News

The NAP exhibit at the University of Chicago Medicine in Illinois will be on display through February 4th and showcases 169 artworks from their talented employee community. The show is in it’s thirteenth year and continues to be a success thanks to the tremendous efforts of coordinators Monica Hork and Janet Seitzer.

The staff of the National Arts Program were in attendance to help the City of Philadelphia celebrate their Nineteenth Annual show this year. 

The first ever NAP exhibition to be held in the state of Alabama opened at Huntsville Hospital Health System this past November with great success. The show, which featured more than 170 pieces from over 100 artists, completely filled the available wall space of the busy connector hallway between hospitals.  

Airport Foundation MSP, which manages the arts and culture program at MSP International Airport, hired Ben Owen as the program’s new director this past summer. Ben hit the ground running with many exhibits and projects already in the works, including their annual National Arts Program exhibit which is in its eighth year. Having more than 10 years of experience in public art management for statewide public art agencies, Ben was an ideal fit for managing both the NAP exhibit and the many other arts and music programs that are ongoing at the Airport. 

Featured on forbes.com

Featured on pressdemocrat.com

About 1,000 years ago, a woman in Germany died and was buried in an unmarked grave in a church cemetery. No record of her life survived, and no historian had reason to wonder who she was. But when modern scientists examined her dug-up remains, they discovered something peculiar — brilliant blue flecks in the tartar on her teeth.

And that has cast new light on the role of women and art in medieval Europe.

Featured on refinery29

Around 2015 or so, adult colouring books arrived on the Amazon bestseller list, and haven’t left since. The response was polarising: Kate Middleton was reportedly a fan at one point, but Quartz dubbed them America’s “cry for help.” Forbes called them the “dark horse of publishing”that year. Regardless of how you feel about colouring books for those past grade school, studies have proven that they do help some de-stress at the end of the day, highlighting an oft-forgotten means of stress relief: creating art.

Featured on artsy.net

In 2018, we learned more about the art practices of the earliest humans and recovered (or reattributed) artworks by relatively recent humans, like ​Willem de Kooning and Robert Motherwell. Scientists and archaeologists also shed light on ancient cultures through art, from centuries-old Egyptian statues to Indonesian cave paintings. Our understanding of the art of the past—and its relationship to the present—became much more nuanced thanks to the 15 dramatic discoveries outlined below.

Featured on mentalfloss.com

Mark your calendars, Nightmare Before Christmas and Frankenweenie fans: The Neon Museum in downtown Las Vegas will be hosting the first Tim Burton art exhibition in the U.S. in nearly a decade, according to Las Vegas Weekly.

An extensive selection of original artwork by the acclaimed director, producer, and animator will be on display from October 15, 2019 to February 15, 2020. Some of the pieces will be entirely new artworks, while others have been exhibited in the past.

An artist, musician, experience designer and app developer meet for coffee. This multi-sensory installation is the result.
Featured on smithsonianmag.com

Featured on mcclatchydc.com

Hollywood actors Ben and Casey Affleck got one each for Christmas last year. Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Taylor Branch has four hanging in his home. The actress who played the Gossip Girl grandma wept, then bought one. Some students and teachers have acquired the artwork as well, including a former CIA analyst.

Call it blowback: A year after the Defense Department banned releases of art made by the 40 prisoners still at Guantánamo, detainee artwork that got out before the ban is emerging as a collectible with a bit of cachet.

Featured on cincinnati.com

It’s not completely accurate to refer to the artists who are featured in these two intriguing exhibits as outsiders. In some ways, in fact, they’re the ultimate insiders – art educators, architects, installers who shape nearly every aspect of the way exhibitions are presented to us. 

Perhaps “unrecognized” might be a better word. Or “overlooked.” Or “unseen.” 

Featured on lifehacker.com

Art, as we all know, is about following a set number of rules handed to you by another person. In the latest New York Magazine cover story, art critic Jerry Saltz lists 33 steps to becoming a great artist, and what’s interesting is how many don’ts he’s willing to hand out. His refreshingly specific tips are all, at some level, optional. And that is why they’re useful, if you’re trying to be more creative.