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Thursday, April 10: The National Zoo parties tonight at Grapes With the Apes, a winetasting happy hour where you’ll get exclusive access to the Great Ape House. (Not sure exactly what exclusive access implies, but we’re betting you won’t be getting behind the glass.) There’ll also be live music, appetizers, and more. 6 to 9 PM. Tickets are $40 for FONZ members, $55 for nonmembers; purchase them here.

One of the year’s most buzzed-about bands will play the Black Cat tonight. When Yeasayer came to town a few months ago, it immediately sold out the backstage of the Black Cat, annoying the hordes of music lovers who weren’t able to get tickets. With an appearance on the main stage, there should be plenty of room for everybody—but we still suggest getting tickets early or else you might just miss one of the best live acts we’ve seen in ages.

It’s hard to come away from the Smithsonian Craft Show without new ideas. The artisans, whose work is for sale, approach their media—fiber, wood, glass, precious metals, and stones—in unconventional ways. For instance, Virginia Rose Kane—who lives in Boonsboro, Maryland—uses cutouts of old engravings, stamps, maps, and paper money to make collages that look like botanical illustrations. The show starts today and goes through Sunday. Click here for details and pricing.

Fires in 1814 and 1851 destroyed much of the Library of Congress’s collection. In response to the first loss, President Jefferson sold his remaining 6,487 books to the library. Nothing explains the breadth of the man’s intellectual and political interests better than “Thomas Jefferson’s Library,” an ongoing exhibit opening April 12. Here you’ll find surviving originals as well as reproductions of volumes shelved in his original book-lined room at Monticello.

Since that 19th-century acquisition, the Library of Congress has become the world’s largest library, with 32 million books and other print materials for a total of 138 million items. A world of history, language, and culture can be found beyond the Great Hall and the magnificent Main Reading Room. And accessibility is about to be significantly increased.

Joseph Conrad wrote in the preface to one of his short stories: “My task which I am trying to achieve is, by the power of the written word, to make you hear, to make you feel—it is, before all, to make you see. That—and no more, and it is everything . . . .” As if taking a cue from the author’s aspiration, Art Whino (717 N. Saint Asaph St., Alexandria)—a gallery that promotes avant-garde, postmodern art—has put together “Indulge: An Evening of Art, Wine, Food and Music.”

Curator Shane Pomajambo describes “Indulge” as a show focused on the many ways in which art can arouse our emotions: “We want audiences to feel as though they’ve had this amazing experience—one that’s stimulated all of their senses.”

No matter what type of art you prefer—abstract or representational, landscapes or portraits—you should find something to like in the new exhibit “The American Evolution: A History Through Art,” opening Saturday at the Corcoran Gallery of Art. The show’s curators hope you’ll see how different periods and genres tie together to tell the story of the nation through art.

With nearly 200 objects, ranging from 18th-century oil paintings to modern-day sculpture, the exhibit illustrates one thing clearly: what a vast collection the Corcoran has—it owns almost all of the pieces on display. Many of the objects have been traveling for three years and are back home.

Those who attended Saturday night’s X event at Be Bar represented what X—a local multimedia arts series—is all about: diversity of expression in the arts. The crowd at the dimly lit Shaw-area bar came not just for the strong drinks but to see the work of guest artists and mingle with others who share their thirst for the inventive.

The night celebrated the one-year anniversary of the series, explained Graham Jackson, creative marketing director for X events. Graham works with cofounders David Fogel and David Gutierrez to put on the spectacle on once a month at Be Bar.

“It’s a totally unique experience,” he said. “The point is for people—the audience and artists—to express their creative passions.”

On the wall opposite the bar, a projection screen displayed the work of three DC graphic designers chosen by Jackson. The images changed as they worked on their projects live, sitting among the crowd with their laptops.

National Gallery of Art
“Edward Hopper”
Through January 21

In Edward Hopper’s paintings, human anguish and ecstasy are a sidebar to human isolation. In the anonymous moments, the ones in which we’re sure no one’s looking, Hopper divulged an utterly human drama, as American as apple pie and as modern as the Model T—man’s reluctant acceptance of and aggravation with being alone.

An usherette lost in contemplation looms at the entrance of a hoary movie theater in “New York Movie,” from 1939. In “Nighthawks,” four figures immersed in deafeningly silent tension populate an urban corner cafe. The characters in both paintings are engaged in what must be Hopper’s most documented activity: staring, staring into coffee cups and out into space—staring that speaks of an inner searching.

As beautiful to the eye as it is heavy on the heart, the National Gallery’s Hopper exhibit, billed as “the first comprehensive survey of the artist’s career to be seen in American museums outside New York in more than 25 years,” is not to be missed.

Among the 125 works by photographer and environmentalist Ansel Adams on view at the Corcoran is this self-portrait.

Ansel Adams was one of the first photographers to use a camera to foster respect for the environment and promote conservation. We have the late William H. and Saundra B. Lane of Massachusetts to thank for collecting the 125 black-and-white Adams photographs on view in “Ansel Adams” September 15 to January 27, 2008. Admission is $14 for adults, $12 for seniors and military, $10 for students; tickets for exhibits and discussions are available at corcoran.org or ticketmaster.com.

Filmmaker Ric Burns, whose credits include Ansel Adams: A Documentary Film, will speak about the photographer September 20 at 7; admission is $30. Milton Esterow, editor and publisher of ARTnews, discusses “The Art Market” September 17 at 7; $20.

Through mid-October, included in the price of a ticket to “Ansel Adams” is a voucher good for admission to “Annie Leibovitz: A Photographer’s Life, 1990–2005” October 13 to January 13, 2008. That’s two exhibits for the price of one, plus the Corcoran’s permanent collection. 500 17th St., NW; 202-639-1700; corcoran.org.