Oct 17, 2025
Armed with tweezers, a porcupine quill, and more patience than most of us could fathom, the senior paper conservator of the Victoria & Albert Museum tackles a finicky restoration project in a new video. Susan Catcher walks us through her impeccably precise process...
Oct 10, 2025
In the famous first stanza of the 17th-century poem “Auguries of Innocence,” William Blake writes: To see a world in a grain of sandAnd a heaven in a wild flower,Hold infinity in the palm of your handAnd eternity in an hour. Perhaps Blake didn’t...
Oct 8, 2025
In 2022, twenty-one-year-old Tanya choked back tears as she held her boyfriend’s hand for what could be the last time. Crouching down to reach her, the military fatigue-clad Volodimir stands on a train headed for the city of Kramatorsk in the Donbas region of...
Oct 3, 2025
When playwright Tennessee Williams reflected on the oeuvre of photographer Stephen Shore in 1982, he said, “His work is Nabokovian for me: Exposing so much and yet leaving so much room for your imagination to roam and do what it will.” The sentiment...
Oct 2, 2025
Commemorating the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, Berlin-based artist Chiharu Shiota presents a poignant suite of large-scale works in Two Home Countries at Japan Society Gallery. That artist is known for her immersive string installations, inviting us...
Sep 29, 2025
Around 10,000 years ago, a paradigm shift in human history began to unfold. Prior to this transitional period, which archaeologists refer to as the Neolithic Revolution—the final phase of the Stone Age—small societies were organized around hunting and gathering for...
Sep 26, 2025
In many parts of rural America, the population keeps shrinking. Low birth rates, aging residents, and evolving or shuttering industries pair with a trend of younger people migrating to metro areas for jobs and more diverse cultural amenities. As of 2022, the U.S....
Sep 25, 2025
What could be better in antiquity — and today — than relaxing at the Roman baths? From saunas to hot rooms to cold plunges, both public and private thermae catered to the populace of most Roman cities. But baths were more than just a space to get clean. Much like...
Sep 17, 2025
In 1903, on a farm in southeastern Norway, a once-in-a-lifetime discovery emerged from within a large yet unassuming mound in a field. When the spot was excavated in 1904, the mound revealed an entire Viking longship that had been interred in its entirety as a burial...
Sep 16, 2025
Most often associated with Mexico, the piñata’s origins may actually trace back to China. By the 14th century, the celebratory tradition of breaking open a container filled with treats had arrived in Europe. Then, Spanish colonists and missionaries imported the...
Sep 10, 2025
Through his humanistic approach to photography and film, Carlos Javier Ortiz immerses us in dramatic protests, emotional ceremonies, and historical events that mark our current moment. The Chicago-based photographer and filmmaker was born in Puerto Rico and makes work...
Sep 6, 2025
Kowloon Walled City, considered the densest settlement on the planet, was demolished in the mid-1990s. At its height in the ’80s, it was home to around 33,000 people—a government survey provided some idea of the local population—but estimates are often closer to...