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Arts & Culture

Colorado’s ‘The Shining’ Hotel Is Finally Getting That Hedge Maze

No axes allowed

The cello plays notes that correspond to changing temperatures in the equatorial zone.

Age of Humans

This Song Is Composed From 133 Years of Climate Change Data

Daniel Crawford, a senior at the University of Minnesota, has written music for a string quartet that traces rising temperatures since the 1880s

Audience members in the VIP section, including Miss Indian New Mexico Nicole Johnny, 25, center, look on during the butchering competition.

Inside This Year’s Miss Navajo Pageant

Rest assured, this competition is far from just a beauty contest

The Broad houses the contemporary art collection of philanthropists Eli and Edythe Broad. The collection is valued at nearly two billion dollars.

The Big Names of Art (and a Bit of the Unexpected) Debut at the Broad Museum in L.A.

Housing one of the greatest collections of contemporary art in the world, this new landmark is ready for its close-up

Martha McDonald performs in the 2014 work The Lost Garden at The Woodlands in Philadelphia.

What Artist Martha McDonald Might Teach Us About a Nation Divided

This fall, a one-woman show staged in one of Washington, D.C.’s most historic buildings will recall the sorrow of the Civil War

Toni Tipton-Martin's book The Jemima Code: Two Centuries of African American Cookbooks gives readers a new look at African-American cooking history and culture.

What 200 Years of African-American Cookbooks Reveal About How We Stereotype Food

In a new book, food journalist Toni Tipton-Martin highlights African-American culinary history through hundreds of pages of recipes

A Lima street vendor dishes up anticucho, grilled skewers that are traditionally prepared with marinated beef heart or tongue. It is a culinary tradition probably started by enslaved Africans here during the Spanish colonization.

Smithsonian Journeys Travel Quarterly: Inca Road

How Food Became Religion in Peru’s Capital City

Great cooking is what defines Lima today, but the culinary boom started decades ago, during a time of conflict

That Time When Ansel Adams Posed for a Baseball Trading Card

In the 1970s, photographer Mike Mandel asked his famous colleagues to pose for a pack of baseball cards. The results are as amazing as you’d imagine

A diver holds a granite head, meant to be the head of a priest, from the Ptolemaic period. The now-hollow eyes were probably inlaid when it was first made in ancient Egypt.

Sunken Treasures From Ancient Egypt Are Now on Display in France

The Arab World Institute in Paris shows off 250 artifacts once lost underwater

The Dana Tai Soon Burgess Dance Company premiers its newest work, "We choose to go to the moon," at the Kennedy Center on September 19 and 20, 2015.

A Dancer and a Scientist Deliver a New Take on the Moon Walk

When modern dance collides with science and space history, the result can be a great leap forward

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Smithsonian Journeys Travel Quarterly: Inca Road

Handicraft Heaven: Nine Unique Gifts to Buy Along the Inca Road

Leave room in your suitcase for these irresistible items

Fireworks go off over the Moskva River.

Dazzling Photos of Russia’s First Annual Pyrotechnic Festival

At an international fireworks competition in Moscow, leading companies stretched far beyond pyrotechnics’ ancient origins

Priscilla of Boston, 1973

From Sublime to Wacky, Nothing Says Fashion Forward Like a Collection of Historic Bridal Gowns

An unforgettable—but not timeless—walk down the aisle from the archives of the now defunct Priscilla of Boston’s Bridal Shop

Animaris Percipiere, 2005.

The Strange, Giant “Beach Animals” That Are About to Invade America’s Shores

Artist Theo Jansen’s sculptures first became hits on YouTube. Now they’ve reached the shores of New England

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Smithsonian Journeys Travel Quarterly: Inca Road

Photographer Yolanda Escobar Jiménez Captures Ecuador’s Street Scenes

Take a peek inside Jiménez’s visual journals

A competitor named Rich Welsh midway through his challenge at this year's World Bog Snorkeling Championships in Wales.

Swimming Through Mud at the World Bog Snorkeling Championships

This year marks the 30th anniversary of one of the world’s strangest (and messiest) competitions

"Brainchild" by Michael Christian

Photos: Wacky, Wild Art From This Year’s Burning Man Festival

Feast your eyes on some of this year’s wildest art installations

Nuts, shredded meat and bee poop are just some of the odd things that have reportedly rained from on high.

Strange Rain: Why Fish, Frogs and Golf Balls Fall From the Skies

Unusual precipitation doesn’t just belong in myth and legend, and it’s more common than you might think

Mills and smokestacks in Lowell, Massachusetts, considered by some historians to be the first real company town in the U.S.

America’s Company Towns, Then and Now

A look at these small towns across the United States shows the good, the bad and the ugly of the industrial boom

Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner's address book, circa 1950-1956

What’s Inside Jackson Pollock’s Address Book?

A new exhibition reveals the intimate details inside the “little black books” of some of America’s great artists

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