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Arts & Culture

The Best Books About Innovation of 2016

If you have a lover of big ideas on your holiday shopping list, consider these thought-provoking titles published this year

The Raft, May 2004, Video/sound installation

Keep an Eye on These Portraits Because They Move

Noted visual artist Bill Viola is subject of the first all-video exhibition in one of D.C.’s oldest buildings.

We asked Smithsonian scholars to make book recommendations to our readers for this holiday season of gift giving.

Increase and Diffuse Knowledge for the Holidays With These Smithsonian Curated Books

Books recommended by Smithsonian Institution scholars

How does language influence our thoughts? Amy Adams and Jeremy Renner in "Arrival."

Ask Smithsonian 2017

Does the Linguistic Theory at the Center of the Film ‘Arrival’ Have Any Merit?

We asked a Smithsonian linguist and an anthropologist to debate the matter

Don’t Miss These 11 New Museum Exhibitions This Winter

You’ll find everything from beloved childhood characters to animatronic dinosaurs on display this season

The Best Books About Science of 2016

Take a journey to the edge of human knowledge and beyond with one of these mind-boggling page-turners

Art Meets Science

The Best “Art Meets Science” Books of 2016

Eight sumptuous books from the past year that meet at the intersection of science and art

Moana

How the Story of ‘Moana’ and Maui Holds Up Against Cultural Truths

A Smithsonian scholar and student of Pacific Island sea voyaging both loves and hates the new Disney film

The Best Books About Food of 2016

Looking for the perfect gift for the food lover in your life? Any of these suggestions will hit the spot

Carl Kress, performer of "Heat Wave" on Volume I, focuses absolutely on his guitar-playing.

How Countless Hours of Live Jazz Were Saved from Obscurity

The Savory Collection breathes fresh life into jazz

Left to right: Newton Poolaw (Kiowa), Jerry Poolaw (Kiowa), Elmer Thomas Buddy Saunkeah (Kiowa). Mountain View, Oklahoma, ca. 1928

A Rare Insider’s View of Native American Life in Mid-20th-Century Oklahoma

Horace Poolaw’s photography is unearthed at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian

This Isolated Australian Region Is Home to Over 100 Wineries

An Australian wine region with epic surfing beaches, a welcoming vibe and standout Cabernets and Chardonnays

Still from Allied

History of Now

How Accurate Is the Movie “Allied”?

The best spies won’t leave behind an evidence trail, but then how will audiences know what’s true and what’s fiction?

Sonny Assu Uses Graffiti to Reassert Native Culture

The 41-year-old artist mashes decades-old depictions of indigenous peoples with modern-day style

Caedmon’s lofty slogan was “A third dimension for the printed page.”

The Christmas Tale Spoken Record That Launched the Audiobook

Narrated by Dylan Thomas, the album would go on to sell 400,000 copies

Today, the Marsh Collection is treasured for its inherent cultural value as well as its connection to the debates that framed the Smithsonian.

American Culture’s Unlikely Debt to a British Scientist

A fortuitous influx of cash launched the Smithsonian Institution and its earliest art collection

Activists picketing at a demonstration for housing equality while uniformed American Nazi Party members counterprotest in the background with signs displaying anti-integration slogans and racist epithets.

This Photo Book Is a Reminder That the Civil Rights Movement Extended Far Beyond the Deep South

Public historian Mark Speltz’s new book is full of images that aren’t typically part of the 1960s narrative

Legacy is scheduled to be on display at the Ontario Science Centre beginning in 2017 before embarking on an international tour.

Art Meets Science

This Whale Sculpture Was Modeled After a Beached Orca

Canadian artist Ken Hall built Legacy based on 3D scans of the skeleton of Hope, an orca that died on the coast of Washington in 2002

"I try to go into the personal stuff because I really believe that’s the most universal," says Aziz Ansari.

American Ingenuity Awards

With “Master of None,” Aziz Ansari Has Created a True American Original

The star of the breakout television series brings the voice of his generation to the masses

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