News
Smithsonian Doubles Its Bill Traylor Holdings Ahead of 2018 Retrospective
Bill Traylor's drawings and paintings were not recognized by the art world until decades after his death in 1949.
Smithsonian Institution
Art
A Cherokee Artist Wrestling with Grief, Colonialism, and False Dichotomies
WASHINGTON, DC — Kay WalkingStick has devoted herself to breaking down perceived dichotomies.
Art
The Inca Rope Bridge That's Woven Across a River Each Year
WASHINGTON, DC — Each June in Huinchiri, Peru, four Quechua communities on two sides of a gorge join together to build a bridge out of grass, creating a form of ancient infrastructure that dates back at least five centuries to the Inca Empire.
Art
Contemporary and Historic Ledger Art Joined in a Seamless Native Narrative
Too often museums exhibit indigenous art of the United States as artifacts made by ghosts, even though many of these traditions are still inspiring contemporary creators.
Art
Hearing a Symphony in the Cacophony of a Lagos Market
Every city has its own sounds, its distinct murmur and roar of voices and traffic.
Art
Photographing Biodiversity, One Cubic Foot at a Time
WASHINGTON, DC — Much of science is observation, being attuned to what others overlook.
Art
A 19th-Century Cheyenne Warrior's Drawings of His Life as a POW
Some of the best-known 19th-century ledger art was created by Cheyenne, Arapaho, Comanche, Kiowa, and Caddo prisoners of war at Fort Marion in St. Augustine, Florida, following the Red River Wars.
Art
The Elegant Architecture of Airport Control Towers
Beginning in 2006, Smithsonian photographer Carolyn Russo journeyed through 23 countries, documenting the one structure nearly every traveler arriving by air sees: the airport tower.
Art
How Audubon Pranked a Fellow Naturalist with a Bulletproof Fish
Field books capture essential information for ecological history but are often difficult to track down in scientific collections.
Art
Skeletons on the Shelves: Museums' Slow Return of Indigenous Remains
Active repatriation of indigenous remains in museums only gathered serious momentum in the 1980s.
News
Looking at the Data Behind Free Museum Admission
The question of whether or not art museums should be free tends to get people riled up.
Art
Drawn Self-Portraits Materialized as Masks
For her Second Self photography series, Canadian artist Meryl McMaster asked her subjects to blindly draw single-line contours of their faces, which she then sculpted into wire masks.