New Nobel laureates, from left: Liberia President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, Liberian activist Leymah Gbowee and Yemeni activist Tawakkol Karman. (Reuters, AP)

Most Nobel Peace Prize winners don’t wear dresses, because most Nobel Peace Prize winners are men. But this year, three women — Tawakkol Karman, of Yemen, and Leymah Gbowee and President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, of Liberia — split the prize, bringing the total number of women honored for their humanitarian work to 15 in the 110 years that the prize has been awarded.

These women stand tall for their accomplishments, but one thing makes their stature even grander: their headdresses. In the case of Gbowee and Johnson-Sirleaf, they actually add inches to their height, as fashion critic Robin Givhan noted in a 2006 Washington Post story about Johnson-Sirleaf’s visit to Washington that year:

The Capitol Hill Arts Workshop, 545 Seventh St. SE in the District, is hosting its monthly drop-in tango class from 7 to 9 p.m. Friday with instructors Jake and Danarae Stephens. The event is free, and a partner is not required. For information, visit chaw.org.

UpRooted Dance Company is holding a fundraiser at 7 p.m. Oct. 13 at Jackie’s Sidebar, 8081 Georgia Ave., Silver Spring. The evening will showcase three dance segments from the company’s new work, “Design Shaping Dance.” Ten percent of food and drink purchases will be given to UpRooted Dance Company, and a $5 donation is also requested. For information, visit www.uprooteddance.com.

The performance arts collective Sulu DC will hold their monthly installment at Artisphere, 1101 Wilson Blvd., Arlington, at 8:30 p.m. Oct. 15. Performers of Asian American and/or Pacific Islander descent will present their best spoken word, music and DJ skills. Admission is $10. For information, visit www.suludc.com.

The Georegtown Improv Association at Georgetown University, 37th and O Streets NW in the District, invites the audience to script the show. The association’s first show of the season, at 9 p.m. Oct. 15, will rely on audience suggestions to create an unscripted and unrehearsed program. The show is at the Leavey Center, and admission is $6. For information, visit www.performingarts.georgetown.edu.

GALLERY: Click the image to view more from Paris Fashion Week.

Pretty. Dressed up. Safe. These were the terms many critics used to describe Christian Dior’s spring collection, despite the last scene on the runway, where Karlie Kloss’s bare rear showed through a shimmery and sheer evening gown.

If Paris Fashion Week had an astrological sign, it would be Gemini. Two contradictory and competing trends emerged on the runways, sometimes within the same collections. Smart separates suitable for conservative workplaces often preceded long billowy gowns fashioned from silk organza, many of which seemed like the sorts of negligees Hitchcock heroines would wear to bed.

Sheer eveningwear is a natural progression, as lingerie was a stand-out trend in many of the most recent French and Italian resort collections. Sheer skirts are already on the rise in Parisian street style, so long as they’re accompanied by dark (and sometimes boyish) undergarments. Designers borrowed from this trend and embellished the look for evening.
A model wears a creation by fashion house Nina Ricci for its spring/summer 2012 ready-to-wear collection. (jacques Brinon - AP)

For spring, Nina Ricci showcased a collection of skirts and high-waisted shorts worn with embellished bras and cage hats. Valentino and Dior also embraced organza and added carefully placed appliqués and beadwork to obscure their models’ precious parts.

Even the usually subdued and conservative Akris revealed too much for some onlookers. Princess Charlene of Monaco, who sat front row at the runway show, told Britain’s Telegraph that some pieces in the Monaco-inspired collection were a bit too revealing for the principality: “There are certain protocols, and obviously I wouldn't show too much. [Monaco] is a Catholic country,” she said.

A model wears a creation for fashion house Nina Ricci for its spring/summer 2012 ready-to-wear collection. (jacques Brinon - AP)
A model presents a creation by British-born designer Bill Gaytten for Christian Dior during the spring/summer 2012 ready-to-wear collection show, on Sept. 30, 2011, in Paris. (FRANCOIS GUILLOT - AFP/GETTY IMAGES)

Mike Daisey in “The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs.” (Kevin Berne)

When Mike Daisey opens his one-man show, “The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs,” at the Public Theater in New York next week, he expects that things could get tense.

“People will be coming to the theater with a variety of feelings about Steve Jobs, most of which they will not have worked out themselves yet,” he says. “We haven't had the time to sit down and think about the person who made the devices that affect our life.”

Daisey feels the same way. Though he’s been considering the late Apple co-founder’s legacy since he debuted his monologue in 2010 (it came to the Woolly Mammoth Theatre last March), when Jobs died on Wednesday, Daisey found out about the loss the same way so many others did: Online, in front of his MacBook Pro.

“Something like 20 minutes after they announced it on the wires, the New York Times asked me to write an op-ed. So I was thrust very quickly into thinking about his death in the context of the world,” Daisey says. “In a lot of ways, the reality of it on a human level hasn't really sunk in. I think that's true for a lot of people for someone they feel a close connection to but don't really know. His role in our lives is a significant one, but it's really the role of these devices that we use so intimately.”

A 1982 portrait of the late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs has been added to the first floor display at the National Portrait Gallery. Photographed by Diana Walker, the image depicts a different Jobs than the black turtleneck-clad, bespectacled one we’ve come to know: With a suit, a tie, and a mop of windblown hair, Jobs is casual, but poised. He stands tall before a brilliant blue sky as vast as his potential.

