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Smart News / Smart News Arts & Culture

Sidney Poitier on the set of Lilies of the Field, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor

Sidney Poitier Is Back on the Big Screen

The late and great actor and director is the subject of ‘Sidney,’ a new documentary produced by Oprah Winfrey

Betty White in 2015

Betty White’s Belongings Are Up for Auction

The items tell the story of the beloved comedic actress’ life—and her groundbreaking eight-decade career

The project uses public surveillance footage from popular tourists destinations. 

Art Meets Science

This Controversial Artist Matches Influencer Photos With Surveillance Footage

‘The Followers’ uses artificial intelligence and facial-recognition technology to comment on the surveillance state

Advocacy groups played a major role in the bans that took place during the 2021-22 school year, according to PEN America.

Over 1,600 Books Were Banned During the Past School Year

A new PEN America report finds that targeted campaigns by advocacy groups are behind the increasing bans

ONEPIECE by Ilan Manouach

At 21,450 Pages, the Longest Book in the World Is Impossible to Read

Ilan Manouach’s conceptual art project weighs 37.5 pounds and measures 31.5 inches long

An X-ray of the Dancing Horse earthenware sculpture, which dates to 608 to 907 C.E. during China's Tang dynasty

Art Meets Science

Chemistry Reveals the History of an Ancient Dancing Horse Sculpture

The artwork dates to China’s Tang dynasty, when horses were a symbol of prosperity

Adnan Syed, the subject of a 2014 investigation led by Sarah Koenig on the podcast “Serial,” leaves the courthouse after being released from prison.

Adnan Syed, Subject of ‘Serial,’ Is Released From Prison

The decision comes 23 years after he was convicted for the murder of 18-year-old Hae Min Lee

Self-Portrait (1887)

How America Saw Vincent van Gogh

The largest U.S. exhibition of the artist’s work opens in Detroit this fall

Bad Bunny, a global reggaeton sensation whose latest album just topped the Billboard 200 for the 11th week, released a short documentary on Puerto Rico’s infrastructure failures and gentrification.

Bad Bunny’s Latest Music Video Doubles as a Documentary on Gentrification in Puerto Rico

Amid Hurricane Fiona, the artist combines his music with an 18-minute film by reporter Bianca Graulau

The Eiffel Tower at night

To Save Energy, the Eiffel Tower Dims Its Lights Early

The iconic landmark will go dark at 11:45 p.m. to help the city’s conservation efforts

The Phantom of the Opera will conclude its 35-year run at Broadway’s Majestic Theatre on February 18, 2023, with a record 13,925 performances.

After 35 Years, ‘The Phantom of the Opera’ Will Stop Haunting Broadway

Due to declining ticket sales, Broadway’s longest-running show will close this winter

The Brussels City Museum, one of the institutions participating in the pilot program

Art Meets Science

Doctors in Brussels Are Prescribing Free Museum Visits

To boost mental health, one of Brussels’ largest hospitals is testing the program in a six-month trial

Joan Hickson as Miss Marple in the BBC adaptation of Agatha Christie’s A Caribbean Mystery in 1989

Twelve Writers Bring Back Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple

In a new collection of short stories, contemporary authors take on the much-loved detective

Misty Copeland at the BET Black Girls Rock show in in Newark, New Jersey, in 2013

Misty Copeland Is Introducing Black and Latino Children to Ballet

The renowned dancer’s BE BOLD program will provide free dance classes to hundreds of students

James Earl Jones

Broadway Theater Renamed to Honor James Earl Jones

The official name change comes amid a push to recognize Black creatives on stage

David Byrne on the set of Theater of the Mind

Art Meets Science

Take a Trip Through David Byrne’s Mind

‘Theater of the Mind’ is an immersive play that unfolds in a 15,000-square-foot square-foot warehouse

Lou Reed, right, recorded stripped-down versions of Velvet Underground songs like “Heroin” with John Cale, left, in 1965.

Cool Finds

Listen to a Lost Tape by a 23-Year-Old Lou Reed

A new album presents the earliest-known recordings of “Heroin,” “I’m Waiting for the Man” and “Pale Blue Eyes”

Filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard

Jean-Luc Godard, an Icon of the French New Wave, Has Died at 91

The groundbreaking filmmaker helped set the stage for modern cinema

A visitor at the Seattle NFT Museum in Washington, one of the first states to tax non-fungible tokens

Two States Start Taxing NFTs

Washington and Pennsylvania wade into a largely unregulated marketplace

One of the iterations of Loab

Who Is the Woman Haunting A.I.-Generated Art?

Now known as “Loab,” she pops up repeatedly in a series of creepy images

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