Latest Stories

Our growing archive of info about art, design, and culture.

Biography: Rosa Bonheur

Rosa Bonheur was born on March 16, 1822, in Bordeaux, France, during a time when few women had the freedom to pursue careers in the fine arts. She came from a creative…
Washington State: The History of its Art

The first art of Washington was not a matter of oil or pigment but of endurance and recognition. Before galleries and schools, before names were attached to canvases, the region’s defining visual…
Artists and Ruins: The Salton Sea in Art

The Salton Sea, located in California’s Imperial and Riverside counties, is one of the most unusual bodies of water in the United States. It was not formed by natural geological activity but…
Mississippi: The History of its Art

The first artists of Mississippi worked in earth, clay, shell, and stone long before a brush ever met pigment. Across the river plains and wooded ridges, their art was not decoration but…
Year-Long Art Curriculum for Homeschool Families

A structured art education can become one of the richest parts of a homeschool program. Far more than just coloring and crafts, art trains the eye to see beauty, the hand to…
The Camden Town Group: Painting Urban Life in Edwardian England

At the turn of the 20th century, London was a city in flux. The rapid growth of the industrial economy, along with the expansion of urban life, brought a host of changes…
The Chupacabra in Art: Folklore and Fear

The chupacabra legend emerged explosively in Puerto Rico in March 1995, when local woman Madelyne Tolentino claimed to witness a creature that looked “like a gray alien with spikes.” Her detailed description…
Butchart Gardens: Beauty in British Columbia

In the late 19th century, the rugged coastline of Vancouver Island offered more than just natural beauty—it held rich limestone deposits ideal for cement production. Robert Pim Butchart, a Canadian industrialist born…
Palazzo Vecchio: Florence’s Fortress of Power

Palazzo Vecchio, one of the most commanding structures in Florence, began construction in 1299 as the Palazzo della Signoria, named after the Signoria, the governing body of the Florentine Republic. The design…
Museum Guide: The Vatican Museums

There is no single Vatican Museum. This is the first and most important truth—one that eludes many of the five million visitors who funnel each year through its marble gates and security…
Oregon: The History of its Art

The first art of Oregon was inseparable from life itself—woven into cedar bark, carved into river cliffs, and traded along forest trails that predated written history by thousands of years. Long before…
Misia Sert: A Muse of Taste and Influence

In the shifting world of the Belle Époque and early 20th-century Europe, where new artistic movements flourished and old traditions were challenged, a select few women stood not on stage or canvas,…