For this year's Black History Month, the theme is Standing Firm in Power and Pride, honouring the resilience, innovation and fortitude of Black people in the UK and beyond. It celebrates the community's contributions across many fields, including the arts and culture, as reflected in a selection of brilliant new exhibitions. These range from explorations into the artists and groups
As a Japanese man born and raised in the United States, Kitamura said he struggled with imposter syndrome. Though he was part of a Japanese tattoo family, apprenticed to a Japanese tattoo master, and works with primarily Japanese-American clients, he worried that his own style was Americanized compared to the traditions he was studying. Now, nearly 29 years into his own practice as a tattoo artist (Kitamura opened his own studio, State of Grace Tattoo, in 2002 in San Jose) he feels "This is me accepting who I am and being proud of that," he said.
Millennia ago a piece of the sky fell toward East Africa, streaking overhead, born of an ancient collision of asteroids. The meteorite landed, probably with more of a thud than a boom, in a river valley where camels now forage near the village of El Ali in Somalia. Known locally as Shiid-birood (the iron rock), the El Ali meteorite is 13.6 metric tons of iron and nickel.
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging. At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground.
By noon, the sun is high over Petra, bleaching the coloured sandstone cliffs and temporarily emptying its celebrated ruins of tourists. Vines and a canopy keep the terrace of Mohammed Feras s cave home cool despite the searing summer heat rising from the rocky valley. I have lived here all my life. I've never been anywhere else and I cannot imagine not living here. This area is part of who I am and I cannot leave it, the 44-year-old farmer and sometime tourist guide said.
In the early hours of Tuesday morning, an apparently well-planned criminal operation targeted the museum's geology and mineralogy gallery. Cleaning staff detected the break-in later that day and museum teams saw that four to six pieces of gold were missing. The thieves are believed to have used an angle grinder and blowtorch to force their way into the riverside museum that sits on the edge of Paris's Jardin des Plantes. It is an unprecedented theft from the high-security museum. A museum spokesperson said
The Geneva Museum of Art and History (MAH) played a key role in a frantic operation to evacuate thousands of artefacts from the Gaza's main archaeological storage facility on Thursday (9 September), ahead of an Israeli strike that destroyed the building. On learning of the planned strike, MAH staff scrambled to find support to delay the attack and organise an evacuation. The facility contained finds from key archaeological sites in Gaza, including the ruins of the fourth-century Saint Hilarion Monastery,
UNESCO estimates that 80% of Mosul's historic town was destroyed during this period, which led to one of the most ambitious reconstruction campaigns in recent decades: "Revive the Spirit of Mosul." Since 2019, UNESCO has carried out large-scale efforts to rebuild the city's landscapes and monuments, reconstructing three religious and cultural landmarks and 124 heritage houses, along with other buildings located in the Old City.
In the front rows that are filled with tourists, phones are raised to film the fighters with commentary in English, French and Japanese. In the stands, there's a torrent of insults and cheers typical of local long-term fans. The scene reflects a recent change: once the poor man's sport in Mexico City, lucha libre a popular form of wrestling in Mexico has become a tourist and cultural attraction with a global reach.
There are so many reasons to explore Uganda's capital before heading out on safari. Most visitors landing in Uganda skip Kampala and head straight for the untamed upcountry for up-close encounters with elephants and mountain gorillas. Yet the capital city's dusty urban sprawl-set among seven green hills dotted with terracotta red roofs and traditional Ganda huts peeking out from tropical tangles of mango trees-is more than worthy of exploration.
In 1857, the S.S. Central America (also known as the Ship of Gold) sank off the coast of South Carolina after sailing into a hurricane in one of the worst maritime disasters in American history; 425 people were killed and thousands of pounds of gold sank with the ship to the bottom of the ocean. In 1940, the Lascaux cave paintings, estimated to be 17,000 years old, were discovered in southwestern France.
