Smart News: Arts and Culture | Smithsonian Magazine

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

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

Elizabeth II has long had Pembroke Welsh corgis, like the one depicted above, as companions.

The Last of the Queen’s Corgi Dynasty Has Died

RIP, Willow

April 18, 2018

Marvel Studios’ “Black Panther” will usher in the return of cinema in Saudi Arabia

‘Black Panther’ will be the first movie to be screened to mark the reopening of the country’s cinemas

Updated: April 18, 2018 | Originally Published: December 15, 2017

Official cover art for "The Fall of Gondolin"

One of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Earliest Middle-Earth Stories Will Be Published as a Novel

The author wanted to transform ‘The Fall of Gondolin’ into a book, but never finished the text before his death

April 18, 2018

A rendering of the planned memorial honoring Ed Johnson.

Public Sculpture in Tennessee Will Memorialize Lynching Victim

Chattanooga confronts its history with a planned memorial to a young black man named Ed Johnson who was murdered by a white lynch mob in 1906

April 18, 2018

Kendrick Lamar makes history with Pulitzer win

Future of Art

Why Kendrick Lamar’s Pulitzer Win Is History-Making

Smithsonian curator Dwandalyn Reece calls the award an important “recognition of the cultural, musical influence of hip-hop and rap”

April 17, 2018

Open Heritage shows Bagan, an ancient city in Myanmar, before and after the 2016 earthquake.

Check Out the World’s Largest Archive Digitally Preserving At-Risk Heritage Sites

Open Heritage features 27 sites in 18 countries with more locations to be added in the future

April 16, 2018

Coming Soon

Watch: The First Trailer for ‘Mary Shelley’ Explores the Many Inspirations for ‘Frankenstein’

The biopic will follow Mary Wollstonecraft’s scandalous teenage romance with the older Percy Bysshe Shelley and the events that shaped her most famous book

April 13, 2018