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Arts & Culture / Art & Artists

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This Incredible Art Installation Makes It Rain, Everywhere But On You

“Rain Room,” on display at MoMA, is an indoor downpour that detects the presence of people and adjusts to keep them dry

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The Beautifully Strange Photography of Roger Ballen

A retrospective exhibit includes 55 works and the artist’s video collaboration with South Africa’s hip-hop-rave duo Die Antwoord

Wendy Red Star, enit, 2010. Lithograph on paper with archival pigment ink photograph.

Contemporary Art from Oregon’s Umatilla Indian Reservation

A compact exhibit highlights the work of seven contemporary Native American artists at New York’s Gustav Heye Center

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Watch New York City Come Alive in This Amazing Timelapse

Take a sped-up tour of Midtown Manhattan and its residents, non-stop traffic and historic landmarks

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The Vibrant Patterns of Portuguese Men-of-War

Beachgoers despise the stinging animals, but photographer Aaron Ansarov finds surreal beauty in them

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The World’s First Exhibition on Yoga in Art (Photos)

“Yoga: The Art of Transformation” opens at the Sackler Gallery

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One Million Bones To Transform the Mall Into a Symbolic Mass Grave

Meant to call attention to ongoing genocide and atrocity, the artistic protest will include a bone-laying ceremony, workshops and advocacy on Capitol Hill

The score for John Cage’s indeterminate composition “Fontana Mix”

5 1/2 Examples of Experimental Music Notation

In the 1950s progressive composers broke from the 5 line music staff to experiment with new, more expressive forms of graphic music notation

When designing a Denny’s on the hip, young Freemont Street in Las Vegas, Wines decided to include a chapel, which has been a big hit with the mayor and the community. Denny’s Flagship Diner, Neonopolis, Las Vegas, NV, 2012. Architecture: SITE (James Wines, Matthew Gindlesberger, Sara Stracey, Denise MC Lee). Fabrication: A. Zahner.

Architect James Wines Talks Putting a Chapel in a Denny’s and Making Art from Garbage

The outsider architect-artist has finally wooed the establishment, winning the Copper-Hewitt’s Lifetime Achievement Award, but he’s still mixing things up

The Smithsonian Folklife Archives. (Text by Leah Binkovitz. Photo by Brendan McCabe.)

Behind the Smithsonian: The Folklife Archives

You never know what you will find amidst the 50,000 recordings in the Smithsonian’s folk music collection

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Poetry Matters: A Lifelong Conversation in Letters and Verse

For Robert Lowell and Elizabeth Bishop, a friendship between two poets left a beautiful written record

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The Evolution of the Treble Clef

For centuries, music notation was an inexact technique and hasty transcriptions may have resulted in this symbol

How to Grow a Nanogarden

In a lab at Harvard University, Wim Noorduin cultivates microscopic crystalline flowers in glass beakers

A massive inflatable rubber duck floats in Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbor, adding a flash of bright yellow to the cityscape.

Hong Kong Fell in Love With This Larger-Than-Life Rubber Duck

The popular 46-foot-tall inflatable art installation returns to Victoria Harbor

Designer Kate Jenkins goes for a mix of realism and humor in her crocheted works of art. Here, the poppy seed bagel looks quite delectable until you notice the lips on that lox.

Look, But Don’t Eat: Delicious Crocheted Dishes

This British designer crochets pizzas, veggies and cakes that look almost realistic enough to eat

Despite a recent slump from the economic crisis, Harlem brownstones prices are on the rise again.

How Harlem Put Itself Back on the Map

Historian John Reddick looks at the people behind the neighborhood’s recent reemergence as a thriving destination in the public eye

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The Design Future of New York as Seen by Urbanist Michael Sorkin

A theorist who can’t stop planning has big ideas for his hometown on sustainability, equity and the right to the city

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Sheila E. On Her Glamorous Life, Upcoming Album and Future Collaborations

The diva on the drums, Sheila E. says she has no plans to slow down as she works on a solo album and autobiography

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When F. Scott Fitzgerald Judged Gatsby By Its Cover

A surprising examination of the original book jacket art to The Great Gatsby

The shelled sea butterfly Hyalocylis striata can be found in the warm surface waters of the ocean around the world.

Amazing Sea Butterflies Are the Ocean’s Canary in the Coal Mine

These delicate and stunning creatures are offering Smithsonian scientists a warning sign for the world’s waters turning more acidic

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