The Palmer Museum of Art at Penn State opened its major special exhibition of the fall season, Augusta Savage: Renaissance Woman, on August 24. Featuring nearly eighty objects, including sculptures, paintings, works on paper, and archival materials, this exhibition is the first to reassess Harlem Renaissance artist Augusta Savage’s contributions to art and cultural history in light of her role as an artist-activist. “We are honored to present this major exhibition of the American sculptor Augusta Savage at the Palmer this fall,” said the museum’s director, Erin M. Coe. “We are dedicated to shedding new light on underrepresented artists, and this examination of Savage’s career and achievements is both timely and relevant given the current focus on social activism and the concept of the artist-activist,” she added. A gifted sculptor, Savage (1892–1962) was born in Green Cove Springs, Fl

Artificial intelligence has been used to analyse high-resolution digital x-ray images of the world famous Ghent Altarpiece, as part of an investigative project led by UCL. The finding is expected to improve our understanding of art masterpieces and provide new opportunities for art investigation, conservation and presentation. Researchers from the National Gallery, Duke University and UCL worked with technical images acquired from the brothers Van Eyck’s Ghent Altarpiece, a large and complex 15th-century altarpiece in St Bavo’s Cathedral, Belgium. The paper, ‘Artificial Intelligence for Art Investigation: Meeting the Challenge of Separating X-ray Images of the Ghent Altarpiece’, demonstrates how academics used a newly developed algorithm to study mixed x-ray images containing features from the front and back of the painting’s double-sided panels, which scientists have deconstructed into two clear images. These images are part of a comprehensive set of high resolutio

On Saturday, August 31, Naturalis will reopen to the public. The renovated institute for biodiversity in Leiden is the place for everyone, where both scientists and museum visitors can discover more about nature. Naturalis has become future-proof by bringing scientists and collections together, providing state-of-the-art facilities for biodiversity research, and building a brand-new museum. In the last two years, a drastic renovation and redesign of the existing Naturalis building took place to house the complete Dutch national collection of 42 million objects and provide state-of-the-art facilities for biodiversity research to the 200+ researchers. Next to that, the institute also built a brand-new museum. Edwin van Huis, Managing Director at Naturalis, is delighted to open the museum doors again. “The theme of biodiversity is highly relevant. Our studies are at the center of attention, contributing to burning issues such

Archeologists in Peru say the 227 bodies they have unearthed from a site used by the pre-Columbian Chimu culture is the biggest-ever discovery of sacrificed children. Archeologists have been digging since last year at the huge sacrificial site in Huanchaco, a beachside tourist town north of the capital Lima. “This is the biggest site where the remains of sacrificed children have been found,” chief archeologist Feren Castillo told AFP on Tuesday. Castillo said the children, who were aged between four and 14, were sacrificed in a ritual to honor the Chimu culture’s gods. “They were sacrificed to appease the El Nino phenomenon,” and show signs of being killed during wet weather, he said. He added that there may still be more to be found. “It’s uncontrollable, this thing with the children. Whe