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Arts & Culture / Art & Artists

A diagram of visitor movement in the American Art and Furniture gallery at the Cleveland Museum of Art

What a Physics Student Can Teach Us About How Visitors Walk Through a Museum

By sketching the movements of people at the Cleveland Art Museum, Andrew Oriani laid the groundwork for some deep insights into how art is appreciated

Detail of the Cleveland Apollo Sauroktonos

Questions About Apollo

A stunning statue at the Cleveland Museum raises concerns about the acquisition of antiquities

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Los Tres Reyes Remember The Age of the Tríos

The Latin American artists discuss how their career began over 50 years ago

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What Types of Animals Have Been to Space and More Questions From our Readers

You ask, we answer – our Smithsonian experts fill you in on the truths behind your burning questions

Gripping Photos of Fallen Soldiers’ Bedrooms

A photographer’s images of domestic tranquility pay tribute to U.S. service members

Upon the release of the Bangle-era BMW Z4 Coupe in 2006, Business Week observed that it seems to be moving "even when standing still."

How Futurist Art Inspired the Design of a BMW

The Italian art movement that celebrated modernity still moves us 100 years later

Why There’s No Time for Work at the Office

Legal expert Deborah Rhode reveals the true force behind all your meetings

The Case for a New Grant Wood Painting

In which the author argues that an unidentified work at a Nebraska gallery was painted by the American regionalist master

Halo 2 is a first-person shooter game that allows for multiple players as well as online competition. According to video game designer Kellee Santiago, "The music, the visuals, the character designs—they were all taken to a whole new level."

The Essentials: Video Games

Designer Kellee Santiago picks five artful video games that tell the history of the medium

Explore installations, such as Chromosaturation, by Carlos Cruz-Diez, 1965, at the Hirshhorn until May 13.

Here & Now

In Mass Effect 2, human colonies in space mysteriously vanish.

The Art of Video Games

For decades, video games have enthralled and inspired, and now they are the subject of a new exhibit that views them as serious works of art

You probably know Errol Morris as an Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker. Roger Ebert called his first film, Gates of Heaven, one of "the ten greatest films ever made."

Errol Morris: The Thinking Man’s Detective

The documentary filmmaker has become America’s most surprising and provocative public intellectual

The Contemplative Court (concept illustration) at the National Museum of African American History and Culture will feature falling water and a dramatic view.

Dream Building

Carol Kaye and Bill Pitman on guitar at Gold Star; circa 1963.

The Hidden History of a Rock ’n’ Roll Hitmaker

Bassist Carol Kaye blazed her own trail, as the only female studio musician to record some of the greatest songs of the ’60s and ’70s

Imogen + Hermiane Pembroke Studios, London 30th July 1982

Seven Famous Photographers Who Used Polaroids

For artists such as Andy Warhol and Ansel Adams, the Polaroid SX-70 was the digital camera of its day

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As American as Doritos, Bud and Chrysler

The Super Bowl has always been about more than just the outcome of the game

Chemist Mehdi Moini is perfecting a new technique for understanding the past.

How Old is That Silk Artifact?

A chemist from the Textile Museum is perfecting a new technique for understanding the past

Growing up in multiple countries has allowed architect David Adjaye to always be highly sensitive to the cultural framework of different peoples in his designs.

Breaking Ground

Q&A: Architect David Adjaye On His Vision for the New Museum

The designer of the National Museum of African American History and Culture talks about his vision for the new building

Claudio Sgarbi says he "was totally astonished" when he examined a manuscript including a drawing that seemed to prefigure Leonardo da Vinci's Vitruvian Man.

The Other Vitruvian Man

Was Leonardo da Vinci’s famous anatomical chart actually a collaborative effort?

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Letters

Readers Respond to the December Issue

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