There’s a Renaissance happening here and now—not long ago and far away, but in our homes, neighborhoods, small towns, and big cities—from a youngster with a first box of crayons to artworks in museums across America.

Here’s a closer look at the evidence:

Dancing Horse, 8th century, earthenware with unfired pigments, Gift of Carl and Eleanor Strauss,1997.53
Combined digital x-rays of a Chinese ceramic sculpture from the museum’s East Asian collections.

The Arts-Science Merger

Art history today teaches us that a rebirth in the arts and humanities coincides with advances in science. Leonardo da Vinci’s genius wasn’t just that he painted a celebrity-status Mona Lisa, but that he created and left to humanity his monumental notebooks, evidencing the sciences of anatomy, light, visual perspective, color theory, engineering, architecture, hydrology, earth science and more.

Arts Education

Never before in human history has more arts education been more widely accessible in more forms to more human beings than now. The revolution in visual technology is hand-held throughout the world. Art museums are a relative newcomer in the 30,000-year story of art. As we speak, art museums serving millions of visitors all over America are evolving, reinventing and adapting to new contexts, preserving the past while exploring new directions. One example of new strategic emphasis is art and wellness—aka your brain on art—the science of neuroaesthetics.

The Value of Many

An encyclopedic museum like the Cincinnati Art Museum includes in its collection some 70,000 works across an enormous range of places, peoples, cultures, civilizations, and religions. Remember e pluribus unum, out of many one, our American motto?  A place like our museum shows the strength of presenting the pluralism of human creativity alongside a unifying common ground. You can see pluribus in the museum’s embrace of “all are welcome” and the “oh wows” coming from visitors of all ages, places, and pathways.

Visit your Cincinnati Art Museum. Experience a Renaissance.