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Smart News / Smart News Arts & Culture

Tim Caza assesses the boat.

Cool Finds

Shipwreck Identified as Rare Canal Boat

Durham boats once fueled trade in the Erie Canal

Rosa Parks’ Detroit House Finds a Home in Berlin

Once abandoned and decrepit, the house has been restored overseas

“Get Your Kicks” at This Route 66 Museum

The Mill Restaurant, which once served hungry travelers, now hosts a shrine to the highway’s roadside attractions

Handprint from Maltravieso Cave in Caceres, Spain.

Cool Finds

Project Is Making 3D Scans of Ancient Handprints

The Handpas Project is looking to unlock who made the prehistoric art and why

UK Appoints First Woman as Official Artist of General Election

Cornelia Parker will create a piece for the Parliamentary Art Collection

Hermann Nitsch pictured in front of one of his works at a 2006 retrospective.

Tasmanian Art Festival to Host Controversial Hermann Nitsch Performance

The festival has decided to proceed with the avant-garde artist’s work, despite public outrage

The Museum of Migration tells the stories of the UK's immigrants.

Cool Finds

Museum of Migration Opens in London

The ambitious museum brings new perspective to a city shaped by immigrants

Illustration of the cat piano from 1657.

Music or Animal Abuse? A Brief History of the Cat Piano

In the early 1800s, the katzenklavier was hailed as a treatment for distracted people

The burial chamber containing the model looms

New Research

Model Looms Are Missing Link in China’s Textile History

Four miniature pattern looms found in a burial in Chengdu show how the Han Dynasty produced cloth to trade on the Silk Road

Charles Manson Leaping at Judge Charles H. Older, October 5, 1970.

New Exhibit Highlights the Art of the Courtroom Sketch

For decades, these drawings offered the public its only glimpse into high-profile court cases

Trending Today

Latest National Report Card Shows Little Student Improvement in Music and Art

This is the third time that the National Center for Educational Statistics has assessed eight-graders in music and visual arts

Field. Oil on panel by PIX18 / Creative Machines Lab at Columbia University

Cool Finds

Check Out This Year’s Entries to the RobotArt Competition

Thirty-eight teams have submitted almost 200 artworks painted by robots, many guided by artsy artificial intelligence

A Nude Sculpture of George Washington Is Coming to New York

The work was made in preparation for a larger, clothed statue by the Italian artist Antonio Canova

By 1948, when this photo montage was made, Times Square was a riot of lights and special effects. Many of these lighted signs were the work of Douglas Leigh.

Times Square’s Glitzy Look was One Man’s Bright Idea

Douglas Leigh’s ability to imagine new kinds of advertising shaped the signs of the city

Sold: Diary of 28-Year-Old JFK

Kennedy recorded his impressions of a formative trip through post-War Europe

Munch's artistic freakout may have been inspired by mother-of-pearl clouds.

Art Meets Science

“The Scream” Might Have Been Inspired By a Rare Type of Cloud

Did mother-of-pearl clouds stoke a painter’s angst?

Emoji cover the facade of this Dutch building.

Cool Finds

This Building Is Covered in Emoji

-Person raising both hands in celebration-

The filmmaker is hosting what's sure to be a memorable weekend.

Cult Filmmaker John Waters Is Hosting a Summer Camp for Adults

It’s as kooky as you might imagine

The Cleveland Museum of Art

Cleveland Museum of Art will Return Stolen Roman Sculpture to Italy

Experts have long voiced concerns about origins of the portrait

Treepedia's map of Toronto

Future of Conservation

MIT’s ‘Treepedia’ Shows How Green Your City Grows

Using data from Google Street View, researchers created an interactive map that measures tree density on city streets

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