Reiner — one of D.C.’s most active art collectors and a longtime friend of the Phillips who passed away Aug. 15, 2013 — with 13 works in a variety of media from Reiner’s wide-ranging and highly personal collection of contemporary art.

The Phillips Collection

Through Jan. 9

What We Have Within

Possibilities to externalize and communicate essential aspects of our psyche, beliefs, affiliations or sexual orientations are increasing in modern societies, where freedom of expression is a fundamental right. The artists in this exhibition promote this right, breaking with convention and reinforcing the desire for free and genuine expression.

Art Museum of the Americas

Through Jan. 11

Degas’s Little Dancer

“Little Dancer Aged Fourteen” (1878–81), Edgar Degas’s groundbreaking statuette of a young ballerina that caused a sensation at the 1881 impressionist exhibition, takes center stage in an exploration of Degas’s fascination with ballet and his experimental, modern approach to his work.

National Gallery of Art

Through Jan. 11

Neo-Impressionism and the Dream of Realities: Painting, Poetry, Music

With more than 70 paintings and works on paper, this exhibition demonstrates how the neo-impressionists employed stylization and a deliberate orchestration of color to create landscapes and figures that went far beyond observed nature to accentuate subjectivity and an inner world of experience.

The Phillips Collection

Through Jan. 11

Salvatore Scarpitta: Traveler

A fascinating and singular figure in postwar art, Salvatore Scarpitta (1919-2007) created a powerful body of work that ranges from nonobjective abstraction to radical realism.

Hirshhorn Museum

Through Jan. 25

From the Library: The Book Illustrations by Romeyn de Hooghe

Artistically gifted and socially well connected, Romeyn de Hooghe (1645–1708) can help us to unravel the complexities of the late Dutch Golden Age, particularly through his vast and varied oeuvre of book illustrations.

National Gallery of Art

Through Feb. 1

From Neoclassicism to Futurism: Italian Prints and Drawings, 1800–1925

The visual arts in Italy between the first stirrings of nationalistic sentiment and its corruption into Fascism — the long development of the modern Italian state — remained extraordinarily diverse and vital. The National Gallery of Art has in recent years begun to develop a collection of Italian prints and drawings of this period that is surpassed only by the holdings of Italy’s principal museums.

National Gallery of Art

Through Feb. 1

Modern American Prints and Drawings from the Kainen Collection

The final in a series of three exhibitions celebrating the generous bequest of Ruth Cole Kainen, this show explores the first seven decades of 20th-century American art.

National Gallery of Art

Through Feb. 1

Modern and Contemporary Art in the Dominican Republic: Works from the Customs Office Collection

This scenic view and historic sketch of 30 artworks showcases the consistency, quality and diversity of the Collection of the Directorate General of Customs, which stands as one of the more important creative spaces in the region.

Art Museum of the Americas

Through March 22

Nasta’liq: The Genius of Persian Calligraphy

More than 20 works ranging in date from 1400 to 1600 form the first exhibition of its kind to focus on nasta‛liq, a calligraphic script that developed in the 14th century in Iran and remains one of the most expressive forms of aesthetic refinement in Persian culture to this day.

Arthur M. Sackler Gallery

Through April 12

Days of Endless Time

This exhibit presents 14 installations that offer prismatic vantage points into the suspension and attenuation of time or that create a sense of timelessness, with themes such as escape, solitude, enchantment and the thrall of nature.

Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden

Through June 7

Perspectives: Chiharu Shiota

Performance and installation artist Chiharu Shiota, Japan’s representative at the 56th Venice Biennale in 2015, will recreate a monumental yet intimate work in the Sackler pavilion that amasses personal memories through an accumulation of nearly 400 individual shoes, each with a note from the donor describing lost individuals and past moments.

Arthur M. Sackler Gallery

Through June 7

Unearthing Arabia: The Archaeological Adventures of Wendell Phillips

Wendell Phillips, a young paleontologist and geologist, headed one of the largest archaeological expeditions to remote South Arabia (present-day Yemen) from 1949 to 1951. Through a selection of unearthed objects as well as film and photography shot by the expedition team, the exhibition highlights Phillips’s key finds, recreates his adventures (and misadventures), and conveys the thrill of discovery on this important great archaeological frontier.

