a selection of recently published articles

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New York Times: The Mind-Expanding Value of Arts Education

Awuor Onguru says that if it were not for her continued exposure to arts education as a child, she never would have gotten into Yale University.Growing up in a lower-middle-class family in Nairobi, Kenya, Ms. Onguru, now a 20-year-old junior…
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New York Times: A World Heritage Designation Can Be a Blessing, or a Curse

Mombasa, Kenya: It is a tale of three cities. To the north up the Kenyan coast is Lamu Town, its small streets humming with the sounds of chisels and hammers crafting Swahili doors, and donkeys carrying heavy loads of coral limestone. Locals…
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New York Times: History and Humor Inspire Victor Ehikhamenor’s Art

LONDON — Victor Ehikhamenor remembers the first time he was called an artist. Born in 1970 in a small village in Edo State in Nigeria, Mr. Ehikhamenor was given a plastic camera when he was 9. Trying to mimic one of his uncles who had emigrated…
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New York Times: What to Know When Selling the Family Silver

LONDON — When a great-uncle dies or an older parent downsizes, having to go through and organize boxes of family heirlooms can feel daunting. If the items include family silver, it can be especially overwhelming.Finding out what’s worth…
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New York Times: Where Culture Flows Along London’s River Thames

LONDON — As Lisa Vine looked out over the River Thames from the floor-to-ceiling windows of the Southbank Center’s Royal Festival Hall main foyer, she recalled first coming here as an 11-year-old girl in 1957 to attend a concert.Over the…
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New York Times: In Warsaw, Mining a Rich Vein of Polish Creativity

WARSAW — Every day outside of a shop at 61 Mokotowska Street, an intriguing dance of sorts happens: A smattering of men and women of all ages walk out onto the sidewalk and smell the top of their hands or the inside of their wrists. Some…
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New York Times: Want a Great Gift? Put Their Initials on It.

LONDON — In certain social circles, Anne Singer is something of a monogramming legend.The French-born Ms. Singer, whose husband’s great-grandfather Isaac Singer invented the sewing machine, established the Monogrammed Linen Shop four decades…
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New York Times: A Polish Artist With Varied Talents

Growing up in Lublin, Poland, Agnieszka Polska had little access to contemporary art. So a visit to the Tate Modern on a trip to London as a teenager, she said, was “a revelation.”Two decades later, Ms. Polska is an artist and filmmaker…
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New York Times: A Smithsonian Museum Sharpens Focus on the History of Slavery

On a Sunday stroll up 16th Street in Washington, D.C., years ago, Lonnie Bunch got a hug and a gentle talking-to from an African American woman.Mr. Bunch — who at the time was the director of the National Museum of African American History…
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