Art & Artists

The Smithsonian Folklife Archives. (Text by Leah Binkovitz. Photo by Brendan McCabe.)

Behind the Smithsonian: The Folklife Archives

You never know what you will find amidst the 50,000 recordings in the Smithsonian’s folk music collection

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Poetry Matters: A Lifelong Conversation in Letters and Verse

For Robert Lowell and Elizabeth Bishop, a friendship between two poets left a beautiful written record

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The Evolution of the Treble Clef

For centuries, music notation was an inexact technique and hasty transcriptions may have resulted in this symbol

How to Grow a Nanogarden

In a lab at Harvard University, Wim Noorduin cultivates microscopic crystalline flowers in glass beakers

A massive inflatable rubber duck floats in Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbor, adding a flash of bright yellow to the cityscape.

Hong Kong Fell in Love With This Larger-Than-Life Rubber Duck

The popular 46-foot-tall inflatable art installation returns to Victoria Harbor

Designer Kate Jenkins goes for a mix of realism and humor in her crocheted works of art. Here, the poppy seed bagel looks quite delectable until you notice the lips on that lox.

Look, But Don’t Eat: Delicious Crocheted Dishes

This British designer crochets pizzas, veggies and cakes that look almost realistic enough to eat

Despite a recent slump from the economic crisis, Harlem brownstones prices are on the rise again.

How Harlem Put Itself Back on the Map

Historian John Reddick looks at the people behind the neighborhood's recent reemergence as a thriving destination in the public eye

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The Design Future of New York as Seen by Urbanist Michael Sorkin

A theorist who can't stop planning has big ideas for his hometown on sustainability, equity and the right to the city

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Sheila E. On Her Glamorous Life, Upcoming Album and Future Collaborations

The diva on the drums, Sheila E. says she has no plans to slow down as she works on a solo album and autobiography

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When F. Scott Fitzgerald Judged Gatsby By Its Cover

A surprising examination of the original book jacket art to The Great Gatsby

The shelled sea butterfly Hyalocylis striata can be found in the warm surface waters of the ocean around the world.

Amazing Sea Butterflies Are the Ocean’s Canary in the Coal Mine

These delicate and stunning creatures are offering Smithsonian scientists a warning sign for the world's waters turning more acidic

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The Great(est) Gatsby Playlist

Baz Luhrmann may have his take, but Smithsonian Folkways offers its own streaming soundtrack for the novel-turned-movie

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The Best of Design, Cooper-Hewitt Announces 2013 Award Winners

From a Las Vegas Denny's with a wedding chapel to rock 'n' roll posters, this year's design award winners have a good time with great design

Artist Heather Dewey-Hagborg and her DNA-derived self-portrait.

Cracking the Code of the Human Genome

Creepy or Cool? Portraits Derived From the DNA in Hair and Gum Found in Public Places

Artist Heather Dewey-Hagborg reconstructs the faces of strangers from genetic evidence she scavenges from the streets

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Want to See How an Artist Creates a Painting? There’s an App for That

The Repentir app reveals an artist's creative process by allowing users to peel back layers of paint with the touch of their fingertips

Acoustic paintings from the installation "Higher Resonance."

How Do You Make a Painting Out of Sounds?

Jennie C. Jones has the answer. Her first solo museum show opens at the Hirshhorn in May

The Hirshhorn’s Bubble, which would be erected for two months each fall, would require about 60,000 square feet of membrane material.

The Real Deal With the Hirshhorn Bubble

The Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum looks to expand in a bold new way

Before There Was Photoshop, These Photographers Knew How to Manipulate an Image

Jerry Uelsmann and other artists manually blended negatives to produce dreamlike sequences

The tin tube was more resilient than its predecessor (the pig bladder), enabling painters to leave their studios.

Never Underestimate the Power of a Paint Tube

Without this simple invention, impressionists such as Claude Monet wouldn’t have been able to create their works of genius

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Egypt’s Murals Are More Than Just Art, They Are a Form of Revolution

Cairo’s artists have turned their city’s walls into a vast social network

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