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Smart News / Smart News Arts & Culture

Women are still rare behind the camera.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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

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

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

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Today’s Google Doodle Celebrates Electronic Music Pioneer Clara Rockmore

The theremin virtuosa would have been 105 years old today

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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

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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.

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This Designer Makes Animations With Nature

Paul Johnson turns Twin Cities landscapes into hypnotic stop-motion

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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

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Italian City Bans New “Ethnic” Restaurants

Verona, the home of Romeo and Juliet, is preventing new eateries from opening that primarily serve kebabs, gyros and fried food

This could be New Zealand's next flag.

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New Zealanders Are Voting Whether to Adopt a New Flag

The country could drop the Union Jack in favor of a design with a more distinctive national symbol

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One Artist Has a Monopoly on the World’s Blackest Black Pigment

Artists are up in arms over Anish Kapoor’s exclusive rights to “vantablack”

Sled dogs may not have enough snow during the 2016 Iditarod.

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Alaska Is Shipping in Snow for This Year’s Iditarod

Could a warm winter make the famous sled race go to the dogs?

The Eleanor Roosevelt Monument in Riverside Park, New York, was dedicated at 72nd Street on October 5, 1996.

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It’s Way Too Hard to Find Statues of Notable Women in the U.S.

Only a handful of the country’s sculptures honor women

Beijing's CCTV Tower has been compared to a pair of glorious pants.

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These Are 10 of China’s Strangest Buildings

Chinese officials want to ditch the country’s bizarre architecture

Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton (Mrs. Alexander Hamilton), 1787, Ralph Earl (1751-1801).

Cool Finds

Elizabeth Hamilton Once Posed for a Portrait in a New York City Prison

There was a dire need for painters to immortalize America’s elites

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