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Smart News / Smart News Arts & Culture

Contestants work under time pressure to pitch ideas and write complete novels. 

New Reality Show Is Looking for ‘America’s Next Great Author’

Applications are open for aspiring writers who want to appear in the pilot episode

The memes place their subjects in situations ranging from historically significant to hilariously obscure, including the Battle of Lexington, the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire and more.

Trending Today

Why American Girl Dolls Are Starring in Viral History Memes

The popular posts call for characters who witnessed the Salem Witch Trials, JFK’s assassination and other historical events

Lou Reed performing in 1975

Inside Lou Reed’s Archives

Newly discovered recordings and songs are now on display at the New York Public Library

Stevenson holds Head of a Peasant Woman beside the X-ray of the concealed van Gogh self-portrait.

Cool Finds

Hidden van Gogh Self-Portrait Discovered During a Routine X-Ray

The image has been obscured behind another painting for over a century

James Joyce and Sylvia Beach at Shakespeare and Company circa 1926

Who Were the Women Behind James Joyce’s ‘Ulysses’?

As the novel turns 100, two exhibitions tell the stories of the women who made it possible

Maurizio Cattelan's “Comedian,” featuring a banana duct-taped to a wall

The Famous Banana Taped to a Wall Is Now at the Center of a Copyright Suit

Several years after the irreverent piece’s debut, another artist claims he had the idea first

Don Henley and Glenn Frey of the Eagles performing at Madison Square Garden in 2008

Three Men Charged for Trying to Sell Stolen ‘Hotel California’ Notes and Lyrics

Worth over $1 million, the handwritten materials were originally stolen from the Eagles’ Don Henley in the 1970s

The VR gallery allows people to see virtual versions of artworks up close. 

Five Stolen Paintings Go on Display in Virtual Reality

The exhibition displays artworks that were taken from museums around the world

By adding art exhibitions like “Beyond van Gogh,” casinos are hoping to become known for more than gambling.

Can Casinos Be Art Galleries?

Hoping to grow their audiences, gambling halls are luring new visitors with old masterpieces

Amelia Earhart sitting in her cockpit

Amelia Earhart Statue Finally Arrives at U.S. Capitol

After a 23-year delay, the statue will represent Kansas in the Statuary Hall Collection

Grime artist Jammer’s basement studio

Inside the Evolution of Grime Music

A new exhibition explores how the genre has changed since it began in east London

Literary scholar Vanessa Braganza suggests that Catherine commissioned the pendant design as "a sign of her conviction of her own enduring legitimacy."

The Secrets of a Long-Overlooked Cipher Linked to Catherine of Aragon

Henry VIII’s first wife may have commissioned the design as an act of defiance during the Tudor king’s attempt to divorce her

A scene from "Light and Magic"

Art Meets Science

This Visual Effects Studio Transformed Movies Forever

A new documentary tells the story of Industrial Light and Magic, the pioneering team that brought films like “Star Wars” and “Jurassic Park” to life

The new Hong Kong Palace Museum

How the Hong Kong Palace Museum Is Forging Its Own Identity

The new museum overcame a rocky start and a typhoon delay to open to eager crowds on July 3

Screenshot of news coverage of the demolition of Georgia Guidestones

The Georgia Landmark Known as ‘America’s Stonehenge’ Is Destroyed in an Explosive Attack

The mysterious granite monoliths have been the source of conspiracy theories for almost half a century

Models holding hands in Lagos, Nigeria, in 2019

How Fashion Helped Shape Africa’s Cultural Renaissance

A new exhibition at the V&A in London explores historic and contemporary African designers, photographers, models, makeup artists and illustrators

A fresco depicting the abduction of Europa by Zeus, in the form of a bull

Cool Finds

See the Hidden, 500-Year-Old Frescoes Discovered at the Prince’s Palace of Monaco

Restoration experts spent years preserving the artworks, which are now on view as the royal residence reopens for the summer

Riders on the Pine Apples float in the 1898 parade

Cool Finds

The Oldest Footage of New Orleans Has Been Found

Previously only rumored to exist, the two-minute film depicts a Mardi Gras parade from 1898

Frontispiece; Title Page (1893), Edward Burne-Jones and William Morris for the Kelmscott Press

Medieval Art’s Enduring Hold on Pop Culture

In a new exhibition at the Getty, prints and paintings from the Middle Ages sit beside pop culture artifacts

The van Gogh painting is one of the Courtauld Gallery’s best-known works.

Climate Activists Glue Themselves to Van Gogh Painting in London

The protesters hope to combat political inaction in the face of the climate crisis

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