Art
Artist's Diaries Since 1865
From Vincent Van Gogh to Joseph Cornell, writing has always been a crucial part of the artist's life.
Smithsonian Institution
Art
The Arrows of the Last Yahi Indian, Who Chose to Live Out His Final Days in a Museum
It's just a couple of arrows, but the pair of slender wood weapons are a reminder of a man who chose to live the rest of his life in museum rather than a reservation.
Books
What It Is to Be Cool in America
What is cool and why do Americans care so much? That's the hinge on which the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery has fixed American Cool — an exhibition of portraiture that opened in February — and its accompanying catalogue.
Art
Thunderbirds and Underwater Panthers in an Overlooked American Indian Art History
The Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian in New York is holding the first major survey of art by Anishinaabe artists in the Great Lakes region, with over a hundred works from artists both contemporary and ancient, all linked by the 10,000-year history of human settlement in the area.
News
Smithsonian Joins MoMA in Expanding Video Game Effort
As the Smithsonian American Art Museum continues to expand its video game collection (two acquisitions were announced today), so too does the Washington, DC-based institution find itself increasingly dedicated to documenting the broader culture of video game production.
News
How the Looming US Government Shutdown Will Affect the World of Art
By midnight this evening, we’ll finally know whether the government will be shut down — that's the silver lining to be found in the otherwise bleak congressional budget debate.
News
The First Code Acquired by Smithsonian's Design Museum Is Released to the World
The Smithsonian's Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum is getting onboard with digital acquisitions, this week announcing their first code addition to their collection.
Art
See the Studios of Artists Past
The Smithsonian Institution has an awesome online archive of old photographs of artists, many in their studios, where sculptors pose midway through work and painters cradle their palettes at their easels. Some have their clothes stained with paint, others obviously spruced up for the portrait occasi
News
Contract Workers at Smithsonian Protest Low Wages
Some 50 food service workers at the Smithsonian museums went on strike yesterday, in protest of their less-than-livable wages, but the institution tried to spin the story.
News
Facing Budget Cuts, Smithsonian Cuts Exhibitions and Closes Galleries
Earlier this week, officials with the Smithsonian Institution gave testimony on the impact of federal budget cuts from sequestration. The cuts will force the Smithsonian Institution to not just cancel or put on hold some upcoming exhibitions, but, starting May 1, to temporarily close off galleries t
News
An Ancient Symbol of Tolerance Goes on Its First American Tour
Back in the ancient world, whole clusters of ceremonial objects would be buried at a specific points in temple foundations, with a theorized reason being that these ritualistic items were believed to keep the buildings from ruin. While this didn't quite work in the longterm, as temples are as struct
News
BIG Architects to Design LEGO Museum and Smithsonian Master Plan
Bjarke Ingels Group (or BIG), the Danish architecture firm helmed by its namesake, is getting even bigger. New plans to create a LEGO museum and develop the master plan for the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C., signal that the buzzed-about firm is on the cusp of becoming the world’s next bi