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Arts & Culture

The creative output of Fats Domino, who died October 25, 2017 at the age of 89, was consistently compelling, and fans were delighted to eat it all up.

Fats Domino’s Infectious Rhythms Set a Nation in Motion

This Rock ’n’ Roll maverick was a true New Orleans original

Charles Brown (far right) with fellow Blazers (from left) Johnny Moore and Eddie Williams.

Who Really Wrote “Merry Christmas, Baby”

The co-author of a classic holiday song still can’t catch a break

This manuscript on astronomy by Issachar Ber Carmoly dates to 1751.

Hidden in a Basement for 70 Years, Newly Discovered Documents Shed Light on Jewish Life and Culture Before WWII

The 170,000 pages found might be “the most important collection of Jewish archives since the Dead Sea Scrolls.”

This pumpkin is eventually going to hold about 250 gallons of beer.

How Elysian Brewing Company Turns a 1,790-Pound Pumpkin Into a Keg

And is this insane thing really a pumpkin?

Confederate Prisoners Being Conducted from Jonesborough to Atlanta by Kara Walker, 2005, from the portfolio Harper's Pictorial History of the Civil War (Annotated)

How Kara Walker Boldly Rewrote Civil War History

The artist gives 150-year-old illustrations a provocative update at the Smithsonian American Art Museum

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Austria

How to Eat Like a Local in Vienna, Austria

Instagrammer Sothany Kim dishes on nicotine breakfasts, third-wave coffee houses and enemy bakers in Austria’s capital

Members of the chorus sing their parts in a performance of Antigone in Ferguson at Normandy High School in St. Louis.

The Healing Power of Greek Tragedy

Do plays written centuries ago have the power to heal modern day traumas? A new project raises the curtain on a daring new experiment

Rick Araluce's The Final Stop, installed at the Renwick Gallery, is a world unto itself.

At This Spectral Subway Platform, Trains Approach But Never Arrive

An otherworldly art installation debuts at the Renwick just in time for Halloween

BBC's "Downton Abbey" is one of the rare aspects of popular culture to show the grim costs of the 1918 flu pandemic.

The Next Pandemic

Why Did So Few Novels Tackle the 1918 Pandemic?

Surprisingly few U.S. writers touched by the 1918 pandemic wrote about it. But flu lit appears more popular today than ever

The infrastructure and technological systems were upgraded, the carpeting removed, and the original terrazzo floors restored

Freer|Sackler: Reopens

A Fresh Look for Smithsonian’s Oldest Art Museum

The Freer’s renovation comes with a new thematic presentation of Asian Art—and the Peacock Room is reopened, as well

FIU Blackboards by Joseph Beuys,1977-1979, now on view at the Hirshhorn.

What a Pair of Empty Blackboards Can Teach Us About Art and Social Change

Can art alter the course of history? Should artists even try? Joseph Beuys said yes and yes

Highlighting the breadth of the collection, the exterior of the museum was draped with images of the artworks in the Freer and Sackler Galleries, including Whistler’s famed Peacock Room

Freer|Sackler: Reopens

Here’s What It Takes to Turn a Museum into a Movie Screen

To mark the reopening of the Freer Gallery, the façade of the newly renovated museum made its cinematic debut

Virginia Tech, whose Institute for Creativity, Arts, and Technology (ICAT) was instrumental in bringing the festival to fruition, exhibited on Day 1 a cutting-edge robotic fabrication system.

These Collegiate Innovators Are at the Vanguard of Technology and Art

A massive three-day festival spotlights the achievements of the Atlantic Coast Conference

The House of Artists is part of Austria's Art Brut Center Gugging.

Austria

How This Vienna Suburb Became the Center of the “Raw Art” Movement

Once a psychiatric clinic, the Art Brut Center Gugging now serves as a museum exhibiting the works of some of the world’s best self-taught artists

From left: The bell tower of the “Fish Church,” in Stamford, Connecticut; the Sculpture Gallery at Philip Johnson’s Glass House, in New Canaan.

Every Modern Architecture Lover Should Take This Three-Day Road Trip

In Connecticut, works by some of the most notable architects of the 20th century are hiding in plain sight. Take the wheel for this sightseeing tour

KoChix’s signature fried chicken

Winter Olympics

How Korean Fried Chicken, AKA “Candy Chicken” Became a Transnational Comfort Food

A new Smithsonian Folklife Project, Forklife, traces the journeys of immigrant food traditions taking root in the United States

"The Rush" lampooned in an 1870 issue of Harper's Magazine

The Minister Who Invented Camping in America

How William H.H. Murray accidental bestseller launched the country’s first outdoor craze

The box set will include a 300-page companion volume featuring never-before-seen photographs, scholarly commentary and rigorous liner notes.

This Ambitious Landmark Hip-Hop and Rap Anthology Was Successfully Funded

Smithsonian’s nonprofit record label launched a Kickstarter for help and got it

Adams worked with artist Emma Segal to create illustrations that represent the new energy terms. The English translation of the words on this image is: Solar Panels, a flat piece resembling a window/mirror placed on top of a building to collect electricity from the sun to power the house.

Inventing a Vocabulary to Help Inuit People Talk About Climate Change

One team is working with Inuvialuit elders to come up with a renewable energy terminology—and maybe revive a dying language

Civil Rights activist Grady O'Cummings talking with a group of boys. O'Cummings later faked his own death to avoid threats made by members of the Black Panthers against him and his family.

These Never-Before-Seen Photos From “The New York Times” Offer a New Glimpse Into African-American History

The editors of the new book, “Unseen” talk about recognizing the paper of record’s biases

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