A wide angle look at literature, architecture, visual art, museums, writing, books and so much more. Visit often – always updated…
Hyperallergic Sensitive to Art & its Discontents
- Native Artist Shot in New Mexico at Rally Over Colonizer Statueby Elaine Velie on September 29, 2023 at 9:54 pm
Activists in Española had peacefully gathered to protest a monument of Juan de Oñate when Jacob Johns was allegedly shot by a man wearing a Trump hat.
- Life-Threatening Floods Force NYC Museums to Closeby Maya Pontone on September 29, 2023 at 7:19 pm
The Whitney, the Rubin, and many others shuttered or delayed their openings and heavy rains flooded the Noguchi Museum basement.
- Turkey’s Top Court Upholds Life Sentence for Arts Philanthropist Osman Kavalaby Elaine Velie on September 29, 2023 at 6:50 pm
The international community has decried his sentencing as a violation of human rights.
- Pratt Manhattan Gallery Presents Amazoniaby Pratt Manhattan Gallery on September 29, 2023 at 6:02 pm
Curated by Berta Sichel with Patricia Capa, this group exhibition centered on the Amazonian rainforest, its native societies, and ecologies is on view in NYC.
- University of the Arts Celebrates Philadelphia Open Studio Toursby University of the Arts (UArts) on September 29, 2023 at 6:00 pm
View work by UArts students and iLAB artists-in-residence at POST, the largest, self-guided, free tour of artist studios and creative workspaces in the region.
- Required Readingby Hrag Vartanian and Lakshmi Rivera Amin on September 28, 2023 at 9:46 pm
This week, satellite images capture lines of cars carrying Armenians fleeing Nagorno-Karabakh, an Ethiopian painting looted by the British Museum, digitizing Urdu script, and much more.
- Arrowhead Made From 3,500-Year-Old Meteorite Found in Switzerlandby Maya Pontone on September 28, 2023 at 9:31 pm
The Bronze Age artifact is of an “extremely rare” kind, researchers say.
- San Francisco’s Asian Art Museum Sues Architect and Contractor of Its New Pavilionby Elaine Velie on September 28, 2023 at 9:08 pm
The museum says the $38 million pavilion required costly repairs that delayed its opening.
- An Italian Artist Who Took On American Capitalismby John Yau on September 28, 2023 at 9:03 pm
Mario Schifano moved nimbly among different modes and never settled into a style, which sets him apart from many of his contemporaries.
- Remembering a Pioneer of Louisville’s Black Avant-Gardeby Natalie Weis on September 28, 2023 at 8:51 pm
When White-dominated arts institutions would not offer them opportunities, Robert L. Douglas and other Louisville Black artists organized together to create their own art communities.
Open Culture The best free cultural & educational media on the web
- Coursera Offers $100 Off of Coursera Plus (Until September 30), Giving You Unlimited Access to Courses & Certificatesby OC on September 30, 2023 at 7:01 am
A heads up on a deal: Between now and September 30, 2023, Coursera is offering a $100 discount on its annual subscription plan called “Coursera Plus.” Normally priced at $399, Coursera Plus (now available for $299) gives you access to 6,000+ world-class courses for one all-inclusive subscription price. This includes Coursera’s Specializations and Professional Certificates, all
- How Japanese Kintsugi Masters Restore Pottery by Beautifying the Cracksby Colin Marshall on September 29, 2023 at 9:00 am
A few years ago, we featured here on Open Culture the Japanese art of kintsugi, whose practitioners repair broken pottery with gold in a manner that emphasizes rather than hides the cracks. Since then, the idea seems to have captured the Western imagination, inspiring no few online investigations but also books with titles like Kintsugi
- When a Young Sofia Coppola & Zoe Cassavetes Made Their Own TV Show: Revisit Hi-Octane (1994)by Colin Marshall on September 29, 2023 at 8:00 am
It makes sense that Sofia Coppola and Zoe Cassavetes would be friends. Not only are they both respected filmmakers of Generation X, they’re both daughters of maverick American auteurs, a condition with its advantages as well as its disadvantages. The advantages, in Coppola’s case, have included the ability to get Zoetrope, her father Francis Ford
- A Determined Art Conservator Restores a Painting of the Doomed Party Girl Isabella de’ Medici: See the Before and Afterby Ayun Halliday on September 28, 2023 at 9:00 am
Some people talk to plants. The Carnegie Museum of Art‘s chief conservator Ellen Baxter talks to the paintings she’s restoring. “You have to …tell her she’s going to look lovely,” she says, above, spreading varnish over a 16th-century portrait of Isabella de’ Medici prior to starting the laborious process of restoring years of wear and
- Noam Chomsky Explains Why Nobody Is Really a Moral Relativist, Even Michel Foucaultby Colin Marshall on September 28, 2023 at 8:00 am
Noam Chomsky made his name as a linguist, which is easy to forget amid the wide range of subjects he has addressed, and continues to address, in his long career as a public intellectual. But on a deeper level, his commentary on politics, society, media, and a host of other broad fields sounds not unlike
- Martin Scorsese Breaks Down His Most Iconic Films: Mean Streets, Taxi Driver, GoodFellas, and Moreby Colin Marshall on September 27, 2023 at 9:00 am
“Did Scorsese make the best movie of each decade since the ’70s?” asks GQ‘s Zach Baron in a recent profile of that long-lived auteur. “Probably not (I think his case is weakest in the first decade of this century), but you could argue it, and many people have.” And indeed, you may well find yourself
- Behold the Jacobean Traveling Library: The 17th Century Forerunner to the Kindleby OC on September 27, 2023 at 8:00 am
Image courtesy of the University at Leeds In the striking image above, you can see an early experiment in making books portable–a 17th century precursor, if you will, to the modern day Kindle. According to the library at the University of Leeds, this “Jacobean Travelling Library” dates back to 1617. That’s when William Hakewill, an
- Stream Hundreds of Hours of Studio Ghibli Movie Music That Will Help You Study, Work, or Simply Relax: My Neighbor Totoro, Spirited Away & Moreby Colin Marshall on September 26, 2023 at 9:00 am
The Boy and the Heron, the latest feature from master animator Hayao Miyazaki, opened in Japan this past summer. In that it marks his latest emergence from his supposed “retirement,” we could label it not just as late Miyazaki, but perhaps even “post-late” Miyazaki. But the film nevertheless shares significant qualities with his earlier work,
- Welcome to Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoc, the Town with the Longest Name in Europeby Ayun Halliday on September 26, 2023 at 8:00 am
Its name can be squeezed onto a tea towel, a decorative plate, a magnet, a mug, and other touristic souvenirs, but has the northern Welsh town of Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoc been celebrated in song? Indeed it has. The Great Big Story‘s Human Condition episode, above, has vinyl proof, though the tune’s unlikely to give The White Cliffs
- Do You Think About Ancient Rome Every Day? Then Browse a Wealth of Videos, Maps & Photos That Explore the Roman Empireby Colin Marshall on September 25, 2023 at 9:00 am
This month, more than a few TikTok-using women have asked the men in their lives how often they think about the Roman Empire. And to the astonishment of these women, more than a few of these men have responded that they think about it on a daily basis, or even more often than that. By