Smithsonian Gardens’ Campus-Wide Habitat Exhibition

Sign of the Dragonfly exhibit

The Smithsonian Gardens staff have installed a campus-wide exhibition with a single theme: habitat. From now until December 2020, fourteen exhibits across the Smithsonian campus in Washington DC, both inside and outside, will be available for the public to view.

This Habitat exhibition illustrates diverse stories about habitats and the plants, animals, and humans that exist within those habitats. The message is simple: Protecting habits protects life. This theme was selected for its relevance to the Smithsonian Grand Challenge of “understanding and sustaining a biodiverse planet” and to the Smithsonian Gardens’ mission to “inform on the roles people and plants play in our cultural and natural worlds.”

Dead Wood Is Life exhibit

Three key messages are woven into all the exhibits: habitats are homes, habitats are interconnected and fragile, and habitats need to be protected. Informative signage at each exhibit explains concepts such as indicator, keystone, and foundation species; symbiotic relationships; and ecosystems.

During the exhibition’s run, Smithsonian Gardens staff will host a variety of habitat-related events and educational programs. A map showing the location of the exhibits is on the Smithsonian Gardens website.

• Sheltering Branches, west side of the National Museum of African American History and Culture
• Dead Wood Is Life, east side of the National Museum of American History
• Life Underground, west side of the National Museum of American History
• We Need You, Victory Garden, east side of the National Museum of American History
• Nests, northwest side of the National Museum of Natural History
• Bug B&B, Pollinator Garden, east side of the National Museum of Natural History
• Biomes, S. Dillon Ripley Center
• Foundation of the Sea, Enid A. Haupt Garden
• Key to the Forest, Enid A. Haupt Garden
• Sign of the Dragonfly, Moongate Garden, Enid A. Haupt Garden
• Homes, Mary Livingston Ripley Garden
• Habitat of Flight, Northeast side of the National Air and Space Museum
• Native Landscape, National Museum of the American Indian
• Monarchs on the Move, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden

Bugs B&B exhibit