Arthur M. Sackler Gallery

Through Sept. 13

Chief S.O. Alonge: Photographer to the Royal Court of Benin, Nigeria

This retrospective showcases the work of noted Nigerian photographer Chief S.O. Alonge, the first indigenous photographer of the Royal Court of Benin, in conjunction with royal arts from the Benin kingdom. The collection of historic photographs was captured on Kodak glass-plate negatives and documents more than 50 years of the ritual, pageantry and regalia of the obas (kings), their wives and retainers.

National Museum of African Art

DANCE

Sat., Nov. 1, 2 and 8 p.m.

The National Acrobats of the People’s Republic of China: Cirque Peking

From the exotic Far East comes the world’s most riveting acrobatic troupe whose astonishing acts inspire the same awe and wonder in people today as they did a millennium ago. For seven decades, the National Acrobats of the People’s Republic of China has been thrilling young and old alike with dazzling acts of tumbling, juggling, contortion, balancing, and high-flying athleticism. Tickets are $29 to $48.

George Mason University Center for the Arts

Nov. 7 to 16

Fuego Flamenco X

“Fuego Flamenco X” is an exploration of traditional flamenco, its breadth and diversity through contemporary expressions, including “Dazzling Decade,” a selection of the most acclaimed pieces created for the festival by Edwin Aparicio and performed by the Flamenco Aparicio Dance Company on Nov. 7 to 9; dancers Mariana Collado and Carlos Chamorro in “Flamenco(s) de plomo y cobre” on Nov. 13 to 16; and “Flamenco en Familia” on Nov. 15. For information, visit www.galatheatre.org.

GALA Hispanic Theatre

DISCUSSIONS

Wed., Nov. 12, 7:30 p.m.

The Salzburg Marionettes – A Peek Behind the Scenes

For more than 100 years, three generations of the Aicher family have devoted loving care and enthusiasm to maintaining and cultivating the ancient art of puppetry. Admission is free; register at http://acfdc.org.

Embassy of Austria

Wed., Nov. 19, 9 a.m.

Václav Havel’s Legacy Today

The Embassy of the Czech Republic and the John W. Kluge Center at the Library of Congress present the conference “Václav Havel’s Legacy Today,” with former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and prominent Czech and U.S. panelists, in celebration of the 25th Anniversary of the Velvet Revolution. For information, email events@25yearsofdemocracy.org.

Library of Congress

Thomas Jefferson Building

FESTIVALS

Sat., Nov. 1, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Czech Christmas Market

The Czech Christmas Market features beautiful hand-blown glass ornaments, exquisite handcrafted glass, delicious Christmas cookies and mulled wine (svařák). Beginning at 10:30 am, Vit Horejs of the Czechoslovak-American Marionette Theatre will perform the puppet show “Czech and Slovak Tale for Strings.”

Embassy of the Czech Republic

Through Nov. 9

Kids Euro Festival

The highly popular annual children’s performing arts festival returns to Washington with over 100 free, family-friendly, European-themed events ranging from puppetry and dance to music, theater and storytelling. Designed for children ages 2 to 12 and their families, the Kids Euro Festival, now in its seventh year, unites the 28 embassies of the European Union and over 20 American cultural institutions in the area. All of the embassies and organizations work together to transform the capital region into a Europe-inspired action-packed cultural adventure for young people and their families, with no passport required. For information, visit www.kidseurofestival.org.

Various locations

MUSIC

Mon., Nov. 3, 7:30 p.m.

China National Centre for the Performing Arts Orchestra with Yuja Wang

Star pianist Yuja Wang brings her “practically superhuman keyboard technique” (San Francisco Chronicle) to Ravel’s Piano Concerto on a program from Beijing’s China NCPA Orchestra. Tickets are $19 to $75.

Kennedy Center Concert Hall

Fri., Nov. 7, 7:30 p.m.

Azra Sings

Azra’s singing reflects the lyrical melancholy of Sevdah and Balkan folk with sultry elements of Gypsy jazz and Andalucían flamenco. Her performances illuminate an inner world forever marked by the war in her homeland, and her immigrant life in the United States. Tickets are $80, including Balkan buffet and wine; for information, visit www.embassyseries.org.

Embassy of Bosnia and Herzegovina

Fri., Nov. 7, 7:30 p.m.

