What Happened to America’s Public Intellectuals?
Our nation has always depended on these heavyweights to guide us, but are they still with us, and if so, who are they?
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This 155-mile Hike Through the Pyrenees Merges Contemporary Art with Spain’s Stunning Landscapes
An art project of the Contemporary Art Center Nau Côclea brings artists and audiences together on a cultural pilgrimage
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A Guided Tour of Australia’s Blue Mountains Follows Ancient Aboriginal Songlines
Yanna Muru’s walkabouts to sacred sites teach visitors about Darug culture
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The Story Behind the World’s Largest Watercolor Painting
The massive artwork marks the opening of the MASS MoCA’s new 130,000-square-foot wing, which makes it the largest contemporary art museum in the U.S.
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After 50 Years of Song, Dance, Food, Even Hog Calling, at the Folklife Festival, Is It Still Worthwhile?
Recognizing traditional culture in the information age is ever more important argues the director of the Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage
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Why Piri Thomas’ Coming of Age Memoir Still Resonates Today
“Down These Mean Streets” was an instant classic, a text of painful truths
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Come for the Bug Eating and Get a Lesson in Humanity from Andrew Zimmern
A Q&A with the Travel Channel’s ‘Bizarre Foods’ Chef
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The Long and Winding Road of Yoko Ono’s Art
A Hirshhorn exhibition of four works opens the same week Ono is credited, 46 years later, as a co-writer of the chart-topping ballad “Imagine.”
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Cómo Los Científicos y Grupos Indígenas Pueden Aliarse Para Proteger Los Bosques y el Clima
Related Content How Scientists And Indigenous Groups Can Team Up to Protect Forests and Climate San People of South Africa Issue Code of Ethics for Researchers The Supposedly Pristine, Untouched Amazon Rainforest Was Actually Shaped By Humans The Best Way to Protect the World’s Forests? Keep People in Them Read the English version of this…
DetailsThe Musical Legacy Behind the Tupac Biopic ‘All Eyez on Me’
Curator Dwandalyn Reece from the Smithsonian’s African American Museum investigates
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When Fresh Air Went Out of Fashion at Hospitals
How the hospital went from luxury resort to windowless box
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What Happens to Fiction When Our Worst Climate Nightmares Start Coming True?
Movies, books and poetry have made predictions about a future that could be rapidly approaching
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Art Installations Transform a Historic Venetian Island
San Clemente Island in the Lagoon of Venice, a former refuge for crusaders and a hospice for plague victims, opens an island-wide art show
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This Group Believes in Making Artwork as a Response to Climate Change
An association of artists, youth and social entrepreneurs asks people around the world to create anti-pollution masks
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These Nine Artists Will Help You Understand the Future of the Planet
Smithsonian curator Joanna Marsh highlights contemporary artists whose practices are conscious-raising and problem-solving
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12 New Art Exhibits to See This Summer
From Edvard Munch to sonic arcades, these shows are worth putting on your calendar this season
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11 New Art Exhibits to See This Summer
From Edvard Munch to sonic arcades, these shows are worth putting on your calendar this season
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Frank Lloyd Wright Credited Japan for His All-American Aesthetic
The famed architect was inspired by drawings and works from the Asian nation
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It Takes Two Museums to Cover the Work of this Prolific German Neo-Expressionist
Europe’s celebrated Markus Lüpertz has a huge appetite for creativity. He’s also a poet, writer, set designer and jazz pianist
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This Artist’s Worldview Drips With Unending Pessimism
“Man is inherently self-destructive, and whatever is built will be destroyed,” says painter Donald Sultan of his “Disaster Paintings”
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Frank Lloyd Wright-Designed Buildings (and One Doghouse) Open for Rare Tours in Honor of the Architect’s 150th Birthday
These new or normally unavailable tours and displays pay homage to an architecture legacy
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Why It’s So Hard to Find the Original Owners of Nazi-Looted Art
International experts recently gathered at Smithsonian to discuss the state of international provenance research
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Explore Crucian Cuisine on a New U.S. Virgin Islands Food Tour
Get a taste of St. Croix’s culinary traditions
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Edith Wharton Recruited the World’s Greatest Artists to Raise Money for WWI Refugees
A century ago, the famous author took it upon herself to help those left behind by the war’s carnage
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New Photos Reveal What’s Left Behind When a Rocket Travels to Space
Michael Soluri captures these strangely evocative traces of America’s heroic extraterrestrial journeys
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Stephen Talty’s Guide to Culture
The detective novelist offers his picks for movies, tv shows and Twitter accounts to follow
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This Catalan Folk Singer Refused to Bow to Oppression
The director of the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage recognizes the lifetime work of the singer activist Raimon
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More Than 250,000 Bibliophiles Are About to Descend on “The Town of Books”
The Hay Festival of Literature kicks of its 30th anniversary festival in Wales
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Bjarke Ingels Makes the Impossible Concrete
The star architect is mapping out a new daring plan for the Smithsonian
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Walk Across the Brooklyn Bridge as Bill Murray Reads You Poetry This June
Bill Murray is an eclectic staple in New York. Although the actor and comedian now spends most of his time down south in Charleston, he’s made his mark on New York City, doing everything from filming iconic movies to bartending in Brooklyn. On June 12, Murray will come back to New York to walk across the Brooklyn Bridge…
