Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

Smart News / Smart News Arts & Culture

Simone Leigh's "Brick House" is the Plinth's first artistic commission

The High Line’s Art-Centric Final Section Is Officially Open

Dubbed the Spur, the space will feature a rotating series of contemporary art commissions

The experience unfolds across five rooms: the Recycle Bank, the Coral Tunnel, the Net Guard, the Jellyfish Station and the Bubble Mall.

Art Meets Science

A New Pop-Up Exhibit in NYC Immerses Visitors in a Deep-Sea Experience

Designer Randy Fernando says the show strives to be “interactive and playful,” while also “incorporating touches of activism”

New Research

New Study Suggests Leonardo da Vinci Had A.D.H.D.

The master painter had difficulties with procrastination, finishing projects and staying on task his entire life

Claude Monet [1840-1926], Wisteria, 1917-1920

Hidden Water Lily Found Beneath Monet Painting

The artist may have covered up the artwork while experimenting with a new floral subject: wisteria

The warder is the first of five missing pieces to materialize since the remaining chessmen’s discovery in 1831

Cool Finds

A Medieval Chess Piece Potentially Worth $1.2 Million Languished in a Drawer for Decades

The Lewis warder, part of a larger trove of 12th-century ivory chessmen, was purchased for £5 in 1964

The small, rocky island of St. Michael's Mount is off the coast of Cornwall, England.

Calling All Green Thumbs! A Legendary British Island Is Looking to Hire a Resident Gardener

Applicants will need to be comfortable with rappelling down the battlements of a historic castle

From L to R: Kanlitas rock painting, enhanced version, isolated rendering of markings

Art Meets Science

Rock Art and Footprints Reveal How Ancient Humans Responded to Volcanic Eruption

New study dates the preserved footprints to 4,700 years ago, a full 245,000 years later than previously suggested

From left to right: Sylvia Rivera, Marsha P. Johnson, Jane Vercaine, Barbara Deming, Kady Vandeurs, Carol Grosberg and others lead a protest at City Hall

Women Who Shaped History

New York City Monument Will Honor Transgender Activists Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera

The two women were instrumental in the 1969 Stonewall Uprising and spent their lives advocating for marginalized groups

London’s National Gallery Lends a $4.5 Million Masterpiece to a Women’s Prison

It was the latest stop in an unconventional tour that has brought the Artemisia Gentileschi painting to a school, a library and a doctor’s office

The winning spellers made history with eight co-champions, the most number in the spelling event history.

The National Spelling Bee Ended in an Unprecedented Eight-Way Tie

“We’re basically throwing the dictionary at you,” pronouncer Jacques Bailly told the spellers. “[A]nd so far you are showing the dictionary who is boss”

The 92-second clip that shows the Fab Four playing their song “Paperback Writer.”

Hitting the High Notes: A Smithsonian Year of Music

Lost Footage of One of the Beatles’ Last Live Performances Found in Attic

A man filmed the missing 1966 ‘Top of the Pops’ appearance from his TV set

The laptop is infected with six viruses: WannaCry, BlackEnergy, ILOVEYOU, MyDoom, SoBig and DarkTequila.

Art Meets Science

A Laptop Infected With the World’s Most Dangerous Viruses Sold for $1.3 Million

The computer is a work of art designed to provide a physical manifestation of abstract digital threats

A police boat cruises along the River Seine past the Notre-Dame de Paris Cathedral, which was badly damaged by a huge fire on April 15, and which is under repair, on May 20, 2019.

France’s Senate Requires That Notre-Dame’s Iconic Spire Be Rebuilt ‘Exactly as It Was’

The bill contradicts an earlier call for proposals to replace the fallen tower with a more modern aesthetic

A young girl plays at the newly restored Moat Brae house.

The Scottish Garden That Inspired Peter Pan’s Neverland Opens for Visitors

The Moat Brae house and its surroundings, where author J.M. Barrie played as a child, is now a children’s literature center

New Research

‘Mona Lisa’ Comes to Life in Computer-Generated ‘Living Portrait’

A new artificial intelligence system can create realistic animations from a single static image

Anne Frank wrote the letters between 1936 and 1941, a period predating the events of her famed diary.

Letters Anne Frank Wrote to Her Grandmother Will Be Published for the First Time

The notes are featured in a soon-to-be released volume of Frank’s collected works

It's safe to assume Mr. Rogers would've approved of 1-4-3 Day.

Pennsylvania Honors Mister Rogers With First Annual Day of Kindness

The holiday is dubbed 1-4-3 Day in a nod to the TV personality’s favorite phrase, “I love you”

Trending Today

Engineer Says Notre-Dame Is Vulnerable to High Winds

Models show damage to the roof vaults have cut the structure’s wind resistance by over half

France outlawed ortolan hunting in 1999, but the ban was rarely enforced until 2007 and remains unevenly implemented

Ortolans, Songbirds Enjoyed as French Delicacy, Are Being Eaten Into Extinction

Hunters illegally catch some 30,000 of the 300,000 ortolans that pass through southwestern France every migration season

Michelangelo likely sketched "The Seated Man" while working as an apprentice in Domenico Ghirlandaio's studio

Cool Finds

Art Historian Says He Has Identified the Earliest Known Michelangelo Drawing

The sketch, now on view in Budapest, likely dates to between 1487 and 1490

Page 136 of 285