Knowing a work of art’s history and context can add so much to an understanding of it. But with thousands of years of art history, and a whole globe full of artists, no one can ever hope to know everything.
That’s why it’s always so nice to find a good art history resource, and the Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History on The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s website is a great one. It’s a remarkable exploration of the history of art, from prehistory to the present, covering the entire world, examining art in terms of chronology, geography and theme. The Metropolitan Museum’s staff have created numerous timelines and many thematic essays and indexes, all illustrated by nearly 6000 works of art from The Museum’s own collection. In addition, there is also a bibliography containing close to 2000 Metropolitan Museum of Art publications, as well as others.
The whole site is very well organized, and makes an enormous amount of information very easy to navigate through. It works very well if you have a specific question in mind, and is also a fascinating site to just wander around in, seeing what you end up discovering. When I was last there, I ended up discovering some amazing Inkan art, something I know little about. The Timeline is well worth a look.
Have you ever wished that you could just go to the leading expert in the world to learn about something? Or have you ever wanted to sit down with the most interesting people in the world, and hear what they have to say. Well, you actually can, thanks to TED.
TED is a nonprofit organization devoted to what it terms “Ideas Worth Spreading”. It began as a conference in 1984, with the aim of gathering together the greatest minds in the disciplines of Technology, Entertainment and Design (TED). Today, it has grown into a remarkable undertaking.
On their site, you can explore the TED Talks, accessing almost 500 lectures given by the go-to people in Technology, Entertainment, Design, Business, Science, Culture, Arts, and Global Issues. There are also changing Featured Themes such as Tales of Invention, Master Storytellers, What’s Next in Tech, How the Mind Works, Live Music, Art Unusual, and the list goes on. The talks can be ordered by those most recent, most commented upon, and a variety of assigned attributes such as persuasive, courageous, inspiring, funny, and more. Also, the talks are translated into 50 languages, so that virtually anyone in the world can access the material.
The Speakers featured in the TED talks are a remarkably diverse group of fascinating people. As an example, just a quick browse through those who’s last name begins with “A” yields political prisoner Chris Abani, Lost creator J.J. Abrams, novelist Isabel Allende, Wired editor Chris Anderson, design curator Paola Antonelli, religious scholar Karen Armstrong, economist George Ayittey, and many more.
In addition to the Talks, there are now annual conferences in Oxford UK and India in addition to the one in Long Beach California. The TEDex Community program online brings together more than 137,000 thinkers and movers in a wide range of areas, including activists, business advisors, designers, educators, entrepreneurs, explorers, inventors, philanthropists, scientists, and much more. The TED Fellows program helps innovators use the vast resources of the TED organization to further their goals, and the TED Prize is awarded each year to a handful of individuals in order to focus the world’s attention on their visions.
It can be so enriching to listen to a knowledgeable speaker who can bring an interesting subject to life. Imagine being able to have so many of them at your fingertips, in such a variety of arenas. It’s hard to know where to start! These videos are also released under a Creative Commons license, so you can share them with anyone else.