Fortas Chamber Music Concerts: Quatuor Ébène

Rather unusual in today’s world of chamber music, Quatuor Ébène’s stylistic acrobatics may at first meet hesitant ears. But there is no doubt: These four French musicians have class and are one of the most creative ensembles on the international chamber music scene today. Tickets are $32.

Kennedy Center Terrace Theater

Fri., Nov. 7, 7 p.m.

Washington Sängerbund

The Washington Sängerbund continues its long tradition of preserving Austrian and German music and culture in the Washington Metropolitan area with numerous concerts and musical performances during the year. For ticket information, visit www.saengerbund.org.

Embassy of Austria

Fri., Nov. 14, 8 p.m.

Czech Philharmonic: Jean-Yves Thibaudet

One of today’s most elite piano soloists, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, joins the renowned Czech Philharmonic, which since its inception more than a century ago, has maintained an outstanding international reputation on par with many of Europe’s most prominent orchestras. Tickets are $42 to $70.

George Mason University Center for the Arts

Fri., Nov. 14, 7:30 p.m.

Nanae Iwata, Violin

Mariko Furukawa, Piano

Known for her “lovely playing” (New York Times) and “expansive lyricism” (New York Concert Review), violinist Nanae Iwata has quickly established herself in versatile roles as a soloist, period performer, chamber musician, orchestral musician and educator, with appearances in the United States, Japan, Germany, Austria, New Zealand and Cuba. Tickets are $150, including cocktails and buffet dinner; for information, visit www.embassyseries.org.

Japanese Residence

Sat., Nov. 15, 8 p.m.

Bach and the Divine

PostClassical Ensemble returns as ensemble-in-residence at Georgetown’s Dumbarton Concerts series with a program of exalted Bach favorites featuring the bass Kevin Deas, a peerless oratorio artist recently praised by Boston Classical Review as “compelling” and “magnetic.” Please call for ticket information.

Dumbarton Church

Thu., Nov. 20, 7:30 p.m.

The Ariel Quartet

Formed in Israel, the Ariel Quartet moved to the United States in 2004 to become the resident ensemble in the New England Conservatory’s prestigious Professional String Quartet Training Program, winning a number of international prizes. Tickets are $75, including reception and wine; for information, visit www.embassyseries.org.

Venue TBA

Fri., Nov. 21, 7:30 p.m.

Oscar Peñas in Concert

Catalan-American guitarist, composer and bandleader Oscar Peñas’s fourth album and second release in the United States, “Music of Departures and Returns,” includes a Brazilian choro and a tribute to flamenco master Paco de Lucia; a jazz standard and a classic from the Cuban Nueva Trova songbook; and music by the great Catalonian composer Frederic Mompou. Please call for ticket information.

Music Center at Strathmore

THEATER

Nov. 1 to 15

Washington National Opera: La Boème

Puccini’s timeless tale of young bohemians in Paris struggling to fulfill their dreams and find love returns in a brand-new production filled with moonlit duets, snowy streets, rowdy celebrations and heartrending tears. Tickets are $25 to $300.

Kennedy Center Opera House

Through Nov. 2

The Island of Dr. Moreau

Sometime in the future, a shipwrecked survivor is washed up on a remote island inhabited by the deranged Dr. Moreau and his “children” — experimental human-like animals or animal-like humans — in this physical new adaptation of HG Wells’s haunting novel. Tickets start at $35.

Synetic Theater

Through Nov. 2

The Wolfe Twins

Lewis invites his estranged sister Dana on a trip to Rome to reconnect. But when he befriends a beautiful stranger, old wounds fester and intimate secrets are revealed. Tickets are $25.

The Studio Theatre

Nov. 5 to Dec. 21

Bad Jews

The night after their grandfather’s funeral, three cousins engage in a verbal battle royale over a family heirloom. In one corner is “Super Jew” Daphna: volatile, self-assured and unbending. In the other, Liam: secular, entitled and just as stubborn. And in the middle, Liam’s brother Jonah tries to stay out of the fray. Tickets are $44 to $88.

Studio Theatre

Sat., Nov. 8, 8 p.m.

Green Porno, Live on Stage

An actress, filmmaker, author, philanthropist and model, Isabella Rossellini has turned her Sundance TV original series, “Green Porno,” into a live performance that scientifically and entertainingly mimics animals in the art of reproducing, as she dons costumes of the insects and explores their mating rituals. Tickets are $30 to $50.

