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Arts & Culture

This artist's concept depicts select planetary discoveries made to date by NASA's Kepler space telescope.

Think Big

How Would You React If We Discovered Alien Life?

Experts weigh in on what the detection of other life forms might mean to the human race

"Lux Noctis" is a series of photographs depicting landscapes of North America within the framework of traditional landscape photography, influenced by ideas of planetary exploration,19th-century Romantic painting and science fiction | Bisti Badlands, New Mexico

Photo Contest Featured Photographer

These Drone-Lit Photos of the American West Are Straight Out of a Science Fiction Novel

Photographer Reuben Wu casts new light on a familiar world

Bower by Martin Puryear, 1980, Sitka spruce, pine, and copper tacks

Martin Puryear’s Hometown Retrospective Brings the World Renowned Artist Back to His Roots

After treks to Africa, Scandinavia and Japan, Puryear’s works go on display at the Smithsonian, where he first developed his curiosity for world cultures

Leslie Odom Jr. as Aaron Burr in "Hamilton"

Before There Was “Hamilton,” There Was “Burr”

Although Gore Vidal’s book never became a hit on Broadway, the novel helped create the public personae of Alexander Hamilton’s nemesis

Pozzi and her team at the Washed Ashore project, achieve a remarkable and convincing array of textures.

Age of Humans

There’s a Bunch of Animals at the Zoo this Summer Made Out of Ocean Garbage

Delightfully whimsical, the sculptures drive home the message that there’s a whole lot of trash washing ashore

Un Ballo in Maschera (A Masked Ball) (video still), 2004

Six Critically Acclaimed African Artists Explore the Dimensions and Complexities of Time

Much more abstract than seconds, minutes and hours, time in the hands of artists becomes even more perplexing

Associate Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor at the National Museum of American History discusses the dining traditions at the Supreme Court.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor Dig Into the History of Food at the Supreme Court

The American History Museum and the Supreme Court Historical Society brought the justices together to share tales from the highest court

Is the Internet an Enormous Work of Realist Art?

Journalist Virginia Heffernan makes a compelling case that it is in a new book

How Ferris Bueller’s Day Off Perfectly Illustrates the Power of Art Museums

Three decades after it premiered, the coming-of-age film remains a classic

Burgess will build on the unifying motifs of "Confluence" as he and his team craft their latest opus

Reimagining Portraiture Through Dance

Choreographer Dana Tai Soon Burgess joins forces with the National Portrait Gallery

Adam Donnelly repairs light leaks inside a camera that he and David Janesko constructed in Coachella Valley, California.

Art Meets Science

From Sticks and Stones, Two Artists Make Pinhole Cameras

David Janesko and Adam Donnelly are using materials found in nature to photograph nature

Kurt Riley, governor of the Acoma Pueblo people, spoke on the ever-present specter of theft of cultural objects.

Native Americans Decry the Auctioning-Off of Their Heritage in Paris

Community leaders convene at the National Museum of the American Indian to push for change

Portraits of Infamy by Roger Shimomura, 2016

Commentary

The Public Puts Great Trust in Museums, and Now It’s Time Museums Trust the Public

A new exhibition, curated by the community, debuts this weekend at the Smithsonian

Meet the First and Only Foreign-Born First Lady: Louisa Catherine Adams

Almost 200 years ago, the wife of John Quincy Adams set a precedent

"One of the first questions I ask myself," says Washington, D.C.-based artist Linn Meyers is, "'How well can I approach the quirks of the architecture?'"

The Mesmerizing Results When a Museum Asks an Artist to Draw All Over Its Walls

Linn Meyers took on the monumental task of creating a 400-foot-long artwork at the Hirshhorn

Labyrinth of the Chartres Cathedral in France.

Walk the World’s Most Meditative Labyrinths

History meets harmony on these time-worn paths

Sanora Babb with unidentified migrant workers

The Forgotten Dust Bowl Novel That Rivaled “The Grapes of Wrath”

Sanora Babb wrote about a family devastated by the Dust Bowl, but she lost her shot at stardom when John Steinbeck beat her to the punch

Buckminster Fuller's Geodesic Dome, 1967 World Exposition, Montreal

A Photographic Tour of the Wonders That World’s Fairs Leave Behind

Jade Doskow goes to old World’s Fair sites and photographs the remnants of once glorious visions

Louis Armstrong's historic trumpet was a "great playing" instrument, says Wynton Marsalis, after his performance last Fall at the Smithsonian.

Breaking Ground

To Really Appreciate Louis Armstrong’s Trumpet, You Gotta Play it. Just Ask Wynton Marsalis

It’s not always the white-glove treatment; some artifacts live on through performance

Fleet Farming turns yards into "farmlettes."

A Band of Biking Farmers in Florida Reinvents Sharecropping

Fleet Farming transforms lawns into farms to create a new local food system

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