Art & Design NPR explores the visual arts including design, photography, sculpture, and architecture. Interviews, commentary, and audio. Subscribe to the RSS feed.
Children gather inside a traditional tent, known as an ortz, in the Siberian taiga of northern Mongolia, watching a documentary about a Norwegian reindeer herder. Despite their remote location deep in the forest — accessible only by horseback or reindeer — the families stay connected with the outside world through such modern technology as solar panels and the occasional wifi connection.
Claire Thomas
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Claire Thomas
Squeeze into a photo booth for a Valentine’s Day smooch
Greenland, Still Not For Sale. And the Mona Lisa Gets Its Own Room.
Louvre visitors in front of The Wedding Feast at Cana by Paolo Veronese in June 2024. The painting is among several masterworks that may soon cease to play “second fiddle'” to the Mona Lisa.
Antoine Boureau/Hans Lucas/AFP via Getty Images
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Antoine Boureau/Hans Lucas/AFP via Getty Images
Mona Lisa’s roommates may be glad she’s moving out
French President Emmanuel Macron gives a speech in front of the Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci at the Louvre in Paris on Tuesday.
Bertrand Guay/Pool/AFP via Getty Images
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Bertrand Guay/Pool/AFP via Getty Images
The Louvre will be renovated and the ‘Mona Lisa’ will have her own room
A view of Moving Objects: Learning from Local and Global Communities on show at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco.
Kevin Candland/Asian Art Museum San Francisco
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Kevin Candland/Asian Art Museum San Francisco
A museum’s confession: Why we have looted objects
Graduating students protest remarks by Washington University Chancellor Andrew Martin on May 13 at the university’s campus near Clayton, Mo. Full story here.
Brian Munoz/St. Louis Public Radio
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Brian Munoz/St. Louis Public Radio
What is left of Pasha’s Palace amid Israel’s bombardment of Gaza. Historians of Gaza say Napoleon slept there for three nights in 1799.
Omar El Qattaa for NPR
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Omar El Qattaa for NPR
A Tour of Gaza’s Ancient Sites, Now Lost to War (Encore)
Olivier Latry, Notre Dame’s longest-serving organist, poses beside the refurbished instrument, ready for the reopening ceremonies after the destructive fire in 2019.
Philippe Guyonnet/Notre Dame Cathedral
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Philippe Guyonnet/Notre Dame Cathedral
A Sound Mirror: Notre Dame Cathedral’s Restoration Can Be Heard in Its Resonance
Paul Ninson of Ghana embraced photography as a career — and was inspired to create a library of photobooks about Africa. Above: Ninson in the Dikan Center in the capital city of Accra, which marked its second anniversary this month. He’s holding a copy of the center’s oldest book, The Gold Coast Yesterday and Today, published in the early 1940s.
Nana Kofi Acquah for NPR
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Nana Kofi Acquah for NPR
The “Kiss of Death” in “The Godfather: Part II”, directed by Francis Ford Coppola, based on the novel ‘The Godfather’ by Mario Puzo. Seen here from left, John Cazale (back to camera) as Fredo Corleone and Al Pacino as Don Michael Corleone.
Photo by CBS via Getty Images
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Photo by CBS via Getty Images
Is “The Godfather: Part II,” the perfect sequel?
The skateboarders of Bolivia’s Imilla Skate do their heel flips and backslides in polleras — colorful, layered skirts worn by the country’s Indigenous Aymara and Quechua population. “By skating in polleras, we want to show that girls and women can do anything, no matter how you look or how people see you,” says Daniela Santiváñez, who founded the group with two friends in 2019.
Ben de la Cruz/NPR
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Ben de la Cruz/NPR
Actress Lindsay Lohan attends a Calvin Klein Collection toast to Francisco Costa’s CFDA Women’s Wear designer of the Year award at Chinatown Brasserie June 13, 2006 in New York City.
Evan Agostini/Getty Images
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Evan Agostini/Getty Images
Why digital compact cameras are making a comeback this holiday season
Artist Nicholas Galanin’s piece Seletega recalls Spanish conquistador Hernan Cortes, who ordered his ships sunk after landing in Mexico in the early 1500s.
Greg Allen/NPR
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Greg Allen/NPR
At Miami’s Art Basel fair, elephants and a buried ship are bringing out the locals
Mickalene Thomas’ 2015 work “Afro Goddess Looking Forward.” Rhinestones, acrylic, and oil on wood panel
Mickalene Thomas/The Barnes Foundation
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Mickalene Thomas/The Barnes Foundation
Mickalene Thomas makes art that ‘gives Black women their flowers’
A stuffed bear, its chain broken, is just one of the objects in “Mrs. Christopher’s House.”
Rebecca Kiger/Troy Hill Art Houses
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Rebecca Kiger/Troy Hill Art Houses
Outside: vinyl siding. Inside: a bear