Art & Design NPR explores the visual arts including design, photography, sculpture, and architecture. Interviews, commentary, and audio. Subscribe to the RSS feed.

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Cartoonist Scott Adams, pictured in 2014, said Monday he has metastatic prostate cancer and does not expect to survive the summer. Lea Suzuki/The San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images hide caption

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Lea Suzuki/The San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images

Shen Yun dance troupe on a billboard advertising an upcoming performance in Leavenworth, Kansas. Michael Siluk/Universal Images Group/Getty Images hide caption

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Michael Siluk/Universal Images Group/Getty Images

Two former Shen Yun dancers allege forced child labor, brutal conditions in lawsuit

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Ruth Asawa, Albert's Rose Bouquet (PF.564), 1990; private collection. This bouquet, given to the artist around Mother's Day in May 1990 by her husband, Albert Lanier, was among the many Asawa sketched over the years. © 2025 Ruth Asawa Lanier Inc., courtesy David Zwirner; photo: James Paonessa hide caption

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© 2025 Ruth Asawa Lanier Inc., courtesy David Zwirner; photo: James Paonessa

RUTH ASAWA'S BOUQUET DRAWINGS

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Shandaken Historical Museum; Shelley Smith/National Trust for Historic Preservation

Most Endangered Historic Places 2025

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Teyana Taylor at the 2025 Met Gala Theo Wargo/FilmMagic hide caption

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Theo Wargo/FilmMagic

The Met Gala: the indisputable best & worst looks of the night

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Photo: Daniel Speer / Maximum Fun Daniel Speer/Maximum Fun hide caption

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Daniel Speer/Maximum Fun

Who will attend the 2025 MET Gala? Getty Images hide caption

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Getty Images

The Met Gala is tonight, and it's already historic. Here's why.

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Ada Limón Shawn Miller/Library of Congress hide caption

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Shawn Miller/Library of Congress

Ada Limón reflects on her tenure as the poet laureate and bringing us back to wonder

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Durham, N.C. - April 26th, 2025: Former Carolina Chocolate Drop member Rowan Corbett (left) and a shopper look at banjos inside a pop-up shop at the Biscuits and Banjos festival. (Cornell Watson for NPR) Cornell Watson for NPR hide caption

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Cornell Watson for NPR

Artist Ana Inciardi's vending machine prints feature food items and the tools that are associated with them. Ana Inciardi hide caption

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Ana Inciardi

Mini art prints from vending machines make one artist's dream

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"Correspondence is a leap of faith, and that is part of what makes it wonderful," says Rachel Syme, author of Syme's Letter Writer: A Guide to Modern Correspondence. "You may never know if the person you are writing to will write you back." Illustration © by Joana Avillez, Reprinted with permission from Syme's Letter Writer by Rachel Syme/Clarkson Potter Publishers hide caption

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Illustration © by Joana Avillez, Reprinted with permission from Syme's Letter Writer by Rachel Syme/Clarkson Potter Publishers

The art and pleasure of writing a letter

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This panel is from the "Slingshot Spiders" comic that describes the manuscript "Ultrafast launch of slingshot spiders using conical silk webs", published in the journal Current Biology. Lindsey Leigh/Bhamla Lab hide caption

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Lindsey Leigh/Bhamla Lab

Arewà Basit poses in front of Trans Forming Liberty (2024), a 10-foot oil painting by Amy Sherald for which she served as the model. Sansho Scott/BFA.com hide caption

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Sansho Scott/BFA.com

Painter Amy Sherald reimagines the 'American sublime' in new show

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Oakland First Fridays

Opinion: Art fair flyers should showcase human creativity

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John Ahearn and Rigoberto Torres, Jamese Jefferson and Gloria Bollock, 1992, acrylic on Hydrocal plaster life cast Anacostia Community Museum/Smithsonian Institution hide caption

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Anacostia Community Museum/Smithsonian Institution

Smithsonian Art exhibition deemed 'divisive'

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The Gamble House in Pasadena Alexander Verikoff
/Vertikoff Archives
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Alexander Verikoff
/Vertikoff Archives

Beloved historic landmarks navigate an uncertain future after the LA fires

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The site of a former lead and zinc mine in Kabwe, Zambia. Thirty years after the closure of the mine, the land remains highly contaminated — and artisanal miners continue to work here, exposing themselves daily to dangerously high levels of lead. Tommy Trenchard for NPR hide caption

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Tommy Trenchard for NPR

A sculpture of Aphrodite is displayed during an exhibition of ancient Greek art in 2007 in Beijing, China. The collection is from the 5th and 4th centuries B.C. Many ancient statues were scented, a researcher says. China Photos/Getty Images hide caption

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China Photos/Getty Images

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - FEBRUARY 24: Vincent D'Onofrio attends the Daredevil: Born Again red-carpet launch event at The Hudson Theater on February 24, 2025 in New York City. (Photo by Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images for Disney) Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images for Disney hide caption

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Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images for Disney

The Wichita Art Museum in Wichita, Kan., says more young people have been attending exhibitions since it decided to stop charging admissions for its permanent collection in 2023. Naama Marcos
/Wichita Art Museum
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Naama Marcos
/Wichita Art Museum

FREE MUSEUM ADMISSION

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