Art reveals the world to us in new ways. On KWBU, we have a new 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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100 years ago, it was an American Army band that brought an artistic revolution to Paris. -
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A movement to give back art looted 125 years ago seems to be gaining speed around the world.
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Dance is a perfect example of how basic steps in mastering an art form lead to deeper expressions of creativity.
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There are some American paintings that just call to mind Independence Day. Others can too, but not as obviously.
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The 1965 White House Festival of the Arts brought artists and politicians together at a tense time in the country’s history.
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For President Lyndon Johnson, hosting artists at the White House during the Vietnam War was risky business.
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The work of an insightful critic shows that political and social questions often lead right into concerns about the arts and culture.
