Our growing archive of info about art, design, and culture.
Design awards present themselves as the pinnacle of creative recognition, but in practice, many function more like high school elections than serious merit-based assessments. Judges often reward work based on name recognition,…
The École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts de Lyon (ENSBA Lyon) stands as one of France’s most historically significant and continually evolving centers for fine arts education. Located in the cultural heart of…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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 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…
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, 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…
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…