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Smart News / Smart News Arts & Culture

A squash seedling (though not one of the ancient squash)

Cool Finds

An Ancient Squash Dodges Extinction Thanks to the Efforts of Native Americans

Indigenous people carefully tended an ancient squash for thousands of years and now the seeds are seeing a resurgence in popularity

The lighthouse on Loggerhead Key in the Dry Tortugas

Cool Finds

A Lucky Artist Will Be Marooned on a Deserted Island

An artist-in-residence program invites applicants to consider spending a month alone in paradise

Police detain activists who are trying to protect forests from the construction of a Moscow-St. Petersburg highway in April 2011.

Trending Today

Murder of Environmental Activists Reaches All-Time High

At least 185 environmental activists were murdered in 2015, according to a new report

Trending Today

What Brexit Would Mean for U.K.’s Arts, Sciences and Other Sectors

Exiting the European Union could have far ranging consequences for industries throughout the United Kingdom

Hemingway made this airy estate his Cuban home away from home—and wrote some of his most famous novels here.

Cool Finds

As U.S.-Cuba Relations Warm, This Long-Dead Author Benefits

A new conservation facility is on its way to Hemingway’s home near Havana

Just what lies beyond the next valley, canyon, crater, or hill is NASA's perpetual question.

Art Meets Science

Check Out NASA’s Retro Mars Recruitment Posters

Farmers, teachers, surveyors and engineers will all be needed in the envisaged Mars settlement

Cool Finds

Japan Honors the Creator of the California Roll

Some may see it as an affront against sushi, others see an ambassador for culture

An illustration of the Tate Modern's new Switch House expansion.

Trending Today

The Expanded Tate Modern Opens Its Doors Friday

The museum is being called the UK’s most important new cultural building since the British Library

Tolkien relied on maps to write his books—and cared a lot about how his fans saw Middle-earth.

Cool Finds

One Day Only: A Chance to View One Map to Rule Them All

A rare Tolkien-annotated map goes on display June 23

Net Neutrality is safe...for now.

Trending Today

Net Neutrality Was Just Upheld in the U.S. Court of Appeals

It’s a victory for open internet activists—but will it stick?

Cool Finds

This New York Project Wants You to Write on the Walls

Writing On It All gives voice—and a pen—to one and all

Cool Finds

One of the World’s Most Colorful Places Is in Taiwan

Rainbow Family Village shows there’s nothing a man with a paintbrush can’t do

Scene from All is Lost, a 1923 film identified at the Library of Congress's Mostly Lost Film Festival

Cool Finds

The Library of Congress Needs Your Help to Identify These Silent Movies

For the fifth year, the “Mostly Lost” film festival calls on its audience to help identify obscure details in movie-making history

Some of Uber den Tellerrand's volunteers teaching a cooking class.

Cool Finds

Refugees Are Teaching Germans How to Cook Their Traditional Foods

Cooking classes are bridging the gaps between Germans and Middle Eastern refugees

Trending Today

‘Hamilton’ Creator Lin-Manuel Miranda Joins the War Against Bots

Ticket-buying bots are snatching up seats and jacking up the price of concert and theater tickets

A classic Parisian newsstand on Rue St. Germain.

Trending Today

Parisians Are in an Uproar Over Their New Newstands

Paris’ iconic kiosks are being updated and replaced

"Sting Like a Bee"
Muhammad Ali, 1979
Serigraph

Cool Finds

Artwork by Muhammad Ali Is Going up For Auction

You could own a painting by the Louisville Lip

One of the destroyed handprints.

Trending Today

Vandals Destroyed 8,000-Year-Old Aboriginal Artworks in Tasmania

The priceless rock art is damaged beyond repair

Trending Today

Last Known 9/11 Search-and-Rescue Dog Dies

Bretagne was the last surviving dog from the 300 that worked at the World Trade Center site

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