Hunters in the Snow (Winter) by Pieter Bruegel the Elder

The Climate Canvasses of the Little Ice Age

Low Country artists of the late Renaissance and Early Baroque eras captured the happiness and hardships of snowy winters—an ever rarer phenomenon now.
Source: https://www.jstor.org/stable/community.28550903

How American Librarians Helped Defeat the Nazis

Recruited to the war effort thanks to their deft research skills and technological know-how, librarians used microforms to gather and share intelligence with Allied forces.

Scrub-a-Dub in a Medieval Tub

Contrary to popular misconceptions, Europeans in the Middle Ages took pains to keep themselves clean.
William Carlos Williams, 1921

A Centennial Celebration of Spring and All

William Carlos Williams's hybrid work of poetry and prose both upended narrative conventions and delighted in the wondrous, unifying force of imagination.
A page from The Angolite that features a photograph of a prison guard holding a shotgun while watching prisoners work in a field.

Slavery and the Modern-Day Prison Plantation

"Except as punishment for a crime," reads the constitutional exception to abolition. In prison plantations across the United States, slavery thrives.
Sa Ga Yeath Pieth Tow, King of the Maquas by John Simon

Indigenous Kings in Londontown

In 1710, Queen Anne of England feted four Native American dignitaries—would-be political allies. Their presence at a performance of Macbeth caused a stir.
The cover of the Song Cave edition of Valley of the Many-Colored Grasses by Ronald Johnson

Lines of Poetry, Rows of Trees

Ronald Johnson’s Valley of the Many-Colored Grasses, newly re-issued, offers entry into the work of a pioneering master collagist.
An image created with Adobe Firefly using the prompt, "a room full of students creating art on computers"

AI and the Creative Process: Part Three

The multifaceted nature of creativity subverts the assumption it’s a human endeavor exclusively—meaning we might need to radically re-think the definition of “art.”
An AI image generated using Adobe Firefly, depicting a painting of a group of 6 people gathered around a toilet in a gallery

AI and the Creative Process: Part Two

Though technological innovation has always influenced considerations of art—think of Duchamp’s controversial urinal—the constant throughout is human touch.
An image generated using Adobe Firefly

AI and the Creative Process: Part One

How does generative artificial intelligence upend conventional understandings of who is and what makes for a true artist?