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Art reveals the world to us in new ways. David and Art is KWBU's weekly feature focusing on art.
The module is hosted by David Smith, an American historian with broad interests in his field. He’s been at Baylor University since 2002 teaching classes in American history, military history, and cultural history. For eight years he wrote an arts and culture column for the Waco Tribune-Herald, and his writings on history, art, and culture have appeared in other newspapers from the Wall Street Journal to the Dallas Morning News.
The very first record he remembers listening to when he was little was Leonard Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic’s recording of Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf and that set him on a lifelong path of loving music and the arts. He’s loved history for almost as long, and finally saw them come together in his career. He believes that history illuminates the arts and the arts illuminate history—that they co-exist and are best understood together.
Follow David on Twitter @DavidASmith12
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Showcasing American artist Norman Rockwell's journey from the covers of the Saturday Evening Post to Look magazine.
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In this week's episode of David and Art, host David Smith discusses how art can transcend simple expression to convey profound emotions and historical truths.
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A California artist named Ed Ruscha offered a distinctive vision to the 20th century art world.
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Influences on jazz didn’t come just from New York and New Orleans.
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A vibrant local art scene can sometimes be helped along by one person with energy and vision.
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In the mid-twentieth century, Los Angeles joined New York as a center of contemporary art. How it happened is a good story.
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David Smith delves into the fascinating story of an overlooked but influential songwriter, and the efforts to preserve her local historic home.
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Standing in the very spots where history was made transforms our understanding and connection to the past.
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Without even trying, painter Frank Stella took all of American art in a radically new direction.
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The story of the Naval hero and the woman who created his monument is one that's not very well known in the nation's capital.