• American history all sewn up – in pictures

    American history all sewn up – in pictures
    Once a luxury item, since the 17th century quilts have evolved into a democratic art form that celebrates collaboration. Fabric of a Nation, a new book, brings together quilts spanning more than 300 years from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. It’s a snapshot of America – Native American history, women’s suffrage, the construction of the railway, the civil rights movement. “Quilts are incredibly accessible objects,” says Jennifer M Swope, who curated the book and exh
  • Samson Kambalu: New Liberia; Pre-Raphaelites: Drawings & Watercolours – review

    Samson Kambalu: New Liberia; Pre-Raphaelites: Drawings & Watercolours – review
    Modern Art Oxford; Ashmolean Museum, Oxford
    Kambalu, a Malawian fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford, tears a strip off Britain’s colonial legacy. And precision is all for the pre-RaphaelitesA black man in a hat walks out of an arched doorway in an Oxford college. His movements are strange, stilted as a figure in some early silent movie. But at least he is walking forwards, or so it seems. Tourists part around him, staring, awkward, but they are all walking backwards in the quadrangle &ndash
  • Folkestone’s seafront has been transformed by art in the past decade

    Folkestone’s seafront has been transformed by art in the past decade
    Four Folkestone triennials have drawn thousands of visitors to the once-deprived town, bringing a creative energy and new food and music venuesForget donkeys – in Folkestone’s early 20th century heyday, holidaymakers rode llamas along the beach. The town had the royal seal of approval: the Grand hotel was a favourite bolthole of the Prince of Wales and his mistress Alice Keppel. It also had the glamour of an international rail port, with boat trains for Boulogne arriving at the harbo
  • ‘A firework is a beautiful way to pay tribute’: Dark Mofo ceremony celebrates lives with a flash in the sky

    ‘A firework is a beautiful way to pay tribute’: Dark Mofo ceremony celebrates lives with a flash in the sky
    For those who choose to be involved with Alex Podger’s Memorial, it is an act of catharsis: each firework contains the ashes of a loved oneA bracingly chilly evening in Hobart. Mizzling rain is falling. A firework zips into the sky over the River Derwent (timtumili minanya). A flash, a bang, a cascade of golden embers. Glittering reflections scatter across the water.Some among the hundreds of people in the waterfront queues for Hobart’s Dark Mofo winter festival feast look up and cat
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  • German police appeal for information after 17th century paintings found in skip

    German police appeal for information after 17th century paintings found in skip
    An art expert believes the paintings are by Dutch artist Samuel van Hoogstraten and Italian Pietro BellottiGerman police have appealed for information from the public after two 17th century paintings were discovered in a skip at a highway rest stop.Police said a 64-year-old man found the oil paintings at the rest stop near Ohrenbach in central Germany last month. He later handed them in to police in the western city of Cologne. Continue reading...
  • What Makes A Great Football Anthem?

    According to folk singer Martin Carthy, the football chant can be considered one of the last embodiments of the oral folk tradition. – The Conversation
  • Change the conversation: why Australia’s arts advocates need a new approach

    Change the conversation: why Australia’s arts advocates need a new approach
    With the crisis continuing for the nation’s arts and culture sectors, industry leaders have converged on what needs to happen – fast When it was announced in August last year, the parliamentary inquiry into the arts was met with almost unprecedented interest.Four months of verbal evidence were bolstered by more that 350 written submissions, with a further 4,871 responses received in a corresponding online survey – the second highest response ever recorded to a standing committe

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