Just Leave That Botticelli Near the Bike Rack

"Inside | Out" Makes Art Inescapable by Placing Major Works on the Street. Literally.

The phone rang in the office of Salvador Salort-Pons, then Curator of European Paintings at the Detroit Institute of Arts. “I found a Van Gogh painting outside the public library, and I don’t want someone to steal it!” said the woman on the other end of the line. “Don’t worry, though, I’ve deployed my husband to protect it.”

Six years later, Salort-Pons is now the Director of the Detroit Institute of Arts, the museum that left that Van Gogh outside the library—on purpose. The painting was part of its Inside|Out program, …

Witty Mosaics Offer a Beautiful Solution to the Pothole Problem

One Artist Is on a Quest to Improve City Streets via a Durable Ancient Craft

Back in 2013, Jim Bachor had the idea of bringing art to bear on a particularly non-artsy problem—potholes.

Outside his Chicago studio, the pavement was marred with pits and divots. …

When Spray Cans Meet Quill Pens

What Do You Get When You Introduce L.A.-Area Graffiti Artists to 400-Year-Old Books?

When Johnny Cash covered Nine Inch Nails, he revealed the beautiful dissonance of kindred spirits from two different worlds interpreting a single piece of art. “Scratch,” a new exhibition opening …

When Graffiti Artists Grow Up

After the Thrill of Spray-Painting Highway Overpasses Wears Off, You Have to Get Health Insurance for Your Family

Andrew Yasgar, also known as “Sket One,” used to scale fences at night, watching for cops as he illegally hanged off the side of highways to scrawl his tag on …

Here’s Your Cuba

What You See When You Look At Us

Cuba is a small island nation that occupies a large, perhaps even outsized, place in the American imagination. Cut off by embargo from the United States since 1961, Cuba is …