• For wildlife art lovers, the annual Miniatures and More Show & Sale takes place Sept. 18 at the National Museum of Wildlife Art in Jackson, WY. The exhibit spotlights works by the genre's top painters and sculptors. This year Lindsay Scott, who creates compelling portraits of African creatures, is a featured artist.
• The Kolb Studio isn't exactly a museum, but it's not a gallery either. On Sept. 19, the studio, which sits on the south rim of the Grand Canyon and is operated by the nonprofit Grand Canyon Association, features works by 20 artists who are known for expressing the grandeur of this natural wonder.  
• The university town of Stockton, CA, is home to The Haggin Museum, a treasure trove of works by 19th- and early-20th-century European and American painters. But from Oct. 2 to Jan. 10, the museum will host contemporary landscape painters: members of the prestigious Plein Air Painters of America. The exhibit will brim with fantastic paintings of our country's national parks.
• In the Denverarea, the Madden Museum of Art displays Windows to the Divine, a show with well-known painters, such as Scott Fraser, Albert Handell and Quang Ho, and their interpretations of spiritual paths, though not necessarily including religious or sacred subjects. The ecumenical event runs Oct. 3-23.
• Southern California's Laguna Art Museum hosts the 11th annual Laguna Beach Plein Air Painting Invitational Oct. 11-18. Join the painters at the opening and on the beach for breakfast and a Quick Draw contest.

Virtual Worlds: M.C. Escher and Paradox
Through Sept. 13: Printmaker Maurits Cornelis Escher created visual puzzles in which logic and absurdity coexist. This exhibition traces the development of the artist’s work from his early stylized depictions of landscape and architecture to his later use of repeated geometric patterns.

Marking Portland: The Art of Tattoo
Through Sept 7: Experience the art of tattoo—through time and across cultures—with Museum-wide kiosks showcasing tattoo-related art from the permanent collections and interactive, multimedia presentations featuring Portland-area tattoos and their stories.

Sensitive Vision: The Prints of Beth Van Hoesen
Through Aug. 16: This retrospective of prints by San Francisco artist Beth Van Hoesen features approximately 70 prints drawn from the permanent collection of the Portland Art Museum.

My friends and I arrived at the Newseum, a 250,000-square-foot museum dedicated to the history of news, just as a downpour started. Even though the weather got better, we spent the entire afternoon exploring its six floors of displays. That's the First Amendment inscribed on the front of the museum:

In the first level was an amazing wall-mounted sculpture made of rescued type:

The section devoted to coverage of Sept. 11, 2001, was really impressive. What looks like a sculpture here is a chunk of the radio tower formerly atop the World Trade Center. In the background are an assortment of international front pages from Sept. 12:

It would have been easy to spend a few more days in the museum, especially because of this area, full of hundreds of front pages depicting historic events:

The next day, I spent some time at the National Portrait Gallery before my flight left. Unfortunately, photography was prohibited in many of the areas, so I don't have any pictures of amazing art to show you, but I do have a picture of this wonderful outlook:

And of the newly remodeled atrium:

I really enjoyed the current "Recognize! Hip Hop and Contemporary Portraiture" exhibit, especially the work from Kehinde Wiley.

What impressed me most about DC is how affordable it is. So many of the museums are free (though the Newseum's admission is $20), that my only real expenses were food and Metro passes! Plus, my friends and I stayed at a very swank hotel for cheap because they cater to business travelers, who head home on weekends.