“Steve Jobs” by Diana Walker (born 1942) / Digital inkjet print, 1982 (printed 2011) / (Diana Walker - National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; gift of Diana Walker; © Diana Walker)

            The first installment of the Shakespeare Theatre Company’s “Classic Conversations” series, a sort of “Inside the Actors’ Studio” with Artistic Director Michael Kahn in James Lipton’s place, will feature Patrick Stewart as the guest.

            The series kicks off on Tuesday, Oct. 18, at 8 p.m. at Sidney Harman Hall and is part of STC’s 25^th Anniversary Season. Kahn and the guest (future guests and dates TBA) will discuss all aspects of classical theatre, from its influence on their past to its role in the present.

            Patrick Stewart, who most remember as Captain Jean-Luc Picard from “Star Trek: The Next Generation” and Professor Xavier from the X-Men films, portrayed the titular role in STC’s “Othello” during the 1997-1998 season. He has also appeared in the Shakespearean works of “Macbeth,” “The Tempest,” “Twelfth Night” and “Hamlet.”

            Tickets for the event are $35 and can be reserved online or by calling the box office at 202-547-1122.

The storage conditions at the 44-year-old National Museum of American History (NMAH) and its offsite facilities are outdated, crowded and generally substandard, leaving some collections in jeopardy, according to a new report by the Smithsonian Inspector General.

“NMAH storage equipment as well as object housing and housing practices need improvement,” concluded an audit by A. Sprightley Ryan, the museum’s Inspector General. “For example, nearly all storage rooms at the museum had exposed pipes and conduits, resulting in frequent leaks that threaten collection items.”
Plastic Sheeting covers storage equipment and collection objects at American History museum (Smithsonian Institution Inspector General)

The report, released this week, looked at the physical aspects of preservation and collections care primarily at the museum where there are 70 permanent and temporary locations for storage. The auditors found that some collections were at risk and suggested urgent improvements and a priority plan.

These problems of inadequate storage and leaks dripping into rubber buckets and general poor conditions have been uncovered in the past by the Inspector General and others. The Smithsonian has admitted replacing and repairing the storage is a major concern. Since 2006 a care and preservation fund has dedicated more than $10 million of federal funds for these projects.
American History museum shows recent storage improvements (American History Museum)

In 2010 the Smithsonian established an institution wide advisory committee on collections. “We do have substandard conditions,” said David Allison, associate director for curatorial affairs at American History and a member of the committee. “We are making some progress. Certainly there’s more to do.”

GALLERY: Click the image to view photos of Tomas Transtromer and other 2011 Nobel Prize recipients.

Thursday morning marked a long-awaited milestone for Sweden and the country’s writers, as its most honored poet received the 2011 Nobel Prize in literature. Tomas Transtromer, 80, has been considered a favorite for the award for years — so much so that journalists waited outside his apartment in Stockholm before the announcement, the Associated Press reports.

He is the first Swede to be awarded the prize since 1974, when Eyvind Johnson and Harry Martinson shared it.

Peter Englund, the permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy, which awards the prize, told reporters that Transtromer focuses on the big questions, those about death, history, memory and nature.

GALLERY: Click the image to view memorable moments from "Breakfast at Tiffany's."

Fifty years ago today, cinema's original manic pixie dream girl lit up the silver screen. The film adaptation of Truman Capote's "Breakfast at Tiffany's," starring Audrey Hepburn as the fun-loving call girl Holly Golightly, was released on Oct. 5, 1961 — and it has influenced fashion and romantic comedy ever since. A remastered Blu-Ray edition of the film was recently released in honor of the anniversary.

The role was Hepburn's most iconic. She'll forever be associated with a little black dress, oversize sunglasses, a tiara and faraway look in her eyes. It’s hard to think that the role almost was given to Marilyn Monroe. But it was the gamine Hepburn who made the Givenchy-clad Holly one of the most famous cinematic images of the 20th century.

David Mann, the chairman of the Cultural Alliance of Greater Washington, told his annual membership meeting Tuesday that two of its arts outreach programs are clicking with the public.

Unique visitors to CultureCapital, its online calendar of regional cultural events, increased by 12 percent in the last year.
PBS president and CEO Paula Kerger told the Cultural Alliance of Greater Washington that more arts programming is on its way, first with a Friday Fall Festival(Photo by Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images)

The information is better designed and organized, he said. “Membership advisory committees worked with staff and identified new comprehensive categories and subcategories to better define events and experiences to site visitors,” Mann announced at the meeting at the Corcoran Gallery of Art. He said CultureCapital received more than 1.2 million page views.

TICKETPLACE, another arts enterprise run by the Alliance has increased its online sales by a huge margin. The discount ticket service, Mann said, “now sells 84 percent of its tickets online.” That jump follows the pattern of other theater and performing arts offices that each year report increased online traffic.

The local art presenters are benefiting, he said. “TICKETPLACE returned $339,000 in ticket revenue to participating members over the past fiscal year,” Mann said.

In her keynote address to the group, PBS president Paula Kerger described how the network is boosting its arts programming by organizing a Fall Festival every Friday night, starting October 14.