Arts & Culture

Star Trek's Nichelle Nichols on Uhura's Radical Impact

Star Trek's decision to cast Nichelle Nichols, an African American woman, as major character on the show was an almost unheard-of move in 1968

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How Waffle House Uses Twitter to Help Recovery Efforts

FEMA themselves admit that they look to the omnipresent chain to see where the damage is the worst

Osgood says he can walk peacefully in total anonymity if he leaves his bow tie at home; but people always make him cakes with bow ties.

Charles Osgood's Love Affair With the Bow Tie Began With a Dire Warning About Clip-Ons

As one of his iconic bow ties arrives at the Smithsonian, Osgood reflects on good and bad doggerel and how to tie a good knot

Global Cities by Norwood Vivian, 2015

Mapping the World's Great Cities in a Most Unusual, Yet Visually Arresting, Fashion

Part urban planner, part cartographer, sculptor Norwood Viviano uses state-of-the-art mapping tools to make powerful works of art

DFB 45, Arès, Brandon Ballengée, 2008. Scanner photograph of cleared and stained multi-limbed Pacific Tree frog from Aptos, California in scientific collaboration with Dr. Stanley K. Sessions. Title in collaboration with the poet KuyDelair.

Art Meets Science

With Deformed Frogs and Fish, a Scientist-Artist Explores Ecological Disaster and Hope

A 20-year retrospective of Brandon Ballengée's artwork explores humans' connection to cold-blooded creatures

A rehearsal takes place at Teatro América, on Galiano Street in Havana. From the outside, the theater is nothing special, concealed behind a dull screen of gray polygon concrete. But step inside and you’ve entered the museum that is Cuban architecture.

Smithsonian Journeys Travel Quarterly: Cuba

Havana's Hidden Architectural Gems

The city's eclectic architecture is both extraordinary and imperiled

"A Changing America: 1968 and Beyond" exhibition.

Breaking Ground

The Sounds and Images of Black Power Take Center Stage in This Post-Civil Rights Exhibition

After Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination, black leaders and cultural influencers encouraged community self-reliance and pride

MythBusters’ Adam Savage and a team of makers from Baltimore made these letters, which lit up every time someone posted to social media using the hashtag #sxsl.

Here's What You Missed At the White House's First-Ever South By South Lawn Festival

On Monday, artists, musicians, tech enthusiasts and other innovators gathered in the president's backyard to celebrate a bright future

Monopoly, 2007 by Kristen Morgin

This Game of Monopoly Is Made Entirely of Clay

Kristen Morgin’s playful illusions explore ideas of abandonment and the American dream

Marion’s Morifolium Neckpiece by Jennifer Trask, 2011, includes sewing needles, antler, various teeth and bones and cast resin with bone powder, among other materials.

Bones and Blood Lurk Within These Stunning Works of Art

Sculptor Jennifer Trask sees a rich backstory in her materials

Peonies and Butterflies, Steven Young Lee, 2013, porcelain, cobalt inlay, gold luster decals. Collection of Lee and Mel Eagle

Steven Young Lee Crafts Perfectly Imperfect Pottery

Rigorously trained, this artist makes works that look woefully broken

Nine Places Where You Can Still See Wheel Tracks from the Oregon Trail

The legendary trail has carved itself into American history—and, in some places, into the earth itself

The Cultural Expressions exhibition celebrates the everyday.

Breaking Ground

How Did Smithsonian Curators Pack 200 Years of African-American Culture in One Exhibition?

The curators of the Cultural Expressions exhibition collected stories and artifacts and brilliantly packed 200 years into one round room

The faces of A Peace of My Mind.

A Photographer's 40,000-Mile Journey to Find What Peace Means to Americans

John Noltner has driven across the country in an effort to document the many definitions of peace

Installation view of "Masterworks from the Hirshhorn Collection at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden," 2016. Nude with Leg Up (Leigh Bowery) by Lucian Freud, 1992; Untitled (Big Man) by Ron Mueck, 2000.

The Hyperreal Magnetism of Ron Mueck's Truly Huge "Big Man"

The sculptor's showstopper is naked, overweight and grumpy

The gallery's uncluttered walls make way for splashy art that has space to breathe and have an impact.

Breaking Ground

History Grabs the Headlines, But the Quiet Authority of the Art Gallery in the New Smithsonian Museum Speaks Volumes

In the visual arts exhibition the tone and the ambience suddenly shift

For each Luckey Climber, the palette is the same: pipes, platforms, cables and wire netting.

Art Meets Science

King of the Playground, Spencer Luckey, Builds Climbers That Are Engineering Marvels

The 46-year-old architect and his crew build multi-story climbing structures for museums and malls around the world

Leutwyler spent three weeks in the archives of the Elvis Presley Estate photographing objects, such as this gold-plated microphone (c. 1960).

A New Photo Book Reveals the Objects That Tell the Stories of the Rich and Famous

Photographer Henry Leutwyler usually shoots his camera at celebrities. For this book, he looked at their stuff

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Breaking Ground

Live: Watch the National Museum of African American History and Culture Grand Opening Dedication Ceremony

Watch the live stream of today's museum opening

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The $10 Million Race to Invent Star Trek's Tricorder

Star Trek's fictional tricorder is far from becoming a reality. But a $10 million prize from the XPRIZE Foundation is hoping to motivate inventors

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