There is a new reason to visit the open spaces of Montana. A working ranch of 11,500 acres, called The Tippet Rise Art Center, has just been opened to the public. It offers not only spectacular views but sculpture and music as well. Located in Fishtail, Montana, it already includes works by Alexander Calder, Mark di Suvero, and a wonderfully expressive piece by Patrick Dougherty. Solar energy is used to transport visitors around the site, which is open Friday to Sunday 10 am to 6 pm with registration online required.

A previously undiscovered set of waxed writing tablets has been discovered in central London. Comprising some 405 pieces, the collection contains Britain's largest and earliest artifacts, dating back roughly 2000 years. The tablets were unearthed while construction crews were working on the new headquarters for Bloomberg's media center. Legible waxed tablets are rare, since the writing tends to deteriorate over time. One highlight of the find is the U.K.'s earliest financial document, written on January 8, 57 A.D. Other valuable artifacts were found at the site as well and are being shipped to museums for preservation.

Aperture has just published its first ever issue devoted entirely to African American lives as viewed through photography. The issue includes not only distinguished photographers but cogent insights from contemporary philosophers and critics. Titled "Vision and Justice", the book is available now and will be the basis for a class at Harvard University in the fall.

It's being called "Edgy Art" with selfies, as visitors to the Broad Art Museum in Los Angeles strut their stuff in front of some of the works. The more dramatic art certainly seems to appeal to museum-goers with a sense of play.

As a result of its integration into George Washington University, the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design discovered that over half of its faculty would not be reappointed. The Corcoran faculty included some distinguished names in the art world, including Andy Grundberg formerly of the New York Times. It is felt that the most innovative and inventive faculty members were being dropped, especially in the photography department.

Howard Hodgkin captured the heart of the art world decades ago with his vibrant and evocative paintings. Now with a show at the Gagosian Gallery in New York City, Hodgkin speaks as boldly as he paints. "I hate painting", he reveals. "Most of the time it is irrelevant. It doesn't mean enough, ever, quite". He adds, "I felt like an outcast in the art world".

Would you like to know how the oldest stars in our Milky Way Galaxy sound? Astrophysicists from the University of Birmingham used a technique called asteroseiesmology to record the sounds of 13-billion-year-old stars, which you can hear by simply hovering your mouse over the image. (My 82nd, coming up soon, is starting to feel pretty young!)

The Asian Art Museum in San Francisco is exhibiting 150 Chinese Masterworks through September 18. Called "Emperor's Treasures", the works came here from Taipei's National Palace Museum. Many of them have never been seen outside of Asia. At this site you can view five of the pieces along with explanatory material.

Callled simply "The Hive", it is a 56-feet tall sculpture by Wolfgang Buttress now installed at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, in London. Its impressive viewpoints can be seen in the slide show here. Some 170,000 parts were used to construct the piece, along with 1000 LED lights and special sensors that allow it to react to vibrations from living bee hives nearby.

It is being called The Plantage Skyhanger, designed for the year 2250 when the earth is overpopulated with urban populations. Projected to hang in space and provide food with real soil and real daylight, it is designed as a vertical farm hanging above cities.

It has been a while since I have seen the work of Moholy-Nagy, but fortunately the Guggenheim is offering an exhibit of his pieces called "Future Present". A teacher at the Bauhaus school of art and design in Germany as well as a writer, sculptor and stage designer, Moholy-Nagy believed in the possibility that technology and art could offer a brighter future for mankind. More images and information are available at the Guggenheim's own site.

Have you yet discovered a site called Google Arts and Culture? It is a veritable treasure chest of artworks from Museums around the world. You can, for example, view high-resolution images from the Museo de Arte Contemporaneo de Bogota, go to the State Library of New South Wales, then visit the Singapore Art Museum. And that's only the beginning.

c. Corinne Whitaker 2016