Sotheby’s Puts Spotlight on High Schoolers: This April, Sotheby’s is putting on an exhibition of artwork by high schoolers who are part of the National YoungArts Foundation scholarship program. The YoungArts program helps artistically talented teenagers ages 15-18 hone and feel confident in their skills; vice president of YoungArts artistic programs Lisa Leone explains: “We help validate [the students], so they can feel good saying ‘yes, I should be an artist!'” For the upcoming exhibition, each YoungArts student submitted ten works, from which Sotheby’s curators chose selections for the show. Click here for a preview of these impressive works of art, or view the entire show on display at Sotheby’s from ‪April 12-17, 2016. A wonderful move by Sotheby’s to show appreciation for these young artists and to help pave their way into the professional art world.

Museum to Tell the Story of Black America: Conceived in 2003 and set to open this coming September in Washington, DC, The National Museum of African American History and Culture has faced particular challenges as it attempts to tell the story of Black America in a single museum. Scholar of 19th-century African-American history Kellie Carter Jackson explains: “What’s included, what’s not included, that’s a really, really huge responsibility. It’s probably one of the most difficult tasks in curatorial history.” Those making these difficult decisions expect inevitable controversies– as the museum’s director, Lonnie G. Bunch III, admits “I know that we are not going to please everybody.” Bunch and her colleagues face the challenging task of depicting the cruelty and horror of slavery and segregation as well as deciding the narrative conclusion of the museum–should the museum end on the triumphant note of President Obama’s accomplishments or the troubling topic of police violence and the Black Lives Matter movement? Ultimately, the curators want to send the message that further progress is needed: “We wanted to make sure that people didn’t see the first African-American president as the end of history for African-Americans…So what are the questions that we need to continue engaging with beyond a black president?” Despite the perhaps inevitable controversies, the museum will be a much needed step in recognizing the experience of millions of Americans and remembering important, though problematic, parts of the country’s history.

“Micro-Engraving” between Heartbeats: British micro-engraver Graham Short carves intricate images and quotes on surfaces sometimes smaller than a millimeter in size. His most recent work, a portrait of Queen Elizabeth II, is carved onto a speck of gold, framed in the eye of a needle. Short created the portrait to commemorate the Queen’s upcoming 90th birthday this April. Short’s other masterpieces, equally mind-blowing as the eye-of-a-needle portrait, include a millimeter-wide image of the Hindu goddess Durga and a depiction of The Last Supper on the edge of a razor. Short’s work indeed stands alone: “I can do something,” he says, “that no one else on a planet of 7 billion people can.” To achieve his seemingly impossible level of precision, Short needs a strict working environment; he works at night to avoid noise and distraction, stays essentially motionless for multiple hours at a time, strapped to a stationary object, and even uses a stethoscope so that he can carve in between heartbeats. In this condition, Short carves with a needle attached to a wooden engraver’s handle while peering through a microscope at his canvas. Originally relying on a low heart rate from years of high-level swimming, Short now ingests a variety of potassium, magnesium, and beta-blocker pills to keep his heart rate low enough for this work. During a session, Short’s heart rate can drop as low as twenty beats per minute (bpm). Short’s works are a testament to artistic patience and the fact that, as one of his razor-edge engravings says, “Nothing is Impossible.”

Dance Theater of Harlem Promoting Women Choreographers: As part of the company’s new initiative, “Women Who Move Us,” the Dance Theater of Harlem is supporting new dance works choreographed by women. The program, funded by the Howard Gilman Foundation, aims to begin addressing the widespread lack of female choreographers in the ballet world. For its upcoming season ‪starting April 6, the Dance Theater of Harlem will use pieces by Dianne McIntyre (an esteemed modern dance choreographer) and Elena Kunikova (admired for her classical ballets). Both choreographers have “instilled in their ballets a sense of history,” drawing on African American historical figures and experiences. Hopefully other ballet companies will follow the Dance Theater of Harlem’s example and turn increasingly to women choreographers as they plan upcoming seasons.