On April 22, 1970, a local community rose up after many unwanted intrusions into their neighborhood, including the building of the I-5 freeway. Today, Chicano Park with its monumental murals is a National Historic Landmark.

Fifty Years Ago, Fed Up With the City’s Neglect, a San Diego Community Rose Up to Create Chicano Park

Making Tierra Mía, says the director of the Smithsonian Latino Center, proved transformative in giving voice to the people

A five-week course, "Rome: A Virtual Tour of the Ancient City," focuses on the building of the ancient city of Rome and how it laid the groundwork for the construction of cities throughout the world.

Virtual Travel

Six Online Courses About Europe to Take Before You Can Safely Travel There Again

Sheltering in place doesn’t mean you can’t study up for your next European adventure

A street art piece by artist Pony Wave depicts two people kissing while wearing face masks on Venice Beach in Venice, California.

Virtual Travel

How Street Artists Around the World Are Reacting to Life With COVID-19

Graffiti artists and muralists are sending messages of hope and despair with coronavirus public art

Landscape in Blue, color woodblock print with embossing on paper, by Yoshida Chizuko, 1972. The print is one of at least 30 works in the new exhibition.

When Young Women Printmakers in Japan Joined Forces to Create a Strong Impression

A planned exhibition at the Portland Art Museum highlights the boldness of their work

Designer, illustrator, painter, cultural force: in New York City, 1962.

How Andy Warhol Came to Paint Campbell’s Soup Cans

He was talented and prosperous, but the young visionary worried the art world had left him behind. Then he discovered soup

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Smithsonian Voices

The Art of the Teleconference

Transform your Zoom virtual background or computer desktop into a work of art

The Wisdom of the Universe (detail) by Christi Belcourt (Michif), 2014

Women Who Shaped History

Native Women Artists Reclaim Their Narrative

The first major exhibition of its kind, “Hearts of Our People,” boasts 82 pieces from 115 Native women across North America

Fashion designer Samantha Sleeper has made face masks for healthcare workers as supplies dwindle due to COVID-19.

Covid-19

As Face Mask Supply Dwindles, Fashion Designers Offer Their Assistance

In New York City, a desperate need among healthcare workers has pushed to the forefront the question: Is homemade equipment safe to use?

Virtual Travel

Let These Photos Take You on a Peaceful Paddle in Minnesota’s Boundary Waters

Venturing into the wilderness for often weeks at a time, nature photographer Dawn LaPointe is used to social distancing

In the U.S., although Humboldt’s name has vanished, his ideas have not (above: Humboldt in His Library (detail) by Eduard Hildebrandt, 1856).

Alexander von Humboldt

Who Was Alexander von Humboldt?

Smithsonian curator Eleanor Jones Harvey explains why this revolutionary 19th-century thought leader is due for a reconsideration

Just in time for this year's bloom, Smithsonian Books presents a delightful new offering Cherry Blossoms: Sakura Collections from the Library of Congress.

Not All Cherry Blossoms Are the Same

View these vivid illustrations by Japanese artist Kōkichi Tsunoi of the varieties of trees presented to the United States in 1912

Follow the antics of the National Zoo's giant pandas (above: Tian Tian munching on bamboo) on the Panda Cams.

Virtual Travel

How to Virtually Explore the Smithsonian From Your Living Room

Tour a gallery of presidential portraits, print a 3-D model of a fossil or volunteer to transcribe historical documents

Double Self-Portrait by John Singer Sargent, 1902

John Singer Sargent ‘Abhorred’ Making His Lavish Portraits, So He Took Up Charcoal to Get the Job Done

Sargent made his portraits in charcoal—a medium that allowed completion in less than three hours rather than the weeks it took for his full-length oils

The original call for submissions that was mailed out for the 1977 iteration of "What is Feminist Art?"

More Than 40 Years Later, Artists Answer a Still-Relevant Question: What Is Feminist Art?

An exhibition from the Archives of American Art asks artists—and the viewer—to ponder what makes art feminist, and how that definition has evolved

Strobridge Lithographing Company, Kellar and His Perplexing Cabinet Mysteries, 1894. Purchase, funds graciously donated by La Fondation Emmanuelle Gattuso.

The Amazing Poster Art From the ‘Golden Age’ of Magic

An exhibition at the Art Gallery of Ontario shows how magicians enticed audiences with advertisements of levitations, decapitations and other deceptions

Over its two-minute lifetime, the faux rhino (above: The Substitute) adapts “to his environment and moves around. His form and his sound become more lifelike, but ultimately, he is coming to life without any natural context and in this completely digital form," says the museum's curator Andrea Lipps.

The Northern White Rhino Went Extinct, But for Two Minutes at a Time, the Animal Makes a Digital Comeback

An artist’s 3-D recreation of the immense mammal probes the paradox of efforts to bring such animals back in the lab

Author-illustrator duo Jon Scieszka and Steven Weinberg debut How to Make a Collagasaurus, a how-to booklet inviting kids to transform the Smithsonian collections into zany new art forms.

Smithsonian Releases 2.8 Million Images Into Public Domain

The launch of a new open access platform ushers in a new era of accessibility for the Institution

The circa 1968-96 Lunar con Tatuaje (Moon With Tattoo), made of stretched canvas and acrylic, is one of over 40 works in the retrospective.

New York Museum Highlights the Artwork of Zilia Sánchez

The Cuban American artist has long been a creative force. Now she’s having her big moment—in her tenth decade

Ken Gonzales-Day’s photograph of the Portrait of Shonke Mon-thi^ now resides in the collections of the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery.

Recognition of Major Osage Leader and Warrior Opens a New Window Into History

The story of Shonke Mon-thi^, a hidden figure in American history, is now recovered at the National Portrait Gallery

Grandma Moses Goes to the Big City (1946).

Women Who Shaped History

How the U.S. Government Deployed Grandma Moses Overseas in the Cold War

In 1950, an exhibition of the famed artist’s paintings toured Europe in a promotional campaign of American culture

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