Art & Design NPR explores the visual arts including design, photography, sculpture, and architecture. Interviews, commentary, and audio. Subscribe to the RSS feed.

Art & Design

Tuesday

A set of pink seesaws allowed people to share some fun along the U.S.-Mexico border wall this week. Here, a woman helps her little girls ride the seesaw that was installed near Ciudad de Juarez, Mexico. Christian Chavez/AP hide caption

toggle caption
Christian Chavez/AP

Sunday

This costume, with corn husks and feathers and paper flowers, is worn by a member of a dance group that gathers in cemeteries and other places to mark Day of the Dead festivities (called Xantolo, the word written above the mask). The idea of combining a skeletal mask with European fashion was devised by the Mexican artist Jose Guadalupe Posada, who lived in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Phyllis Galembo hide caption

toggle caption
Phyllis Galembo

Saturday

Zara's parent company Inditex announced new sustainability goals this month. But can a fast-fashion brand built on growth truly become sustainable? Marcos del Mazo/LightRocket via Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption
Marcos del Mazo/LightRocket via Getty Images

Can Fast Fashion And Sustainability Be Stitched Together?

  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/745418569/745925063" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Sunday

Artists are requesting that the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York remove their work from its biennial showcase over a museum board member's ties to the sale of law enforcement supplies including tear gas. Bebeto Matthews/AP hide caption

toggle caption
Bebeto Matthews/AP

At Whitney Museum Biennial, 8 Artists Withdraw In Protest Of Link To Tear Gas Sales

  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/743993348/744023686" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Saturday

Tuesday

Musicians walk on a crosswalk painted like a piano outside the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, N.Y. Increasingly, urban designers and transportation planners say this kind of art — colorful crosswalks and engaging sidewalks — leads to safer intersections, stronger neighborhoods and better public health. Brett Dahlberg/WXXI hide caption

toggle caption
Brett Dahlberg/WXXI

Walking On Painted Keys: Creative Crosswalks Meet Government Resistance

  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/741814860/742109397" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Monday

Augusta Savage was an artist, educator, activist and community leader. Her work is the focus of an exhibition at the New-York Historical Society, organized by the Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens. She's pictured above with her 1938 sculpture Realization. New-York Historical Society hide caption

toggle caption
New-York Historical Society

Sculptor Augusta Savage Said Her Legacy Was The Work Of Her Students

  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/740459875/741721736" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Friday

Doug Roble on the TED stage Bret Hartman / TED hide caption

toggle caption
Bret Hartman / TED

Doug Roble: What Happens When Visual Effects Aren't Limited To Just Movies?

  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/740843747/741080122" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Nir Eyal on the TED stage Russel Edwards/TED hide caption

toggle caption
Russel Edwards/TED

Nir Eyal: How Easy Is It To "Unhook" Ourselves From Our Devices?

  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/740824015/741080066" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Finn Myrstad on the TED stage Ryan Lash/Ryan Lash / TED hide caption

toggle caption
Ryan Lash/Ryan Lash / TED

Finn Myrstad: What Happens When We Sign Away Our Online Privacy?

  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/740797287/741079767" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Monday

"I consider myself one who creates clothes, and fashions clothes, and uses it as a vehicle to fashion young minds," says clothier Dapper Dan. Jelani Day/Dapper Dan of Harlem hide caption

toggle caption
Jelani Day/Dapper Dan of Harlem

Dapper Dan, Telling Stories In Leather, Fur And Logos

  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/739508701/739643838" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Sunday

Luthier Freeman Vines sits with his hand-carved guitars in the tobacco field by his house, 2015. Tim Duffy/Courtesy of Music Maker hide caption

toggle caption
Tim Duffy/Courtesy of Music Maker

Capturing The Undersung Blues People Of The Rural South

  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/738019387/739288337" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript