Smart News: Arts and Culture | Smithsonian Magazine

Cuneiform tablet seized by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement from Hobby Lobby.

Some of Hobby Lobby’s Smuggled Artifacts May Come From Lost Sumerian City

Among the 3,800 artifacts being repatriated to Iraq today include pieces believed to be from Irisagrig, a site archaeologists have yet to find

May 2, 2018

Future of Art

Experience Some of the World’s Most Polluted Cities in This Exhibit

The art installation was recently on display in London

May 2, 2018

“The Boarder,” which is published for the first time in the New Yorker, was discovered while going through the prominent writer’s vast archives

May 1, 2018

This Mawson & Swan camera owned by Winslow Homer, ca. 1882, was gifted to Bowdoin College Museum of Art by Neal Paulsen.

Exhibition to Bring Winslow Homer’s Long-Lost Camera—and Photography—Into Focus

After four years of research, the new medium’s impact on Homer’s art will be explored this summer at Bowdoin College Museum of Art

May 1, 2018

Contracted crews remove the Fountain of the Pioneers complex from Bronson Park, Tuesday, April 24, 2018.

Kalamazoo Removes Sculpture Depicting Armed White Settler Towering Over a Native American

“Fountain of the Pioneers” has been controversial since it was erected in 1940

April 26, 2018

A new study suggests Shigir Idol, a carved wooden sculpture first discovered in the late 1890s, is more than 11,000 years old.

Wooden Statue Found in Late 1890s Likely Dates Back More Than 11,000 Years

New research posits it is one of the oldest-known examples of monumental art

April 26, 2018

The king has declared it will use its pre-colonial Swazi name from now on

April 26, 2018

Why Researchers Believe These 100,000-Year-Old Etchings Weren’t Symbolic

In a new study, the markings — which resemble hashtags —were not found to be distinctive based on time and geography

April 24, 2018

Five Things to See at Alabama’s New Memorial to Lynching Victims

The memorial, along with a new museum, exposes America’s fraught legacy of racial violence from slavery to lynchings to mass incarceration

April 24, 2018

President Donald Trump, French President Emmanuel Macron, first lady Melania Trump, and Brigitte Macron stand during a State Arrival Ceremony on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, Tuesday, April 24, 2018

A Brief History of State Dinners

The White House first hosted King David Kalākaua, of the Kingdom of Hawaii for a state dinner back in 1874

April 24, 2018

Prince George and Princess Charlotte arriving at the Lindo wing at St Mary's Hospital to welcome their new baby brother, who will be fifth in line to the British throne.

Why Princess Charlotte Just Made Royal History

Thanks to a 2013 reform, the 2-year-old royal tot can welcome her new baby brother while maintaining her place in line for the throne

April 23, 2018

An image on view at the National Building Museum's Evicted exhibition

This Exhibition Uses $586 to Tell the Story of American Eviction

The amount is around what one of the subjects of sociologist Matthew Desmond’s book ‘Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City’ made in one month

April 23, 2018

A model of the planned artwork for downtown Albuquerque memorializing the landmark case that expanded the rights of Asian Americans.

Monument Marks Little-Remembered Case That Set Precedent for Asian Americans to Testify in Court

The history around the ‘Territory of New Mexico v. Yee Shun’ will be memorialized in the upcoming public work ‘View from Gold Mountain’

April 23, 2018

"Untitled," a previously known James Castle work

Cool Finds

Eleven Never-Before-Seen Artworks Found in the Walls of James Castle’s House

The renowned Idaho Outsider artist was known for squirreling his drawings and sculptures away in the walls and ceiling of his Boise home

April 20, 2018

Taiwan Is Now Home to the World’s Largest Performing Arts Center

The National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts encompasses five performance centers and spans 1.5 million square feet

April 20, 2018

Museum Bhavan may look small but it contains 298 pages and 241 images.

Future of Art

Pocket-Sized Exhibition Shows Museum Experience Is Not One Size Fits All

Dayanita Singh’s ‘Museum Bhavan’ won the coveted Infinity Award this month for offering the public a way to intimately and innovatively interact with art

April 19, 2018