“CK: I find that it generally doesn't pay to be too literal in identifying music related to visual art; rather it is stimulating, illuminating, and often fun to let the associations fly free.” ...

Nancy Sausser on the works of five artists included in "Beyond the Pale," a McLean Project for the Arts exhibit on display at the Emerson Gallery. Here is an excerpt: "The term Beyond the Pale was originally used to describe a barrier meant to enclose or define territory during military maneuvers beyond which it was not permissible to go. In more general contemporary terms, it has now come to mean an action ...

Washington City Paper's Ramon Ramirez interviews Black Milk, an up-and-coming rap artist and producer hailing from - and paying homage to - Detroit. Their interview dives into a common issue among young artists in the hip hop community, walking the line between working behind the scenes as a beat-maker and stepping out front and center, performing on the mic themselves. Here is an excerpt: "Hip-hop producer ...

Jonathan L. Fischer explores the surprisingly common and quick move from small, local artist to Grammy nominee with D.C. musician Carolyn Malachi. Here is an excerpt from his article, published in Washington City Paper's Arts Desk: "As of press time, Carolyn Malachi had 1,365 followers on Twitter. Two hundred and six people had liked her artist page on Facebook. When she put out her Lions, Fires & Squar ...

“What if we showed one slide at conferences that asked five different questions about our end-of-life desires? What if we all took time to ask these questions to our friends and family? Could we have a better experience at the end of our lives?” ...

NPR published a transcript of their interview with Anna Deveare Smith, whose one-woman show is currently playing at the Arena Stage. An excerpt: "Ms. SMITH: (as Cornel West) Hope and optimism are different. Optimism, you look out the window, you say, it looks pretty good out there. Hope says, it doesn't look good at all. Doesn't look good at all. Evidence doesn't look good at all, but I'm going to go beyond ...

Scott Rosenfeld, the lighting designer at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, writes about the challenges of lighting artwork made from license plates. An excerpt: "At American Art we do our best to provide lighting that allows visitors to fully experience our artworks. We succeed much of the time by lighting artworks to help reveal the significance of the piece while eliminating nasty distractions like gl ...