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Arts & Culture

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

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

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