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Arts & Culture / Art & Artists

First lady Michelle Obama's donates her Jason Wu inaugural ball gown to the First Ladies' Collection at the National Museum of American History.

First Lady’s Inaugural Gown Arrives at Smithsonian

Michelle Obama donates her Jason Wu gown to the First Ladies’ Collection at the National Museum of American History

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Letters

Readers Respond to the January Issue

The five-foot-wide Tata Nano car is on view at the Cooper-Hewitt until April 25.

What’s Up

Ongoing studies of Neanderthal skeletons unearthed in Iraq during the 1950s suggest the existence of a more complex social structure than previously thought.

The Skeletons of Shanidar Cave

A rare cache of hominid fossils from the Kurdistan area of northern Iraq offers a window on Neanderthal culture

Rick Potts, director of the Human Origins Program at the Natural History Museum, proposed that climate change was the driving force in human evolution.

Q and A: Rick Potts

The Smithsonian anthropologist turned heads when he proposed that climate change was the driving force in human evolution

The new hall at the Natural History Museum explains our ancestral tree.

From the Castle: Becoming Us

Homo heidelbergensis—one of five sculptures crafted for the new exhibition hall at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History—takes shape at a Baltimore foundry.

Sculpting Evolution

A series of statues by sculptor John Gurche brings us face to face with our early ancestors

Renoir's home in Cagnes-sur-Mer, in the South of France, was a source of inspiration (The Farm at Les Collettes, 1914).

Renoir’s Controversial Second Act

Late in life, the French impressionist’s career took an unexpected turn. A new exhibition showcases his radical move toward tradition

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Letters

Readers Respond to the December Issue

Through May 31, the American Indian Museum explores the lives of people (the Foxx family) who share African-American and Native American ancestry.

What’s Up

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SI in the City

John Gerrard uses a combination of photography, 3-D modeling and gaming software for his landscape images.

Q and A: Irish Artist John Gerrard

Artist John Gerrard uses 360-degree photography and 3-D gaming software to create a virtual reality

Dinosaurs near Washington, D.C. (long-necked Astrodon johnstoni) left behind a trove of fossils overseen by Matthew Carrano.

A Dinosaur Graveyard in the Smithsonian’s Backyard

At a new dinosaur park in Maryland, children and paleontologists alike have found fossils for a new Smithsonian exhibit

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Letters

Readers Respond to the November Issue

Artist Yinka Shonibare's Headless Man Trying to Drink sculpture alludes to the growing shortage of potable water worldwide.

What’s Up

The Lunar Electric Rover is a prototype for the vehicle that NASA hopes to send with astronauts to the moon by 2020.

NASA’s New Lunar Rover

The Smithsonian Institution pitches in to help NASA prepare for its next lunar mission with a new “home on wheels”

Photographer Martin Schoeller's work was recently on display at the National Portrait Gallery.

Martin Schoeller’s Signature Style

Known for his photographs of celebrities and politicians, the artist doesn’t put his portrait subjects on a pedestal

Almira Buffalo Bone Jackson (in 1994) once said that she would "dream the colors [of quilts] at night."

A Spectacular Collection of Native American Quilts

Tribes from the Great Plains used quilts as both a practical replacement of buffalo robes and a storytelling device

In 1972, with assistance from an art teacher, 11 men formed a cooperative called Papunya Tula Artists. By 1974 the group had grown to 40.

Contemporary Aboriginal Art

Rare artworks from an unsurpassed collection evoke the inner lives and secret rites of Australia’s indigenous people

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Letters

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