One: Singular Sensation
Last summer, the Museum of Modern Art took one of its best-known paintings off the wall, Jackson Pollock's One: Number 31, 1950, so that it could be conserved. They've been blogging about the process...
View ArticleWhat Jane Saw
On May 24th, 1813, Jane Austen visited a blockbuster art exhibition--the first major retrospective of Sir Joshua Reynolds, the premier English portraitist of the 18th century. Debuting 200 years to the...
View ArticleExplore design
The Smithsonian's Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum is the only museum in the nation devoted exclusively to historic and contemporary design. While its home, the grand Andrew Carnegie mansion in...
View ArticleConfucius say "Good things come to those who wait"
As part of the preparation for a special exhibition on the history of Chinese food in America, the Smithsonian opens the world's oldest can of fortune cookies. More posts on the exhibit research under...
View ArticleOpen Content, An Idea Whose Time Has Come
This week the Getty Museum announced that it is making 4600 digital images of public domain materials in its collections freely available, with plans to release more as their status is confirmed. You...
View ArticleFree art books online from the Metropolitan and Guggenheim Museums
The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Guggenheim offer 474 free art books online. 99 art catalogs from the Guggenheim. 375 MetPublications. An example: Masterpieces of Painting in the Metropolitan...
View ArticleShall these bones live? shall these Bones live?
Settling in for a long winter's nap? In need of a memento mori to guard against the unbridled jollity of the season? Just want to explore the wonderful world of 3D scans, osteology, and bioarchaeology...
View ArticleRemember, if approached by a librarian, keep still. Do not run away.
Welcome to a tumblr of wonders. Special Collections, archives, and libraries have many wonderful items, but getting to them all can be a bit like trying to walk into Mordor, unless you have unlimited...
View ArticleAll the colors of the-- Eames chair?
The Cooper-Hewitt Design Museum's collections, now searchable in color. Colors? They got colors. All kinds of colors. My god, it's just full of colors. But wait, there's even more inside... You can now...
View ArticleOf all the occupations in the world, why did he trade in our ancestors!
NYTimes: "The paleontologist Richard Leakey has called their removal a "sacrilege." Kenyan villagers have said their theft led to crop failure and ailing livestock. It is little wonder, then, that the...
View ArticleBeing Alain de Botton
Why Alain de Botton is a moron. Alain Botton on why he is not a moron.
View ArticleWhy Don't More Poor Kids Get to See Art?
Increasing the accessibility of cultural capital: "In New York, a place whose cultural institutions attract people from around the world, there are residents who not only have never visited those...
View ArticleWe're infecting the healthy
In the wake of the Corcoran's difficulties, which have now spawned more legal disputing, should we allow failing arts organizations to die?
View ArticleThe Norwegian for 'Museum Filter' might be 'Museum Filter'
Norway seems to be particularly good at making interesting museums. If you're touring, the museum of magic is spell-binding. The museum of knitting is a real purl. The petroleum museum is a gas. The...
View ArticleThe Digitized Medieval Manuscripts App
The DMMapp (Digitized Medieval Manuscripts App) is a website that links to more than 300 libraries in the world. Each one of these contains medieval manuscripts that can be browsed for free. The DMMapp...
View ArticleThe Passing of the Indians Behind Glass
Francie Diep on why natural history museums are taking down their indigenous cultures dioramas—and what can take their place. Visitors and museum staff say that by displaying American Indian cultures...
View ArticleRestoring a Punched Monet Painting
Three years ago, a man punched a hole in a Monet painting as it hung in Ireland's National Gallery. Conservationists have restored it. This is their story. A summary of their story for the faint of heart.
View ArticleGotta catch 'em all
As an archivist, my ethical duty is to maintain those objects of intrinsic value to future generations. I've often found that others assume my profession is focused on facts and figures, the hard data...
View ArticleSo many more stories of fascinating and brilliant women to be told
"Every one of these sites is worthy of visiting." Sophia Dembling highlights U.S. women's museums and sites for The Toast. Related: Women in Game Developement, a recently opened exhibit at the Museum...
View ArticleArt distribution in the US, measured in persons per monet.
Given that so little of it is ever exhibited or ever will be, maybe we could start at the bottom and sell some stuff out of storage that has no real prospect of being shown. What would that buy?...
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