David and Art

David and Art

Monday 4:44am, 6:44am, 8:44am and 5:44pm

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

Latest Episodes

David & Art - The Glasgow Boys

Host David Smith introduces us to an under-the-radar group of 19th-century painters who challenged the artistic norms of their time and pushed back against the gatekeepers of the art world.
David and Art - The Surrealist and the Celebrity, Part 2

David Smith

This week on David and Art, host David Smith Smith looks at how celebrity can cloud our view of real achievement—especially when the artist becomes more famous than the art.
David and Art - The Surrealist and the Celebrity

David Smith

From a creative youth and the influence of dreams to showmanship and celebrity, on this weeks David and Art, host David Smith digs into the fascinating trajectory of an iconic Spanish painter.
David and Art - Taking Care of the Public's Art

David Smith

In this week's edition of David and Art, host David Smith dives into the fascinating story of how New Deal art—some of the most significant cultural creations of the 20th century—disappeared, and the ongoing efforts to track it down and return it to the public.
David and Art - Caravaggio

David Smith

In this week’s episode of David and Art, host David Smith takes a closer look at a painter whose life was as dramatic as his art. From gripping realism to a life marked by violence and mystery, his story continues to intrigue centuries later.
David and Art - Culture and Place, Part 2

David Smith

In this week's edition of David and Art, we continue to explore how culture shapes the identity of place, in particular the social value and impact of public art. Here's your host, David Smith
David and Art - Culture and Place

David Smith

In this week's edition of David and Art, we’ll explore how culture shapes the very identity of a place—from the highways of Texas to a pub in Scotland—and how art fits into all of it. Here's your host, David Smith.
David and Art - A Space for Contemplation

David Smith

What if a painting didn’t just capture a moment of action—but instead asked you to slow down and simply be? With this week's edition of David and Art on 103.3, Waco Public Radio, here's David Smith.
David and Art - Public Support

David Smith

In this week's edition of David and Art, we hear a story that is a reminder that public arts funding has a lasting impact—one that might be shaping the next great artist right now. Host David Smith takes a look at the latest round of NEA grants and the communities they’re helping to inspire.
David and Art - David Hockney and His iPad

David Smith

An English artist has always pushed the boundaries of art, and now, at 88, he's doing it with something you might not expect. In this week's edition of David and Art, host David Smith explores the artist's latest work and how technology is changing the way he creates.