GW Lisner Auditorium

Through Nov. 9

Our War

In a bold undertaking as part of Arena Stage’s multiyear, multi-city National Civil War Project, this dynamic new theatrical event and collections of short stories explores, through diverse perspectives, the historical memory and present-day reverberations of the U.S. Civil War. Tickets are $40 to $50.

Arena Stage

Tue., Nov. 11, 7:30 p.m.

Don Juan Comes Back from the War by Odon von Horvath

In the aftermath of World War I, a shell-shocked and weary Don Juan returns to an equally damaged Berlin, Germany, and tries over a new leaf and change his ways as an infamous lothario. His undying quest: find the love of his life he left at the altar years earlier. Suggested donation is $15.

Embassy of Austria

Thu., Nov. 13, 6 p.m.

Der Rosenkavalier

Salzburg Festival and the Austrian Cultural Forum present “Der Rosenkavalier” by Richard Strauss and Hugo von Hofmannsthal, a 1911 opera that, despite the nostalgic setting in 18th-century Vienna, tackles serious issues of the day, such as the role of women and the breakdown of morality. Admission is free; register at http://acfdc.org.

Embassy of Austria

Nov. 14 to Dec. 28

Five Guys Named Moe

Dance the blues away as big band meets boy band in this dynamic, dazzling musical revue featuring classics have been remixed in this explosive tribute to “King of the Jukebox” Louis Jordan. Please call for ticket information.

Arena Stage

Through Nov. 16

Rage

A pacifist school counselor is tested to the limits when confronted by a radical, suicidal student in this gripping duel between an adult and a teenager that devolves into a violent clash of values and viewpoints, written by Canadian author Michele Rimi and presented by Ambassador Theater. Tickets are $8 to $40.

Mead Theater Lab at Flashpoint

Wed., Nov. 19, 7:30 p.m.

Soul of Fire: She Fought for Peace

Renowned Austrian pacifist, Bertha von Suttner is the central figure of “Feuerseele – Sie kämpfte für den Frieden (Soul of fire – She fought for peace),” portrayed by well-known Austrian Actress Maxi Blaha. From passionate humanitarian engagements or dramatic love affairs in later years, the vicissitudes in the heroine’s life are presented in a moving, yet humorous manner. Admission is free; register at http://acfdc.org.

Embassy of Austria

Through Nov. 23

17th International Festival of Hispanic Theater

Teatro de la Luna presents plays from Uruguay, Ecuador, Spain, Honduras, Argentina, the Dominican Republic, as well as bilingual productions for children in this popular annual showcase of Hispanic theater. Tickets are $35.

Gunston Arts Center

Mon., Nov. 24, 7 p.m.

The Shakespeare Theatre Company Bard Association and the Embassy of Greece present the “Trial of Lysistrata” at the Lansburgh Theatre followed by a cocktail reception at Sidney Harman Hall. Under the auspices of the Greek Embassy, a special session of the Supreme Court of Athens will convene to hear the case of the People v. Lysistrata. Often called the first feminist, Lysistrata rallied the women of the enemy against her own city, and organized her fellow women against their own men, all in order to stop a war that she thought unjust. Tickets are $20 to $125.

The Shakespeare Theatre

Through Nov. 30

Little Dancer

With direction and choreography by five-time Tony winner Susan Stroman, this world premiere Kennedy Center musical is inspired by the story of a young ballerina immortalized by Edgar Degas in his famous sculpture at the National Gallery of Art. Tickets are $45 to $155.

Kennedy Center Eisenhower Theater

Through Dec. 7

As You Like It

All the world’s a stage in “As You Like It,” one of Shakespeare’s fullest comedies, where poetry, mistaken identities and true love lost and found abound. Please call for ticket prices.

The Shakespeare Theatre

Through Dec. 7

Julius Caeser

Folger Theatre launches its 2014-15 season in Rome with Shakespeare’s enduring political tragedy and epic portrayal of the battle between ambition and honor, conspiracy and loyalty. Tickets are $40 to $75.

Folger Shakespeare Library

Through Jan. 4

Fiddler on the Roof

Celebrate the 50th anniversary of an American musical classic with this new, in-the-round production of the joyful tale of family, community and life’s unexpected miracles. Tickets are $50 to $99.

Arena Stage