Berlin is trying to get our attention with the Pop into Berlin traveling pop-up store and show. The city’s promotional agency Berlin Partner and Visit Berlin have been offering a taste of Berlin around Europe with a clever project featuring displays from twenty or so Berlin companies. Pop into Berlin also promotes examples of the city’s cultural and foodie scene. So far the pop-up stores have shown up in Stockholm, Vienna, London, Paris, and Amsterdam.
The Japanese artist who goes by the moniker Segawa Thirty-Seven has once again released some of his wonderfully reimagined ukiyo-e woodblock paintings and prints. The new series of gifs adds elements of 21st century tech to liven-up the original 19th century scenes.
The Jet Propulsion Laboratory branch of the space agency NASA recently released digital copies of some of the art work that was selected for their 2016 staff calendar. Created by the Seattle design studio Invisible Creature, the space themed travel art is clearly influenced by vintage travel posters. “The Grand Tour” is an homage to NASA’s historic Voyager spacecraft missions. The other two posters encourage vacationers to consider holidays to Saturn’s moon Enceladus and Mars. Prints are available for purchase at the Invisible Creature website.
I’m one of those insufferable bibliophiles who get a thrill from visiting the real world locations that I’ve read about in books. Now there’s a newly revamped website to appeal to book lovers everywhere. Placing Literature centers on a crowd sourced website that collects information about literary locations. Readers, writers, librarians, teachers, and book lovers in general have mapped nearly 3,000 places from novels, short stories, poems, and plays on an interactive world map. Each spot has a location card that offers insightful information about the geographic location and its literary connection. The place cards show a photo of the relevant spot linked to Google Maps. Users can search Placing Literature by place, author, or book. You can also browse collections of literary locations that have been curated by authors, publishers, librarians, and museums.
For someone who has been dead for five hundred years, Hieronymus Bosch is getting an awful lot of attention these days. The Noordbrabants Museum in the painter’s home town of ‘s-Hertogenbosch in southern Netherlands has an exhibition featuring forty of his works drawn from collections around the world. A newly authenticated Bosch painting that was lost for decades has been discovered safe and sound in the “attic’ of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, Missouri. There is also a new documentary about the artist titled “Hieronymus Bosch: Touched by the Devil” due for release this year.
Art loving digerati can explore Bosch’s masterpiece “The Garden of Earthly Delights” through a fantastic interactive website from the documentary filmmakers and there’s a very cool VR app available for iOS and Android.
Real aficionados can still visit the artist’s most famous painting at Madrid’s amazing Museo del Prado. The last time that I was in Madrid, I actually went to see the hallucinatory triptych twice. But if you can’t make it to Spain, do check out the interactive website and the VR app; they’re both terrific.
The Art Institute of Chicago has found a very clever way to promote their upcoming “Van Gogh Bedrooms” exhibition (Feb. 14 to May 16). The museum has created a real life replica of the artist’s famous Bedroom at Arles painting in Chicago and they’re renting it on Airbnb .
According to the listing, “It’s decorated in a Post-Impressionist style, reminiscent of Southern France and times gone by. Its furniture, bright colors, and artwork will give you the experience of a lifetime.” The rental cost seems to be $10 per night.
The adult coloring book craze has even reached the lofty academic heights of Oxford University. The esteemed Bodleian Library in Oxford has released its own coloring book drawn from its collections. You can download your own pdf version right here. Now you can indulge your need to color and feel cultured at the same time.
One of the perks of flying Icelandair for transatlantic passengers is the option for a free stopover in Iceland. Now the national carrier is offering to provide an individual travel friend during stopovers.
February through April this year, flyers can request a “Stopover Buddy” —an actual Icelandair staff member who will share a piece of their homeland as a personal guide. These “Buddy” experiences are surprisingly diverse and interesting. They range from high adventure wilderness activities like skiing and mountain climbing to more sedate ones such as cooking and cultural events.
I’m just disappointed that the “Stopover Buddy” program will be ending before my next stopover in Iceland later this year. If you’re thinking about a trip to Iceland, check out the program here.
Travel Between The Pages 