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Arts & Culture

Sewer in a Suitcase: This handy kit shows people where water goes after it goes down the drain.

These Kits Beautifully Explain How City Sewers and Zoning Laws Work

New York’s Center for Urban Pedagogy uses art and design to help people better understand complex laws and systems

Mary Reynolds sits in a moss-covered pod designed by the West Cork artist Peter Little.

The Unlikely, Charming Designer Who Is Changing the Face of Gardening

With weeds, critters and Celtic symbols, Mary Reynolds is transforming what it means to garden

A diagram of Reynolds's gardens

Take a Closer Look at Mary Reynolds’s Innovative Celtic Gardens

The award-winning landscape designer bases her ideas on the four seasons, but with a regional twist

Uniting past and present, Frank Chi brings the voices of Muslim-American youth to the personal narratives of those interned after Pearl Harbor.

In This Heartfelt Video, American Muslims Connect With World War II Internees

Filmmaker and activist Frank Chi sheds light on a sobering historical comparison

Johnny Gandelsman (violin), Colin Jacobsen (violin), and Nicholas Cords (viola) performing with fellow Silk Road Ensemble musicians

Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Ensemble Celebrates Our Differences Through Song

“Sing Me Home” is a multicultural feast for the ears

View of the Bahamas as seen from the International Space Station in the new IMAX film, A Beautiful Planet

A Tweet Is Just a Ritz Cracker, But an IMAX Film Is a Steak Dinner

That’s what astronaut Terry Virts says about the new IMAX film he helped to make

The Bowdoin College swim team poses for photographer Heather Perry in Brunswick, Maine.

Underwater Photographer Heather Perry Dives Deep and Looks Up

Is it crazy to think that people are at their most natural in the water?

Construction on Lago d’Iseo, Christo says, was as challenging as “building a highway.”

The Inside Story of Christo’s Floating Piers

The renowned artist dazzles the world again, this time using a lake in northern Italy as his canvas

Watkins photographed vistas like the valley’s Half Dome.

How an Obscure Photographer Saved Yosemite

The beauty of the national park became clear long before Ansel Adams

In the tranquility of old Vienna, Stefan Zweig writes, one could never “dream how dangerous man can be.” This 1901 photograph shows a city market.

Austria

The Unhurried World of Pre-War Vienna

Author Stefan Zweig, who inspired Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel, recalls Austria at the dawn of the 20th century

Sculptor Anne Arnold and her husband, the abstract painter Ernest Briggs, owned a house with a barn in Montville, Maine, where they raised farm animals, including pigs, cows, and chickens, and kept many dogs and cats. Arnold frequently relied on photographs of her menagerie to create her lively sculptures of animals in metal and wood.

A Look at the Creative Process and What Makes an Artist Tick

A new exhibition delivers a better understanding of where artists find their inspiration

If Grit Breeds Success, How Can I Get Grittier?

University of Pennsylvania psychologist Angela Duckworth talks about her new book and the importance of the personal quality

The Biodiversity Heritage Library has the digitized version of the University of Toronto’s Fisher Library’s copy of Evelyn’s work

Celebrate National Salad Month with Rare and Historic Books that Include Your Favorite Leafy Greens

A Smithsonian librarian journeys through history and time on a quest to explore salads throughout antiquity

Ground beetle (Carabus (Coptolabrus) elysii), detail

Art Meets Science

Eek! Each of These Insect Portraits Is Made From More Than 8,000 Images

With a mastery of macro, Levon Biss captures every hair and dimple on insects’ vibrant bodies

Lithuania Is Now Hosting ‘War and Peace’ Filming Location Tours

Check out the filming highlights in Eastern and Central Europe

Voskehat, “the queen of Armenian grapes”

Armenia

History in a Glass: (Re)discovering Armenian Wine

With more than six thousand-year-old history of viniculture, Armenian wines are gaining popularity

The Keukenhof Floral Park in Lisse, The Netherlands.

Where to See Thousands and Thousands of Tulips

From the Netherlands to Kashmir, get lost in tulip mania

Ten Things to Love in What Is Now the Nation’s Largest Modern Art Museum

SFMOMA is finally open after three years of renovations, and it’s magnificent

Smithsonian Journeys Travel Quarterly: The Danube

The Hollywood Bombshell Who Invented an Indispensable War Technology

In 1942, Hedy Lamarr received a patent for frequency hopping, but was told to devote her efforts elsewhere

Cascade, Centennial and Goldings hops are three varietals planted in Persephone’s demonstration hop yard.

Canada

From Farm to Bottle: Sip Brews Among the Hop Bines at This Vancouver-Area Beer Farm

Persephone Brewing Company brings beer and farming to the Sunshine Coast

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