Arts Observer

Arts Observer on Tumblr is a curation of news and media content about art, culture and design culled from around the web, along with highlights from the Arts Observer website. Visit the website to see original photos and posts authored by Victoria Valentine, founder and editor of Arts Observer. Follow @artsobserver

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W MAGAZINE: “Double Dutch” styled by Tabitha Simmons, filmed with an art house vibe.

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On Wednesday, private equity mogul Glenn Hutchins is expected to announce a gift of more than $15 million to create the Hutchins Center for African and African-American Research, solidifying Harvard’s program as one of the top in its field.

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Wyatt Mitchell, creative director of The New Yorker magazine, explains recent updates to the look and feel of the publication. (Sorry it begins with an ad, but it's well worth the wait.)

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In anticipation of ArtRio (Sept. 12-16), Artsy presents established and emerging artists with unique practices.

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A truck-sized camera takes 1850s photography methods on the road. Amazing photographs, even more compelling stories about people across America. Read the story.

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A Graffiti Love Letter to Brooklyn:

"At the corner of Livingston and Hoyt, artist Steve Powers found his canvas — a 5,000-square-foot concrete parking garage. 'Really one of the ugliest pieces of architecture I’ve ever had the privilege of decorating,' Powers says. "

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"At Vinatería, a Harlem restaurant that opened in April, almost every material has had a previous life (or lives), but that’s not what you notice about the room. Instead, you see a subtle layering of color and form and sophisticated details. Yes, the design is environmentally friendly. But above all, Vinatería is chic."

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How Wangechi Mutu snipped and clipped her way from Nairobi to the walls of the Brooklyn Museum. Her retrospective opens Oct. 11.

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Graffiti Art of the City, From the Bronx to Brooklyn 

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New public park named for Romare Bearden opens today in Charlotte, NC., one block from where the artist was born.

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More scenes from the March on Washington 50th anniversary at the Lincoln Memorial on Aug. 28, 2013.

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Scenes from the March on Washington 50th anniversary at the Lincoln Memorial on Aug. 28, 2013.

[blackculturefeed]

"Albert Murray, an influential essayist, critic and novelist who found literary inspiration in his Alabama roots and saw black culture and American culture as inextricably entwined, died on Sunday at his home in Harlem. He was 97."

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Bill Arnett, a prickly, Atlanta-based collector and patron of untrained Black Southern artists, fights to get Thornton Dial into the canon (brief, subscription required to read full article)

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Through Sept. 8, 2013, "30 Americans," an exhibit showcasing work since 1970 by important, critically acclaimed African American artists, is on view at the Milwaukee Art Museum. Drawn from the Miami-based collection of the Rubell Family Foundation, the paintings, photographs, sculptures, installations and multimedia explore what it means to be Black in America today. A dynamic catalogue captures the exhibit.

[blackculturefeed]

An award-winning cast including will record the late August Wilson's 10-play "Century Cycle" at New York Public Radio’s The Greene Space. 

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SFMOMA’s soon-to-begin, three-year-long, $610 million metamorphosis has 280,000 moving parts—and that’s just the stuff in the trucks.