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Made in America Souvenirs Are Now the Only Option at One Smithsonian Museum

The Smithsonian Institute has plenty of museums and history to explore the best America has—and had—to offer, but unfortunately the museum gift shops weren’t necessarily showing off some of the country’s finest collectible thimbles and overpriced t-shirts.

Senator Bernard Sanders—he’s an Independent from Vermont—wasn’t too pleased about all the products made in China and elsewhere, so he kind of flipped out, saying that items sold at the National Museum of American History should probably be made in America.

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The Orient Express Gets in Bed with the National Gallery for the Sake of Art

Take the tour of Italy's art that's on your bucket list, but instead of boarding a lame bus, ride in style on the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express. And instead of some mediocre tour guide, a representative from London's National Gallery will school you on this one.

The famed Orient-Express partnered with the National Gallery for a series of art-themed tours in 2011 that put travelers on the luxury trains for trips through Europe. All tours begin at the National Gallery, where an expert will introduce you to the masterpieces, artists and places you'll see on your outing.

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Take a Tour of West Hollywood's Coolest Neon Art

It's way too early to see Christmas lights—although you'll spot them now in overeager holiday-happy department stores. But you can get your fill of dazzle on the On Route—66 Lights, an outdoor tour of vintage and contemporary neon art in West Hollywood.

The city partnered with the Museum of Neon Art for this do-it-yourself tour along historic Route 66 and the Sunset Strip. You can download a map here. The outdoor exhibit features four of the museum's own classic, large-scale pieces, including the above diver and a retro "Winchell's Donut House" sign. There are 51 other neon art tour stops, including the well-known "Whiskey a Go Go" sign in script and a smaller "Unicorn Alley" sign on a divey-looking adult bookstore. Obviously, there are way too many neon pieces to see in one tour, so you have to pick and choose.

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Smithsonian's Museum Day to Open Up 1,300 Museums for Free

Clear your calendar for September 25 because it's Smithsonian magazine's Museum Day, which means that you can get access to a whole bunch of museums for free.

More than 1,300 museums nationwide will be participating in the sixth annual event. You can visit everything from the Brooklyn Museum in New York to the Experience Music Project/Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame in Seattle without laying down even a dime.

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Capture Your First Love or a Wish at the New Museum

If you never got over your first love—who hasn't?—come to the New Museum in New York City's Bowery area to find some closure. The exhibit "Rivane Neuenschwander: A Day Like Any Other" tackles a number of topics, but we're digging the theme of longing in several of the participatory pieces.

In Brazilian artist Rivane Neuenschwander's First Love, you sit with a police sketch artist—you know, the ones who come up with those mugshots of criminals in the newspapers. You describe your first sweetheart's face to the police artist, who then creates a black-and-white portrait of that special someone. The portrait gets hung in the gallery for the rest of the exhibition with the chance that the heartbreaker will see her picture on the wall.

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Coming Soon to the London Natural History Museum: Ozzy Osbourne’s Body

While London’s Natural History Museum offers exhibits on dinosaur fossils and the origins of life on the planet, the most interesting display on the evolution of humans may come when Ozzy Osbourne donates his body to the museum.

The 61-year-old rocker told the Sunday Times that he’s survived so much alcohol and drug abuse that he should offer up his body to science. "When I die, I should donate my body to the Natural History Museum," he says.

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Metz, France Welcomes Their Own Mini Centre Pompidou

The new Centre Pompidou-Metz made its big debut last week, stunning visitors more with its manta ray-looking building than the modern-art offerings inside it. Some say the building looks like a humongous UFO.

Designed by architects Shigeru Ban and Jean de Gastines, the structure on the eastern border of France is covered with a web of wood that resembles the cane-work pattern of a Chinese hat. Three rectangular galleries weave through the building at different levels, jutting out through the roof and boast picture windows that face landmarks such as the cathedral, the station and Seille Park. The galleries aren't permanently fixed, so the areas can be adjusted to complement the modern and contemporary art exhibits they will house.

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Let Sarah Jessica Parker Lead You Through the Met Museum's New Exhibit

If you're missing Carrie Bradshaw's quirky voice narrating Sex and the City and can't wait till the second movie comes out later this month, head down to the New York City's Metropolitan Museum of Art's "American Woman: Fashioning a National Identity." The exhibit, which opens today, features the on-screen and off-screen fashionista Sarah Jessica Parker as its audio guide.

Inside the Met, you'll explore perceptions of the modern American woman from 1890 to 1940 and how they have shaped the way American women are seen today. By looking at the archetypes of American femininity through dress, the exhibition shows how women's social, political and sexual emancipation sparked style revolutions.

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The American Museum of Natural History Sues American Airlines Over Dead Fish

United Airlines will forever be known as the airline that breaks guitars, and now American Airlines might be the airline where fish go to die. The American Museum of National History is pissed at American because they claim that the airline lost some pretty important fish. The underwater critters were no longer alive, but they were preserved and were headed to New York to be part of the museum’s Congo Project.

The museum is filing a lawsuit against American Airlines for at least $25,000. They’re claiming that the airline caused them to blow a chance at doing research on the preserved fish, and apparently the world is less of a place because we missed out on this dead fish research. The specimens were lost in Brussels last October, but American Airlines claims that they had to toss the containers because they were leaking and full of maggots—gross.

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Art Alive Blooms in the San Diego Museum of Art

The San Diego Museum of Art lobby

The San Diego Museum of Art smells amazing. That's because the flower-filled museum is holding its 29th annual Art Alive fund-raiser, where the city's top florists offer floral interpretations of famous works of art.

It may sound kind of gimmicky, but it's a way to offer a different spin on the artwork and get people into the museum. And they will come—more than 13,000 people are expected to stop and smell the roses, calla lilies and other blooms at the four-day floral festivities, which end May 2.

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Make Like a Panda and Hang Out in the Met Museum's New Bamboo Forest

We are fans of big public art installations, like "The Gates" in Central Park, so we can't wait to check out the Metropolitan Museum of Art's newest offering, a big mess of bamboo that looks like a bunch of Pick-Up Sticks hanging from its rooftop.

More formally called "Big Bambú: You Can't, You Don't, and You Won't Stop," the exhibit is an evolving work that's supposed to mesh sculpture, architecture and performance art. Construction will continue throughout the spring, summer and fall, and ultimately it'll measure 100 feet long, 50 feet wide and 50 feet high. Oh, and did we mention that you can sorta climb in it?

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The Top Five Must-See Museum Exhibits for Spring

Inopportune: Stage One by Cai Guo-Qiang at the 17th Biennale of Sydney

Everyone's seen the Dead Sea Scrolls and "Body Worlds," with and without the brain. Therefore it's definitely time to check out some new museum exhibits, but that'll be a bit harder to do this year, since more than 20 big art shows were cancelled because of the recession, The Art Newspaper reported. Nonetheless, we found that there are still a great many excellent exhibits that managed to make the cut in these hard economic times.

The Spring's Top Five Museum Exhibits, after the jump.

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