Culture

ArtSmart Roundtable: The Not-so-Hidden Marble Tetrarchs in Piazza San Marco, Venice

Posted by Leslie on Oct 31, 2011 in ArtSmart Roundtable, Culture | 11 comments

I’m pleased and honored to post my first article for the ArtSmart Roundtable, a group of art-history-loving travel bloggers who post a related article the last Monday of each month. This month’s topic is Outdoor Sculpture; for more related posts, check out the links at the end, or find us on Facebook here! So you may notice I write about Venice a lot. (Understatement?) I’ve explained why countless times, but I’ve never told one of my favorite art-related Venetian stories. Now finally with this month’s topic, “Outdoor Sculpture,” the time has...

Beatles Schmeatles: There’s More to Liverpool than Strawberry Fields.

Posted by Leslie on Oct 29, 2010 in Culture, England | 0 comments

I know what it’s like. LA has been trying to wrench free of cliches for years. (Botox, implants and surfboards come to mind). It’s frustrating to love a place and hear only of what is assumed to be from outsiders. Which is why when I ventured to Liverpool a few weeks ago, I was determined to not spend my time touring the Beatles Museum or riding that silly bus that looks like a Yellow Submarine. Liverpool existed centuries before the Fab Four, it just seems that no one much bothers to take a closer look, foregoing it perhaps in favor of other English cities. Well...

Fastening on the Beer Goggles…For a Day at the Home of Guinness

Posted by Leslie on Dec 10, 2009 in Culture, Ireland | 3 comments

You may notice that I’ve placed this in both the “Ireland” and “Culture” categories. That’s because in Ireland, and especially in it’s capital city, Dublin, Guinness IS a culture, not to mention a staple and a source of national pride. Try telling anyone that you’ve been to, are going, or are thinking about traveling to Ireland, and they’ll ask you if you’ve had (or plan to have) a pint of the national beverage. It’s not hard to see why the Irish have come to embrace the unique beer so fervently – aside from...

A Midwest Marvel: Visiting the St. Louis Art Museum

Posted by Leslie on Nov 11, 2009 in Culture | 0 comments

When you think of great art, what institutions come to mind? Likely museums such as the Louvre in Paris, the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, the Kunsthistorisches in Vienna, the Met in New York. Until last week I had never considered corn-imbued eastern Missouri’s own St. Louis Art Museum as a bastion of great painting, sculpture and artifacts, though I have often been pleasantly surprised at the wonders lesser-known museums boast. In town last week for a wedding, I carved out some time and meandered into Forest Park (the USA’s largest municipal park, by the way) where the...