Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

Smart News / Smart News Arts & Culture

Trending Today

Heir to Punk Royalty Will Burn $7 Million Worth of Punk Memorabilia

Son of Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McLaren says it’s to spite the Queen

Large Hadron Collider, Geneva, Switzerland

Switzerland

CERN Seeks International Artists For Full-Time Residency

The European Center for Nuclear Research is calling for art submissions for its annual award

Trending Today

Facing a Biscuit Shortage, British Citizens Get an Emergency Shipment Flown in From Dubai

The shortage isn’t the only biscuit-related scandal to strike teatime recently

FCC chairman Tom Wheeler speaking at the 2015 TechCrunch Disrupt conference.

Trending Today

Thanks to the FCC, You Might Soon Have More Control Over Your Personal Data

Regulators are taking on internet service providers over targeted ads

Say goodbye to the Louvre's iconic pyramid.

Cool Finds

This Summer, the Louvre’s Pyramid Will “Disappear”

A French street artist promises a tantalizing trick of the eye

Blu and local activists erased 20 years' worth of his street art from Bologna, Italy.

Trending Today

A Prominent Street Artist Just Destroyed All of His Works

Blu used a chisel and gray paint to make a point

Cool Finds

Muggles Are Selling the Chair in Which ‘Harry Potter’ Was Created

The decorated dining room chair J.K. Rowling used to write her iconic novels is going on sale

Women are still rare behind the camera.

Trending Today

The National Film Board of Canada Will Give 50 Percent of Its Production Budget to Women

The agency thinks it can achieve full gender parity in just three years

"Serra Gaucha," by Guy Laramée

Cool Finds

These Mountains Are Made of Books

An interdisciplinary artist creates landscapes out of encyclopedias

"Meditation and Minou," 1980, by Will Barnet.

Cool Finds

The Worcester Art Museum’s New Exhibit Is All Cats, All the Time

New art exhibit will trace humans’ captivation with cats throughout history

Peter Strien was 21 years old when he was wounded at the battle of Fort Steadman.

Cool Finds

These Eerie Civil War Photos Changed How the U.S. Saw Veterans

Reed Bontecou’s groundbreaking photography used a new medium to bring attention to the wounds of war

Bristol Old Vic artistic director Tom Morris with the thunder run.

Cool Finds

A New Production of “King Lear” Features 18th-Century Special Effects

The Bristol Old Vic’s thunder run hasn’t been used since 1942

The palace is surrounded by old-growth forest that seems to contain the oldest trees in Europe.

Found: The Biggest Collection of Ancient Oaks in Europe

The massive, old trees were hiding in plain sight in the woods of a spectacular mansion

You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love #TheShirt

Cool Finds

Mr. Darcy’s Wet Shirt is Coming to the United States

It’s the costume that launched an entire generation of Jane Austen lovers

Cool Finds

Today’s Google Doodle Celebrates Electronic Music Pioneer Clara Rockmore

The theremin virtuosa would have been 105 years old today

Trending Today

Italy Thinks Its ‘Za Should Be a United Nations Cultural Treasure

Italy wants its Neapolitan pizza to be added to Unesco’s cultural heritage list

Trending Today

Plagiarism Scandal Checkers the World of Crossword Puzzles

Digital database points to puzzle plagiarism

Cool Finds

This Machine Makes Music With Marbles

The absurd-looking device is a marble-powered, one-man band

Paul Johnson explores "landthropology" through his nature photography.

Cool Finds

This Designer Makes Animations With Nature

Paul Johnson turns Twin Cities landscapes into hypnotic stop-motion

Trending Today

At Long Last, Santiago Calatrava’s World Trade Center Transit Hub Is Open

The $4 billion train station has been called beautiful and a boondoggle

Page 226 of 286