A new study has found that after watching a docudrama about the efforts to free a wrongly convicted prisoner on death row, people were more empathetic toward formerly incarcerated people and supportive of criminal justice reform. The research, led by a team of Stanford psychologists, published Oct. 21 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences...
Art & Style
Color Complexity in Social Media Posts Leads to More Engagement, New Research Shows
If you work in digital marketing, you don’t need to be told a picture’s worth a thousand words. More than half of content marketers say images are crucial for achieving their social media goals, and a staggering 70% of users prefer image-based posts over text, surveys have found. But which types of visuals work best?...
Namibia’s Art Scene Has Been Built by Unsung Heroes – Like Queer Artist Jo Rogge
A week after the opening of their solo exhibition So She Was Turned To a Pillar of Salt at The Project Room in Windhoek, Jo Rogge also facilitated a workshop for aspiring female artists at the gallery. Squeezing in a workshop in the few days they were in Namibia is an affirmation of their commitment...
Reconstruction of Costumes Based on Wall Paintings from Faras
In the 1960s, the Egyptian government decided to build the Aswan High Dam. To study and salvage areas threatened by flooding by the Nile, scholars from twenty-six countries participated in a UNESCO-led initiative to save cultural heritage. A Polish team, led by Prof. Kazimierz Michałowski from the University of Warsaw, chose as their research site...
After 30 Paintings from Tehran Museum Disappear, Critics Call For Investigation
Thirty valuable paintings on loan from the Imam Ali Religious Arts Museum in Tehran have vanished after “an unidentified entity outside the municipality with official documentation” for an exhibition that it appears never took place, according to a report from Artdependence. Tehran City Council member Nasser Amani disclosed the news during a recent council meeting. The estimated worth...
Why It’s Time for Museums to Take Risks—or Risk Obsolescence
One of the central challenges facing the museum field is the question of how to best share collections, especially historical ones, in ways that are inspiring, relevant and reflective of changing audiences’ wants and needs. While museums have been around for centuries, the fact that most still operate like their precursors is surprising in today’s...
Olafur Eliasson’s New Kaleidoscopic Visions Make Their Dazzling Debut in L.A.
“OPEN,” part of PST ART, marks the artist’s first solo exhibition in the city. “You can see the inside of the building outside” is how Olafur Eliasson described the sprawling facility that’s been housing the Geffen Contemporary at MOCA for more than four decades. It’s an apt observation as the interior of the structure—once a...
Christie’s Establishes its First Saudi Arabia Outpost
Today, Christie’s became the first international auction house to establish a permanent commercial license to operate in Saudi Arabia. Noor Kelani will oversee the new location in her recently established role as managing director of Chrisie’s Saudi Arabia. According to a press release, she will head up client services for the fine art and luxury...
South African Rock Art Possibly Inspired by Long-Extinct Species
A mysterious tusked animal depicted in South African rock art might portray an ancient species preserved as fossils in the same region, according to a study published September 18, 2024 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Julien Benoit of the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa. The Horned Serpent panel is a section of rock...
Beneath the Brushstrokes, Van Gogh’s Sky Is Alive with Real-World Physics
Vincent van Gogh’s painting “The Starry Night” depicts a swirling blue sky with yellow moon and stars. The sky is an explosion of colors and shapes, each star encapsulated in ripples of yellow, gleaming with light like reflections on water. Van Gogh’s brushstrokes create an illusion of sky movement so convincing it led atmospheric scientists...