The AU Museum's Fall Season Closes December 6. Here's What's on at the Katzen Until Then

From the first week of November, the American University Museum has 22 open afternoons left in its fall season. It is free and open Wednesday through Sunday, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. The four current exhibitions close at 4 p.m. on Sunday, December 6. The museum at 4400 Massachusetts Avenue NW runs on a semester schedule, and so do the stages down the hall.

For anyone living within walking distance of Ward Circle, that changes how to plan the next five weeks. The Katzen Arts Center works best as a dated season with a closing night, and this season's best evenings fall on three weekends.

Twenty-Two Afternoons, Counted

AU's Plan Your Visit page lists the museum as open September 5 through December 6, Wednesday through Sunday, and closed November 26 and 27 for Thanksgiving. Here is what remains from Thursday, November 5:

• November 5–8: four open days, Thursday through Sunday
• November 11–15: five open days
• November 18–22: five open days
• November 25–29: three open days, Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday, around the holiday
• December 2–6: five open days, ending at 4 p.m. on the 6th

That comes to 22 days at five hours each, or about 110 hours of gallery time for the season. The museum's pages list only this fall cycle and give no date for a winter or spring opening. Anyone who wants to see this season's work should treat December 6 as the last chance.

That also explains why the museum's public calendar is short. The Fall 2026 events page lists one more program before the close: a gallery talk on Saturday, November 14.

Four Shows on Three Floors

AU describes the museum as a three-story public museum and sculpture garden inside the Katzen Arts Center. It calls it the region's largest university facility for exhibiting art, with a permanent collection that includes AU's Corcoran Legacy Collection, Watkins Collection and Rothfeld Collection. This fall, four artists share the space. In AU's August announcement of the season, museum director Jack Rasmussen said the season "brings together four very different artists who ask us to look more closely at the world and at ourselves."

Ahn Chang-Hong: noon-mool takes up two floors. AU calls Ahn one of South Korea's most significant contemporary artists. The center of the show is his Taxidermy series, in which he paints over large-scale photographs of taxidermied animals. The show also includes three-dimensional works and selected earlier paintings, so visitors can follow how his work changed over decades. BG Muhn and Rasmussen curated it. Noon-mool means "tears," and AU's own description calls the images "both visually striking and deeply unsettling." That is useful to know before bringing younger visitors.

Beyond Words: The Sacred Art of Ayesha Kamal presents large-scale mixed-media paintings by the internationally exhibited Islamic calligrapher. The work draws on verses of the Qur'an and the Asma-ul-Husna, the Beautiful Names of Allah, and uses layered textures and metallic elements. Hummingbird Film Studios organized the exhibition.

Observer: The Street Photographs of Norman S. Carr is the most local of the four. Carr was a lawyer for forty years and took up photography in 2000. He often photographed in Washington and used reflections and light to turn everyday street scenes into layered compositions. The Alper Initiative for Washington Art presents the show, and Carolyn Carr curated it. Neighbors who know the city well will have the most to compare against.

Double Feature: Two Graphic Narratives by Mary Garrard is in the Project Space. Garrard is a professor emerita of art history at AU, known for her scholarship on Artemisia Gentileschi. Later she began drawing on an iPhone and iPad and made two illustrated stories. One follows an adventurous palm tree. The other is a feminist reimagining of The Odyssey. The two series play one after the other on two monitors, like a film. Because the drawings run as a sequence, it helps to arrive at the start of the loop and leave time to watch the whole thing.

The Same Building After Dark

The museum closes at 4 p.m., but the Katzen stays busy in the evenings. The building also houses the Abramson Family Recital Hall and the Studio Theatre, where AU's Department of Performing Arts stages much of its fall season. Tickets for the public are $15. Children under 18, seniors 55 and older, and AU alumni, faculty and staff pay $10. AU students get in free with ID, and AU notes that spring performances sold out quickly.

These are the remaining Katzen dates on the fall performing arts schedule:

Tickets are sold through AU Arts' ticketing page.

Three Weekends Where It All Lines Up

Put the gallery hours next to the stage schedule and three weekends stand out. On each of them, one trip to Ward Circle can cover an afternoon in the galleries and an evening performance.

1. Saturday, November 7. The galleries are open 11 to 4. A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder has a 2 p.m. matinee in the Studio Theatre, and the Chamber Singers perform their Portugal tour preview at 7:30 p.m. in the Abramson Family Recital Hall. The Chamber Singers repeat the concert Sunday at 3 p.m. for anyone who would rather spend Saturday night at home.

2. Saturday, November 14. This is the busiest day of the season. "Gallery Talk: The Sacred Art of Ayesha Kamal" runs from 2 to 3 p.m., with curator Umar John joined by Dr. Sajid Tarar and Dr. Jasdip Singh Jesse. That leaves an hour of gallery time before the museum closes at 4. The AU Chorus then performs at 7:30 p.m., and the Symphonic Band plays the next afternoon at 3.

3. December 4 through 6. The season ends here. Fall for Jazz plays the Abramson Family Recital Hall at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, while For Better or Worse runs in the Studio Theatre Thursday through Saturday. The exhibitions close at 4 p.m. on Sunday. Anyone who has put off the Ahn galleries will be fitting them in on one of these last afternoons.

The Thanksgiving week is the thinnest stretch, with the museum open Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday and no Katzen performances listed. That makes it a good week for a quiet visit with out-of-town guests.

The Garage Meter Runs on Weekends Now

One change affects all of these visits. AU no longer offers free weekend or evening parking. The Katzen garage charges $2 an hour, paid through the PayByPhone app with code 4882 or at the kiosks on each level. AU's central parking page says a permit or daily payment is required from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m., seven days a week, and lists a $16 daily rate.

Under those rates, a two-hour gallery visit costs $4 in the garage. The November 14 lineup, from the 2 p.m. talk through the end of the evening chorus concert, would reach the $16 daily rate if the car stays parked between them, about the price of one general admission ticket. AU's Katzen visitor page says the building is fully accessible. For neighbors who don't need to drive, the museum's own directions suggest walking in or taking transit. From the Tenleytown/AU Metro station, head east to 40th Street behind Whole Foods, near Albemarle Street. From there, the free AU Shuttle or the M4 bus goes to the Nebraska Avenue and Ward Circle stop. The museum also asks visitors not to bring open food or drink, backpacks or suitcases, and says it cannot hold bags.

Lauren Pillsbury keeps track of calendars like the Katzen's for clients considering American University Park and the streets around it. If you'd like to talk through how these neighborhood details fit your own plans, schedule a consultation.