News

Jun 29, 2016

Floating art lets people walk on water at Italy's Lake Iseo

Featured on cnn.com

Thanks to a pop-up art installation made of floating saffron-colored walkways, visitors to northern Italy's Lake Iseo can now walk on water.

Well, sort of.

Jun 28, 2016

Major Philadelphia Museum of Art donors talk about some of their favorite works

Featured on philly.com

To say art has dominated the lives of Keith and Kathy Sachs is to say the sun shines during the day.

Throughout 47 years of marriage, the Sachses have been dedicated collectors of modern art. Since the 1980s, they have focused their attention on the art of their time.

In 2014, the Sachses announced that they would give the bulk of their art to the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Jun 23, 2016

More art, fewer deaths?

Featured on mynewsla.com

Metro’s public arts officer, who is known for work that explores sound and oral histories, was named artist-in-residence of the city’s Department of Transportation Monday.

Alan Nakagawa will work as a part-time consultant, focusing on promoting the city’s Vision Zero initiative, which calls for eliminating traffic- related deaths in Los Angeles, city officials said.

Transportation Department General Manager Seleta Reynolds said Nakagawa will “focus on how we can infuse art into design to create safer streets.”

Jun 22, 2016

Canadian artists use scent, instead of paint, to shape their art

Art is political and so is scent. These are the Canadian artists using smell to evoke emotions.

Featured on thestar.com

The smell of pavement when it starts to rain, the pages in an old book, your mother’s perfume — these odours may evoke memories, images flashing in our minds. But then, how to describe them?

“There’s no language for it,” says Jim Drobnick, a critic, curator and associate professor at OCAD University.

“It has a real presence and ephemerality to it.”

Jun 21, 2016

Buy art for pleasure, not profit, researchers say

"Paintings are primarily aesthetic investments, not financial ones," said economist Roman Kräussl.

Featured on upi.com

New research suggests returns on investment in fine art have been significantly exaggerated. Economists' advice to collectors: buy art if you enjoy it, but not with the expectation of profit.

Jun 17, 2016

The healing power of art

Featured on reformer.com

Drawing from a daughter's dying wish, a Vermont mother buys paintings for patient rooms in the state's hospitals.

The last time Vermonter Susan Sebastian was hospitalized for lifelong health problems, she set her mind on seeing past the sterile walls fencing her in.

"When I get out of here," she told her mother, "I am going to sell my house to buy art for patient rooms."

Sebastian died shortly thereafter, leaving her mother to disperse her estate.

Jun 16, 2016

At any skill level, making art reduces stress hormones

Cortisol lowers significantly after just 45 minutes of art creation

Featured on sciencedaily.com

Whether you're Van Gogh or a stick-figure sketcher, a new Drexel University study found that making art can significantly reduce stress-related hormones in your body.

Although the researchers from Drexel's College of Nursing and Health Professions believed that past experience in creating art might amplify the activity's stress-reducing effects, their study found that everyone seems to benefit equally.

Jun 15, 2016

In a Queens Park, Art Rises From the Mist

Mika Tajima’s public installation in Long Island City charts the price of gold through pink and blue vapors

Featured on wsj.com

There is a new gold price index in town: a mysterious cloud of pink and blue mist rising up by the riverside in Long Island City, Queens.

Jun 14, 2016

The Art World Responds to the Devastating Orlando Nightclub Shooting

Featured on news.artnet.com

The deadliest mass shooting to take place on American soil has left 50 people dead, including gunman Omar Mateen, at Pulse, a gay night club in Orlando. The world has reacted to the senseless tragedy with shock and grief, holding vigils and offering artistic tributes to the victims, many of whom were young Latinos.

Jun 13, 2016

Artwork Transforms the Busy Corridors of Lurie Children's

Art may not be the first thing you think of when you picture the staff corridors of a busy children’s hospital.  If you’re like most people, you automatically imagine the bustling of employees and the hecticness that is associated with the daily operations of a large medical institution.  However, over the last three years, NAP Coordinator Lisa Mulvaney has been changing this perception at the Ann and Robert H.
Jun 13, 2016

Reno-Tahoe International Airport Engages Traveling Passengers in NAP Exhibit

Kim Matthews had a fantastic idea for the 8th Annual Reno-Tahoe International Airport’s National Arts Program® Exhibit. She decided to create a coloring wall at the entrance of the gallery inviting everyone to participate in coloring it in. Kim stated that the wall, “filled in quite nicely thanks to Reno-Tahoe International Airport’s traveling passengers”.

Jun 13, 2016

Record Participation for the University of Arizona

Claudia Arias is the coordinator for the Annual ‘On Our Own Time Art Exhibit’ at the University of Arizona. This was their seventh annual show since partnering with the National Arts Program® and their exhibits just seem to get better and better with every passing year. Claudia has a tremendous work load, but makes time to handle all the responsibilities of this amazing exhibit.

Jun 13, 2016

The Orlando tragedy: This art seeks to speak to our grieving hearts

Featured on washingtonpost.com

THE HORRIFIC happens, and we reach for words to comprehend an evil incomprehensible.

We reach out to talk, trying to speak the unspeakable and fathom the unfathomable.

Some, like actor Frank Langella at Sunday night’s Tony Awards, are able to offer a speech that supplies girding strength and inspiration.

We turn to political and spiritual leaders, hoping their words will console us and comfort us and help us grieve.

Jun 09, 2016

Using computers to better understand art

Featured on theconversation.com

How do humans interpret and understand art? The nature of artistic style, seemingly abstract and intuitive, is the subject of ongoing debate within art history and the philosophy of art.