DetailsWatch How One Harlem Storefront Changes Over Nearly Four Decades
The Smithsonian American Art Museum’s new exhibition goes “Down These Mean Streets”
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Why Langston Hughes Still Reigns as a Poet for the Unchampioned
Fifty years after his death, Hughes’ extraordinary lyricism resonates with power to people
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Why These Humans Are Museum Treasures, Too
A portrait photographer captured 24 staffers from the National Museum of Natural History posing with their favorite artifacts from the collections
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The True Story of Brainwashing and How It Shaped America
Fears of Communism during the Cold War spurred psychological research, pop culture hits, and unethical experiments in the CIA
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Why a Modern Cosmetics Company Is Mining Armenia’s Ancient Manuscripts
Armenia’s folk remedies and botanical traditions are getting a new look
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The Librarian of Congress Weighs In on Why Card Catalogs Matter
The tech is gone, but it’s not forgotten. Carla Hayden explains why
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The True Story Behind Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler and Her Mixed-Up Files
Fifty years ago, author E.L. Konigsburg wrote her children’s literature classic that highlighted the wonder of museums
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Five Can’t-Miss Summer Light Festivals
From Sydney to Providence, the world will be set aglow with millions of lights this season
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On Restaurant Day in Helsinki, Unofficial Pop-up Eateries Take Over Everything from Home Kitchens to Tattoo Shops
It’s a warm day in May, and a group of locals are gathered on an upper floor of a Helsinki flat that’s undergoing construction—its walls covered with sheets, with tools strewn throughout. In one room, a group of strangers is seated upon floor cushions, each of them holding a piece of cardboard with a number…
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What Does Thoreau’s Walden Pond Look Like Today?
Photographer S.B. Walker captures the pond’s eternal glow
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Bespoke Produce? A New Farming Venture Tweaks Veggies To Suit Consumers’ Needs
Bowery, a new indoor farming company, offers “customized” greens and herbs
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For Black Photographers, the Camera Records Stories of Joy and Struggle
The African American History Museum showcases for the first time signature photographs from its new collections
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These Haunting Photographs Call Attention to Plastic Trash Swirling in the Ocean
Award-winning photographer Mandy Barker explores the beauty and tragedy of marine plankton and plastic waste
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Cats Had Clout Long Before the Internet
For artists, cats prove to be more than elegant studio companions, but inspirations as well, says a new exhibition
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A Culinary Renaissance in the Israeli Countryside
Beyond Tel Aviv, towns are adopting enticing new approaches to cuisine that celebrate the history of the region and and the diversity of its people
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Giant Harriet Tubman “Yarn Bomb” Portrait Debuts in Upstate New York
Artist Olek’s creation is one in a series of 50 planned installations across America celebrating important women throughout U.S. history
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Is Champagne Still Champagne Without Bubbles?
In a storied part of France, a group of artisan producers is making this beloved wine the old fashioned way—sans fizz
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Does Creativity Breed Inequality in Cities?
Richard Florida thinks so. In his new book, the urban theorist says sometimes the most innovative cities also have the worst social and economic disparity
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The World’s Punniest Humans Are Heading to Texas
The 40th Annual O. Henry Pun-Off World Championships comes to Austin in May
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A New Poem is Commissioned to Honor the Soldiers Who Fight America’s Wars
Pulitzer Prize winning poet Yusef Komunyakaa writes “After the Burn Pits” for the National Portrait Gallery
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Six Artists Record the Vestiges of War in the Faces of Combatants
A look at a new exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery, “The Face of Battle: Americans at War, 9/11 to Now”
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This Moscow Subway Car Brings an Art Museum to Commuters
Experience some of Russia’s most notable pieces of art while traveling by train
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In the Early 20th Century, the Department of Tropical Research Was Full of Glamorous Adventure
A new exhibition features 60 works by artists the New York Zoological Society department hired to help communicate field biology
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After Nearly a Century in Storage, These World War I Artworks Still Deliver the Vivid Shock of War
Pulled from the collections of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Claggett Wilson’s watercolors are in a traveling show
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When Artists Became Soldiers and Soldiers Became Artists
A rare opportunity to see works by the American Expeditionary Force’s World War I illustration corps, and newly found underground soldier carvings
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How Jazz, Flappers, European Émigrés, Booze and Cigarettes Transformed Design
A new Cooper-Hewitt exhibition explores the Jazz Age as a catalyst in popular style
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Reliving the Ebony Fashion Fair Off the Runway, One Couture Dress at a Time
An exhibition on the traveling fashion show memorializes the cultural phenomenon that shook up an industry
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Australia’s Salt Ponds Look Like Beautiful, Abstract Art From Above
Taking to the sky to show how industry shapes the earth
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A ‘Breaking Bad’ Writer and Producer Is Behind a New Anne of Green Gables
You might not recognize this Anne—and that’s exactly what showrunner Moira Walley-Beckett intended
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The Unsavory History of Sugar, the Insatiable American Craving
How the nation got hooked on sweets
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