The Trump administration's efforts to reshape federal cultural institutions as part of a broader attack on what the president characterizes as "woke" or diversity, equity, and inclusion policies have left many Indigenous arts and culture institutions in a challenging position, according to leaders at those institutions as well as culture workers and advocates who spoke to Truthout. Institutions offering Indigenous arts and culture programming,
LOEWE Perfumes has revealed its latest creation, the "Palo Santo" candle, a luxury home fragrance that merges centuries-old tradition with contemporary craftsmanship. Known for curating scents that balance nature's raw power with artistic refinement, LOEWE Perfumes continues to expand its home fragrance collection with offerings that resonate far beyond aroma. "Palo Santo" is the brand's modern take on one of the world's most storied natural incenses, designed to evoke calmness, sophistication, and cultural heritage in every burn.
The robbers triggered the alarm at the Adrien Dubouche institute in Limoges early on Thursday. They smashed a window to gain entry, said a source, who asked not to be named. The museum said the gang made off with two particularly important dishes of Chinese porcelain dating from the 14th and 15th centuries and an 18th-century Chinese vase, all designated as national treasures. Police were told the haul was worth about 9.5m (8.2m).
Before arriving in Edinburgh, Nataliya Bezborodova's impression of Scotland was shaped largely by Hollywood. My knowledge of this country was pretty much based on the film Braveheart, she admits with a laugh, standing before the grand neoclassical columns of the National Galleries of Scotland. As if on cue, the castle's daily gun salute fires overhead, scattering pigeons and punctuating our conversation with a jolt.
The independent Master Jury of the 16th Award Cycle (2023-2025) of the Aga Khan Award for Architecture has announced seven winners, selected following on-site reviews of projects shortlisted earlier in June. Collectively, the awarded works demonstrate architecture's potential to act as a catalyst for pluralism, community resilience, social transformation, cultural dialogue, and climate-responsive design. Two projects from Iran, and one each from Bangladesh, China, Egypt, Pakistan, and Palestine, will share a prize of $1 million, among the most significant awards in the field of architecture.
Inca Hernandez Atelier unveils Liwa Farm Village, a 7,000-square-meter masterplan in the historic Liwa Oasis of Abu Dhabi's Western Region that combines agricultural production, cultural spaces, and community life. The project draws on ancestral building traditions, including rammed-earth walls, windcatchers, aflaj irrigation, and palm-trunk roofing, while adapting them through contemporary strategies that prioritize sustainability and thermal comfort in the harsh desert climate.
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
The Uzbekistan Art and Culture Development Foundation (ACDF) has announced the groundbreaking of the National Museum of Uzbekistan, designed by Japanese architect Tadao Ando. Marking Ando's first major project in Central Asia, the museum is envisioned as both an architectural and cultural landmark in Tashkent. Planned to open in March 2028, the building reflects Ando's minimalist architectural language, integrating references to Uzbekistan's heritage with his characteristic use of geometry, natural light, and spatial clarity.
But the best things to do in Kyoto represent not only a city of preservation-this has also long been a place of innovation: bamboo harvested here helped Thomas Edison fashion the filament for the first light bulb; Japan's first streetcar rattled to life on Kyoto's avenues; and Nintendo grew from a small playing-card company into a global powerhouse in its backstreets.
While many of the country's museum capitals are in major metropolitan areas like New York City and Washington, D.C., some of the country's richest museum environments exist far from any urban corridor. In these remote cities, strong historical preservation, unique local industries, and support from academic communities support vibrant networks of cultural institutions. Many showcase cultural heritage sites, university research collections, historical battlefield or archaeological sites, birthplaces of notable figures, or local art scenes.
"We need a fuller understanding of the influence of Black artists, architects and cultural institutions to tell a more complete history of American art and culture," Miguel de Baca, a senior programme officer at the Getty, said in a statement. "Black Visual Arts Archives delivers critical support to make these archives and the stories of creativity, resiliency and community they hold more accessible to researchers and the general public."
"A major work by the artist Barbara Hepworth, Sculpture with Colour (Oval Form) Pale Blue and Red (1943), will stay in the UK after a public appeal raised £3.8m to save the piece, including 2,800 donations from members of the public."
The New York Public Library's Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture memorialized its centennial this year, a testament to the temple of Black history that houses over 11 million items throughout its storied reading rooms.
