Arts

Born to be a showman, P.T. Barnum overcame a number of obstacles (including numerous fires, the loss of several fortunes and one dead elephant) in order to make a buck. Who was this man who was so determined to create the greatest show on Earth?

By Jane McGrath

You've probably seen these women gracefully performing pirouettes or juggling acts in the air — all while suspended by their hair. Does it hurt? And what conditioner do they use?

By Dave Roos

For some, being a circus performer is a job; for others, it is a way of life. Many circus families stretch back seven or eight generations. Who are some of the most storied circus families still under the big top today?

By Melanie Radzicki McManus

They bend, they twist, they fold themselves into all sorts of strange and unnatural positions. How do contortionists become human pretzels?

By Chris Opfer

Watch the ball roll along his arm, around his back, down the other arm and under his palm. You've just seen contact juggling, an ancient practice where the ball stays in constant contact with your body. What's behind its newfound popularity?

By Melanie Radzicki McManus

Whether we love them or hate them, clowns aren't a rare sight. But have you ever thought about how much people can earn when they run off with the circus? Learn that and more about the serious business of clowning.

By Oisin Curran

A true burlesque performance doesn't have to depend on taking off clothes. It's about telling a story. Whether a leg or something more is the final "reveal," the audience should be pleased if the story is well-told. That's the beauty of burlesque.

By Julia Layton

Can weather move indoors? Thanks to an artist from Amsterdam, yes. Learn how these works of climate art come to be, and whether you're likely to have indoor weather of your own anytime soon.

By Jacob Clifton

They're at every sci-fi convention and Halloween party -- those people who always have the most amazing, original costumes. Learn the basics of building a costume and find out what it takes to do well in costume competitions.

By Tracy V. Wilson & Sharita Sykes

In glass blowing, artists give form to their work by blowing air into hot glass. People who practice lampworking also create art from the same stuff your windows are made from. What makes lampworking unique, and how did it get its name?

By Christine Junge

Millefiori, an Italian word meaning "thousand flowers," is a type of glass art that has been practiced for millennia. How have the years changed the way people make millefiori? Can you do it yourself?

By Melanie Plenda

It's easy to find out how much money a movie made on its opening weekend. But when it comes to books, sales numbers can be hard to pin down. That's where we come in.

By Laurie L. Dove

The 20 bestselling children's books come chock full of all kinds of wonderful characters -- from bunnies and puppies to boy wizards and cats with crazy hats. Know a few, do you?

By John Perritano

From the Two-headed Nightingale to the Baboon Lady, these 10 female sideshow freaks sure knew how to put on a show. But what were their real stories?

By Cristen Conger

When you think of comic books, you might conjure up images of geeky adolescent boys, superheroes in stretchy tights and flimsy little booklets. But there's way more to this game-changing, generation-spanning art form than that. What's the real story of comic books? What do comic book fans look like today?

By Nathan Chandler

Comic books have been around forever, but suddenly, all anyone can talk about is graphic novels. But what are they, exactly? Are they the natural evolution of comic books, or a brand new medium? Find out in How Graphic Novels Work.

By Nathan Chandler

A performer slides into a massive cannon barrel and is shot high into the air. She lands safely in a net some distance away, and the crowd goes wild. Who are human cannonballs, and who came up with shooting people out of cannons in the first place?

By Nathan Chandler

Accomplished ballet dancers make their graceful feats look effortless. Of course, that means we don't notice the hard work that make them look easy -- or the terms to match those moves. Want to learn the meanings of those fancy French words?

By Linda C. Brinson

Cubism represented a clear-cut, intentional break with art as visual realism. How did Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque revolutionize the way artists looked at the world?

By Julia Layton

Salvador Dali's paintings are among the most easily recognizable in the world. Oozing pocket watches, bleak expansive landscapes, erotic and grotesque nudes -- they're mind-bending exercises in subconscious exploration. But who was Dali, and how real was his eccentric life story?

By Jessika Toothman

Pablo Picasso was arguably the most famous visual artist of the 20th century -- he produces tens of thousands of works and even helped start a stylistic movement. What was the artist like, and how do historians define his styles?

By Julia Layton

One of the most well-known, and American, artists of the 20th century is undoubtedly Jackson Pollock. Even if you think of his famous "drip" technique as something so simple a child could do it, his fame has been cemented in the American consciousness.

By Meghan E. Smith

Although people now celebrate his bright colors and abstract figures, Henri Matisse was viewed as a radical in his own time -- when he turned the art world upside down. How did a quiet man from a small town become one of the most important French painters of the 20th century?

By Melissa Sandoval

Her self-portraits are unmistakable -- they feature that same dark, brooding visage, crowned by a single eyebrow. But what do they mean? And, who was the woman behind the art?

By Patrick J. Kiger

Most artists are renowned for capturing reality; M.C. Escher became famous for bending it. The creator of such visual stunners as "Relativity" and "Castle in the Air" had more in common with the mathematicians than the visual artists of his time.

By Stephanie Watson