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Arts & Culture

Watch As a Real-Life Hoverboard Whirs to Life

At Smithsonian magazine’s Future is Here festival, a few lucky attendees got to take a ride

Meet the Prize-Winning Spiders From the British Tarantula Society’s Annual Competition

Now in its 30th year, the arachnid-equivalent of the Westminster Dog Show showcases the strange beauty of an eight-legged obsession

A skull at Bolivia's Fiesta de las Ñatitas.

New Photo Book Explores Places the Dead Don’t Rest

From mossy burial caves to bone-filled churches, photographer Paul Koudounaris spent a dozen years documenting sites where the living and dead interact

How Food Truck Parks Are Making America More Like Southeast Asia

Pushing for nutritious options, as public officials in Singapore are doing, could boost the health of cities and their residents

Yasuo Kuniyoshi, in his New York City Studio in 1940, is at work on the painting Upside Down Table and Mask, currently on view at the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

Meet the Iconic Japanese-American Artist Whose Work Hasn’t Been Exhibited in Decades

A reexamination of the inventive artist, who blended American and Japanese traditions, brings rarely seen works from around the world to the Smithsonian

Swedish designer Sighten Harrgard and his fiancee model a unisex belted jacket and scarf with wide-legged double-knit trousers—March 1969.

How His’n’Her Ponchos Became A Thing: A History Of Unisex Fashion

“Unisex” was rarely used before the fashion trend hit it big in the late 1960s

Smithsonian Journeys Travel Quarterly: Paris

Haute Stuff: Nine Unique Gifts to Buy in Paris

Leave room in your suitcase for these irresistible items made by French artisans

Umami Concepts, a fully stocked kitchen in Hong Kong, can be rented for an evening.

For Your Next Party, Rent a Kitchen the Size of Your Apartment

With living space shrinking, urbanites are paying for kitchen space to host special occasions

A display of Jim Beam bourbons at a Kentucky distillery.

What Makes Bourbon Uniquely American?

A new book examines everything that makes the spirit special to the United States

The glamorous actress in the 1940s.

How Katharine Hepburn Became a Fashion Icon

Celebrate the Hollywood star with a look at her stellar costumes

A pelican dives for dinner among an unsuspecting school of fish.

Paper Turtles and Frisky Skates Bring This Indoor Seashore to Life

A new exhibit at the National Aquarium in Baltimore takes visitors on a trip to the beach and into the dark depths of the Atlantic

In Camille Utterback's 1999 Text Rain, viewers become part of the artwork.

In this Exhibition You Can Play with the Artworks, Or Even Be the Art

A dizzying array of wildly unorthodox works from video games to computer codes makes up this summer’s blockbuster “Watch This!” show

Anna Jarvis, a woman who championed the establishment of Mother's Day.

The Tenacious Woman Who Helped Keep Mother’s Day Alive

For Anna Jarvis, a holiday devoted to moms was not sentimental fluff, but a practical exercise in patriotism

Would Elaine de Kooning have been a better known artist if she hadn't married the leading Abstract Expressionist of the 20th century? (Self-portrait, 1946)

Why Elaine de Kooning Sacrificed Her Own Amazing Career for Her More-Famous Husband’s

The free-thinking Abstract Expressionist, even while in her partner’s shadow, captured an era with skill and élan

Dancers perform during a Cinco de Mayo celebration in Los Angeles.

Is There a Proper Way to Celebrate Cinco de Mayo?

In one California town, the holiday co-opted by beer companies takes on a flavor of its own

Smithsonian Journeys Travel Quarterly: Paris

Is the Croissant Really French?

A brief history of the croissant – from kipfel to Cronut

Louis Armstrong playing in Rome in 1959. You can visit his house in Queens, New York, and see how he lived for the last 30 years of his life.

Urban Explorations

Where to Celebrate the History of American Jazz

These six spots are just a short riff on what makes the musical genre particular to the United States

With their dark suits and classic instrumentation, the Del McCoury Band has the look of a classic bluegrass band, but their melodies prove otherwise.

The Radical Conservatism of Bluegrass

At MerleFest, the banjo-pickers and guitar strummers bridge the old and new

Inspired by the quote “you must be the change you wish to see in the world, the artists of the S.A.G.E. Coalition in Trenton, New Jersey transformed an abandoned lot into a vibrant community garden and gathering space.

Commentary

Growing a Digital Garden Archive

The Smithsonian issues a call to preserve American garden heritage with a website that collects personal stories, photos, video and audio

Retrofitted for permanent installation, the Bhutanese temple, which made its public debut at the 2008 Smithsonian Folklife Festival, is now open at the University of Texas at El Paso

One Way to Visit Bhutan Is By Way of El Paso

After making its debut at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, a temple from the Himalayan kingdom is uniquely reincarnated on a Texan university campus

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