Updated: Nov. 18, 2021 at 5:31 p.m.
Before heading out of the District for Thanksgiving break, set aside time this weekend to experience D.C.’s bustling art scene and nightlife.
Witness the opening of DowntownDC’s holiday market on Friday, watch a performance by a world-renowned choreographer at the Kennedy Center on Saturday and attend a textile art exhibit featuring women creators at the Smithsonian American Art Museum on Sunday.
Friday
Opening of DowntownDC’s 17th Annual Holiday Market
To support local businesses, food vendors and artists while still getting into the holiday spirit, head over to the 17th Downtown Holiday Market, which opens this Friday. This “one-stop winter wonderland” is located at the intersection of 8th and F streets NW in front of the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the National Portrait Gallery. The market will feature six food vendors selling tasty treats like mini donuts and empanadas through Dec. 23. Peruse more than 70 exhibitors, including Black-owned and minority-owned small businesses, offering speciality art, clothes, crafts and jewelry. Make sure to catch the opening kickoff from noon to 2 p.m. and stick around for a live jazz music performance after the event.
F Street NW, from 7th to 9th streets NW. Noon to 8 p.m. Free. Find more information here.
Saturday
Akram Khan Company at The Kennedy Center
Catch a performance presenting the dance company of critically acclaimed dancer and choreographer, Akhram Khan, as he rounds out his worldwide tour at the Kennedy Center this weekend. Khan’s work incorporates contemporary dance with the Indian classical dance form Kathak to convey the fictional experience of a colonial soldier in World War I. The chaos of war that Khan portrays in his tour, titled XENOS, landed him the 2019 Laurence Olivier award for Outstanding Achievement in Dance, and the show was called “a triumph of energy, empathy and intelligence” by The Daily Telegraph.
Eisenhower Theatre, 2700 F St. NW. 8 p.m. Tickets range from $25 to $99. Find more information here.
Sunday
New Glass Now
Round out the weekend with the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s all-glass exhibit New Glass Now, featuring a collection of glass artwork by artists from a wide range of skillsets from novice, to middle of the road to world-renowned glass artists. The Corning Museum of Art put a call out to museums around the world in 2018 calling on them to send in pieces made in the past three years. The museum received more than 4,000 pieces and turned to a curatorial board to narrow down the best 100 pieces of work.
Smithsonian American Art Museum, on the corner of G and 8th streets NW. Open 11:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. Free. Find more information here.
