Our growing archive of info about art, design, and culture.
The fairy tale known as Rumpelstiltskin was first published by Jacob Grimm (1785–1863) and Wilhelm Grimm (1786–1859) in 1812. Appearing in the inaugural edition of their Children’s and Household Tales, the story…
The Zodiac Killer remains one of the most chilling unsolved cases in American history. Active between 1968 and 1974, this unidentified murderer terrorized Northern California with a string of cryptic letters, strange…
Children often struggle to express complex emotions through words alone, especially in early developmental stages. Art provides an accessible, non-verbal outlet that helps them translate feelings into color, form, and line. Studies…
The Adelaide Botanic Garden was officially founded in 1855, but its origins trace back several years earlier when civic leaders in South Australia recognized the need for a public green space that…
In the early Christian world, the lion stood as one of the most powerful symbols an artist could choose. Medieval craftsmen rarely saw a real lion, yet they gave the creature an…
Before pills came in blister packs and prescriptions were filled by machines, medicine was the realm of leaves, roots, and bark. At the heart of this ancient world stood the apothecaries—early pharmacists…
Voodoo art, sometimes spelled Vodou or Vodun depending on the region, remains one of the most misunderstood traditions in global religious art. Its dark, mystical reputation in the Western imagination clashes with…
The Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw was established in 1904, during a time when Poland was still partitioned and under Russian control. The need for a national art institution was pressing,…
At first glance, Kawasaki may appear to the outsider as merely a gray corridor between Tokyo and Yokohama—a place of warehouses, smokestacks, commuter lines, and functional modernity. But beneath that utilitarian shell…
Wine has played a central role in human culture since the ancient world, and artists have turned to it again and again as a subject filled with symbolic meaning. It appears in…
New Orleans is unlike any other city in America, and nowhere is that more evident than in its cemeteries. Locals call them “Cities of the Dead,” and it’s an apt name. Behind…
Long before the rise of classical civilizations, long before the pyramids of Egypt or the temples of Greece, a mobile people roamed the vast grasslands stretching from the Dniester River to the…