Ava Gardner, Unapologetic Sexpot, Still Bewitches
A museum in her hometown pays homage to the star in all her complexity — larger than life, lusty, and lonely in the end.
Salem Witch-Trials Show: Hysteria Then and Now
Barking kids, crazy ministers, and an overworked hangman: It’s all there at the Peabody Essex Museum.
COVID Cash Battles in Museum World
Give relief to theaters, operas, and other live-performance venues first. Most museums, especially the big ones, don’t need the money, and they’ve failed the public.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: His Life & Loves in a Moving New Biography
A review of Cross of Snow: A Life of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, by Nicholas A. Basbanes.
Andrew Raftery’s House and Garden, with a Twist
A master printmaker uses Old Master style and new techniques to chronicle the seasons in his Providence home.
Philip Guston and the KKK: Museums Cower and Run for Cover
The show is postponed, and guess who’s smothering free thought?
Crazies Launch a Coup at the Guggenheim
Among their revolutionary plans: Endorse BLM and take anti-racist naps.
The Best Museum in the World
Making the Met, 1870–2020 makes the case, and no one can deny it: The Met is an unparalleled marvel.
The Museum Lockdown Culture
COVID-19 has pulled back the veil on the insularity, elitism, and laziness of far too many museums, which are forgetting that their main purpose is to serve the public.
Mass MoCA, the World’s Biggest Contemporary Art Museum, Looks Fantastic
It started from scratch 20 years ago, in an abandoned factory complex, and overcame big challenges through vision and commitment.