Food for the Soul: Women Who Gave Us van Gogh – Women & Art Series 16

Food for the Soul: Women Who Gave Us van Gogh – Women & Art Series 16

By Nina Heyn — Your Culture Scout Paris at the end of the 19th century was packed with sophisticated men who loved art. They were making it, discussing it, and selling it. There were those who created new styles—like Monet, Gauguin, or Cézanne. Others excelled as art dealers, like marchand Paul Durand-Ruel, who handled sales…

Food for the Soul: A Dash to Freedom – Movies

By Nina Heyn – Your Culture Scout We have selected some good movies and interesting documentaries that explore different aspects of freedom. You could, if you wish, also make your own list of cinematic examples. In the meantime, here is our “starter” list. FEATURE FILMS AND TELEVISION SERIES THE BATTLE OF ALGIERS (1966) The Battle…

Food for the Soul: Comets – Looking Skyward for Inspiration

Food for the Soul: Comets – Looking Skyward for Inspiration

The Comet of 1680 over Rotterdam. Lieve Verschuier (1680). Rotterdam Historic Museum. Photo: Wikimedia Commons Public Domain “As above, so below.” ~ Hermes Trismegistus (6th century AD) By Nina Heyn – Your Culture Scout A sudden appearance in the night sky of an exotic shape of a ball and a shiny tail would be hard…

Food for the Soul: Gideon’s River Test

Food for the Soul: Gideon’s River Test

Gideon. Sketch for a fresco. Franz Anton Maulbertsch (1796). Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest. Photo: Wikimediart.org By Nina Heyn – Your Culture Scout There is a longstanding intellectual debate about whether an individual can change history. Attila the Hun, Alexander the Great, and Adolf Hitler come to mind in support of this argument, with countless…

Food for the Soul: How Do You Show Freedom?

Food for the Soul: How Do You Show Freedom?

By Nina Heyn – Your Culture Scout “For we fight not for glory, nor riches, nor honors, but for freedom alone, which no good man gives up except with his life.” ~ Declaration of Arbroath, 1320. National Museum of Scotland. We are used to seeing ideologically engaged works in modern art museums. Twenty-first-century artists often…

Food for the Soul: Global Trade Part 2  – Out of Africa

Food for the Soul: Global Trade Part 2  – Out of Africa

By Nina Heyn – Your Culture Scout For 15th-century Europeans, sub-Saharan Africa was to a great extent terra incognita until Portuguese explorers started venturing further and further south along the continent’s western coast. These expeditions culminated in 1497 with Vasco da Gama’s voyage all the way down to the Cape of Good Hope and on…