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Smart News / Smart News Arts & Culture

Weliton Menário Costa dances in "Kangaroo Time," his winning music video about kangaroo behavior research.

Watch This Year’s ‘Dance Your PhD’ Contest Winner, a Musical Celebration of Kangaroo Behavior

“Kangaroo Time” took home the competition’s overall prize, while interpretive dances on early life adversity, circadian rhythms and streambank erosion were also honored

The novel is set during the early days of the pandemic, when New Yorkers applauded from their windows each night for medical staff and essential workers.

36 Famous Authors Co-Wrote a Pandemic Novel. Can You Guess Who Drafted Each Section?

Margaret Atwood, R.L. Stine and John Grisham are among the writers who collaborated on “Fourteen Days,” which follows a group of New Yorkers who gather on a Manhattan rooftop to swap stories beginning in March 2020

The mural, now known as Entrée du port, depicts buildings, ship banners and masts piercing a sky.

Cool Finds

This Cézanne Mural Was Hidden in the Walls of the Artist’s Family Home

Workers found fragments of a naval scene while renovating the mansion in the south of France

Keith Richards and his partner Anita Pallenberg at the 1971 Monaco grand prix

Cool Finds

See Stunning Photos of the Rolling Stones Found in a London Loft

The previously unseen images of the band are going on display in a new exhibition, “Elegantly Wasted”

The Mississippi John Hurt Museum stood on the eastern edge of the Mississippi Delta.

Fire Destroys Museum Honoring Legendary Blues Musician Mississippi John Hurt

The three-room shack in the town of Avalon, Mississippi, was once the singer and guitarist’s home

Northern gannets plunge into the water to hunt in Shetland. This image won the British Waters Wide Angle category.

See 15 Otherworldly Images From the Underwater Photographer of the Year Awards

A hunting monkey, ‘kissing’ scorpionfish and playful dolphins feature in just a few of the 130 striking photographs distinguished with honors in the competition

Battle of Cable Street (1976–1983) by Desmond Rochfort, Dave Binnington, Paul Butler and Ray Walker in St. George's Park in London

A New Digital Archive Will Preserve Stunning Murals and Street Art in the U.K.

Art U.K. is aiming to digitize and compile images of an ephemeral form of art

Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher and Harrison Ford starred in Star Wars: Episode IV—A New Hope.

Harrison Ford Forgot This ‘Star Wars’ Script in an Apartment He Rented During Filming

A fourth draft of “Star Wars: Episode IV—A New Hope” sold at auction for over $13,000

L’ami intime (The Intimate Friend), René Magritte, 1958

Magritte Masterpiece Featuring a Floating Baguette Goes to Auction

“L’ami intime” could fetch $63 million at an upcoming sale celebrating 100 years of Surrealism

Paul McCartney plays the Höfner bass during a 1964 performance.

Paul McCartney Reunited With Bass Guitar That Disappeared 50 Years Ago—With a Little Help From His Fans

The iconic instrument heard in many of the Beatles’ hits was stolen from the back of a van in 1972

A SpaceX rocket carrying 125 miniature moon sculptures by Jeff Koons launched at 1:05 a.m. on February 15.

Art Meets Science

A Lunar Lander Carrying Jeff Koons’ Art Is Flying Toward the Moon

The spacecraft, which finally launched on February 15, is expected to touch down on February 22

The museum offered an experience called "Van Gogh's Palette," allowing visitors to immerse themselves in one of the artist's paintings.

Art Meets Science

Musée d’Orsay Breaks Attendance Records With Interactive Vincent van Gogh Exhibition

The show exploring the artist’s final works featured an interactive recreation of the painter trained on hundreds of his letters

Leonardo da Vinci's The Last Supper in Milan, Italy

Ken Burns Turns His Lens to Leonardo da Vinci

An upcoming two-part documentary will be the filmmaker’s first foray into a non-American subject matter

Protesters with the activist group Last Generation stand in front of Sandro Botticelli's The Birth of Venus at Florence's Uffizi Gallery on February 13. 

Climate Activists Stage Protest in Front of Botticelli’s ‘Birth of Venus’

Two men taped images of flooding in Tuscany to the Renaissance painting’s protective glass

Taylor Swift performs in New Jersey during her Eras tour on May 27, 2023.

At the Swiftposium, Scholars Gather to Analyze a Superstar’s Astonishing Influence

The University of Melbourne welcomed academics from all over the world for its Taylor Swift conference

The newly unveiled medals will be awarded at this summer's Olympic games, which will take place between July 26 and August 11.

The Paris Olympics

New Olympic Medals Feature Fragments of the Eiffel Tower

This summer’s Paris Olympic and Paralympic medals will be decorated with pieces of iron from the landmark

An etching of Darwin's study, commissioned a week after he died.

See What Charles Darwin Kept in His ‘Insanely Eclectic’ Personal Library, Revealed for the First Time

On the English naturalist’s 215th birthday, more than 9,000 titles from his expansive collection are now accessible online

Casting directors have been pushing for a dedicated Oscar for decades.

The Oscars Are Adding a New Award for Casting

When it debuts in 2026, the casting award will be the Academy’s first new category since 2001

Volunteers from the John Cage Organ Foundation conducting an earlier chord change in October 2013

This Organ Is Playing a 639-Year-Long Song. It Just Changed Chords for the First Time in Two Years

The instrument has been playing composer John Cage’s “ASLSP” since 2001—and it’s scheduled to conclude in 2640

Eve, Marc Chagall, 1971

Stolen Chagall Print Recovered Months After Thieves Stuffed It Into a 1996 Honda and Sped Away

Detectives have arrested two suspects involved in the dramatic heist at a New York City gallery

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