A new decade brought new surprises to our 13th annual Top 25 Arts Destinations readers’ poll. Old favorites were ousted, frontrunners became runners-up, and cities that hadn’t ranked in the past finally made their marks. Each year, it’s impossible to predict how the cities will stack up in each of our three categories, but we wouldn’t want it any other way.
Read More
California-based painter and professor Howard Ikemoto once told the following story: “When my daughter was about seven years old, she asked me one day what I did at work. I told her I worked at the college—that my job was to teach people how to draw. She stared at me, incredulous, and said, ‘You mean they forget?’ ”
If we’re honest with ourselves, many of us have forgotten much of what we felt as children in art class—total freedom to express ourselves without judgment. The good news is that there are plenty of art schools all around the country that make it their mission to help adults reclaim that feeling.
There’s no better time than summer to take a break from your everyday routine, escape to a beautiful place far away from home, and spend a few days trying your hand at painting, sculpting or blowing glass.
Read More
You can see the wistfulness in their eyes. The two are dying to join their kids clambering up, over, under and inside the colorful, fancifully designed pieces in the oceanic exhibit—but, well, they’re adults.
A sharp-eyed museum employee spots their hungry gazes, and urges them to start exploring, too. “Go ahead and climb up there!,” he assures, gesturing toward the thick, industrial coil that winds around a tiled pillar before disappearing into the cloudlike ceiling two stories above. “This museum is for everyone, not just kids.”
Read More
I think I’m in love with Rocco Landesman. The new National Endowment for the Arts chairman launched an Art Works Tour last October to see for himself how the arts contribute to local economies, and so far, he’s doing (and saying) everything right.
In Philadelphia, he took in neighborhood murals; in Michigan, he checked out the arts in urban Detroit and tiny Chelsea; in San Diego, he made the rounds of old buildings adapted for arts reuse. And everywhere he went, his message was the same: “Arts,” he affirmed, “change the ethos of a community. They enliven it; they activate the public life.”
Read More
As the first female Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright had a few decisions to make that her male peers did not—how to update her wardrobe, which colors to choose and, most important, what jewelry to wear. The latter was a decision practically made for her in 1994, while she served as America’s ambassador to the United Nations.
Read More
If you spent summers in Atlantic City, N.J., prepare to be transported back in time. Paula Jerome’s “Charms Collection” bracelets recall everything from an Atlantic City postcard and a diving horse to Fralinger’s Salt Water Taffy. The “Bathing Beauty” charm is based on Jerome’s memories of her mother posing on the beach.
“I grew up in the 1950s,” Jerome explains. “I think it was a simpler time. The historical icons represented in my charms are reflective of those times.” She spent summers from 1949 to 1975 among the white sandy beaches and salty air.
Read More
Vermont studies the studio craft movement through a regional lens in the groundbreaking exhibition, “State of Craft,” at the Bennington Museum in Bennington, Vt., through Oct. 31.
In an attempt to record previously under-researched history, the exhibition examines the evolution of fine American craft in Vermont from 1960 to 2010 in three parts. “Living by ‘Making’ ” examines the cultural roots of pioneers like Karen Karnes, known as the “grandmother of American ceramics,” self-taught weaver Carol Crawford, and a mentor-apprentice relationship between metalsmiths Celie Fago and Jennifer Kahn.
Read More
In the lexicon of the visual arts, Santa Fe, N.M., is a mecca. Situated 7,000 feet above sea level on a high plateau at the base of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, it is a place where colors are more intense, people are more laidback and art is everywhere.
Santa Fe’s history is studded with stories of artists and dreamers, lured to the city for all kinds of reasons. Georgia O’Keeffe is no doubt the best-known Santa Fe artist today, but it was “Los Cinco Pintores,” a group of now-almost-forgotten Modernist painters from the 1920s, who put the crown jewel of Santa Fe’s art market, Canyon Road, on the map.
Read More
Fans of John Waters’ films know Baltimore as a must-see arts destination, an enclave of funkiness, each neighborhood molded by like-minded artists.
Read More
The event includes a street fair teeming with art vendors and 50 varieties of lavender from the Olympic Peninsula at the Sequim Lavender Festival in July.
Read More
Summer is the season to get outdoors and explore art alfresco. To get you started, we’ve handpicked a series of sculpture parks across the country.
The Des Moines Art Center in Iowa has outdone itself: the John and Mary Pappajohn Sculpture Park officially premiered last fall, 32 blocks east of the art center. The south side of the park is a must-see: it offers dramatic views of Mark di Suvero’s bright-red steel “T8” and Jaume Plensa’s pensive “Nomade.” And be sure to walk the 4.4-acre park—the architects designed it to unfold slowly, using hills and 8-foot-high backdrops to focus your attention on specific works while temporarily hiding others. The park currently showcases 16 donations from collectors John and Mary Papajohn; when completed, it will feature 24 works worth $40 million. Visit www.desmoinesartcenter.org for details.
Read More
