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Could the Sistine Chapel Close to Tourists?

Looks like having 4 million tourists clogging the halls of the Vatican's Sistine Chapel each year is taking its toll. During a regular dusting of the frescoes this summer, crews found alarming signs of wear. Apparently the smog, dust and humidity that all those sweaty people generate is harming Michelangelo's famous work.

Antonio Paolucci, the director of Rome's Vatican Museums, told Voice of America that the continuous hordes of tourists are putting a lot of pressure on the Sistine Chapel and that greater efforts must be made to ensure that maintenance inspections are carried out.

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Vancouver’s Coolest Public Art: 'We' by Jaume Plensa

Photo: Ted Topping

Vancouver is still basking in the afterglow of the 2010 Winter Olympics and one of the best remnants of the Games is the public art that now decorates the city’s parks and buildings. For the next few weeks (actually this the final one!), Jaunted's Vancouver Embed Tuija Seipell of The Cool Hunter will be reporting on the best of the bunch.

When I first saw this sculpture that sits on the small hill overlooking Sunset Beach, I dubbed it “Letterhead.” Without knowing its story, I felt it spoke many languages and looked friendly and open in its lacy lightness. To my surprise, I wasn’t too far wrong with this.

The sculpture is called "We" and the artist, world-renown Barcelona-born Jaume Plensa, describes it as a celebration of linguistic diversity, a fitting topic for the multicultural and multilingual Vancouver. Plensa has created the hollow sitting human figure, a “human container,” using random letters from eight alphabets—Latin, Greek, Russian Cyrillic, Hebrew, Hindi, Japanese, Arabic and Chinese. The sculpture is made of painted aluminum and it is beautifully lit from below at night.

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Vancouver’s Coolest Public Art: A-maze-ing Laughter

Photo: Ted Topping

Vancouver is still basking in the afterglow of the 2010 Winter Olympics and one of the best remnants of the Games is the public art that now decorates the city’s parks and buildings. For the next few weeks, Jaunted's Vancouver Embed Tuija Seipell of The Cool Hunter will be reporting on the best of the bunch.

A-maze-ing Laughter happily competes with The Meeting for the title of the most-photographed and most-posed-with among Vancouver’s coolest public art. Each of the 14 happy bronze-cast males is 8.5 feet tall (2.5 meters) and weighs 551 pounds (250 kilograms).

The sculptures were shipped from China, the homeland of the artist Yue Minjun, and then transported to the Morton Park Triangle at English Bay in the West End. After being lifted by cranes to their places in the circle, each figure was welded to its base.

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Vancouver’s Coolest Public Art: The Meeting

Photo: Ted Topping

Vancouver is still basking in the afterglow of the 2010 Winter Olympics and one of the best remnants of the Games is the public art that now decorates the city’s parks and buildings. For the next few weeks, Jaunted's Vancouver Embed Tuija Seipell of The Cool Hunter will be reporting on the best of the bunch.

The circular grouping of eight crouching, life-size men at Cardero Park is possibly one of the most photographed sculptures of the Vancouver International Sculpture Biennale (2009-2011). I suggest you sip your iced frappuccino on the patio at the Starbucks in the adjacent Westin Bayshore hotel—the hotel where the IOC stayed during the Olympics—and watch the public interact with the artwork. The parade of people posing and taking pictures is continuous as visitors and locals just cannot resist the idea of joining the bright red men of Chinese sculptor Wang Shugang’s The Meeting.

People mimic the mens' pose, they climb on them, hug them, and they sit around them as if one of the bronze sculptures were part of their group.

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So You Think You Can Draw? Emirates Wants to Fly Artists for Free

Want a free trip to Dubai on Emirates plus $5,000, plus the chance to exhibit your artwork at an international art fair? You're in luck because Emirates wants to make it happen for a promising talent, so long as they think you're as good as Damien Hirst.

You see, Emirates is searching for emerging artists to enter their contest to replace the Damien Hirst artwork on their Skywards loyalty program cards. If you win, you'll be flown to Dubai for the unveil, get a place for your portfolio to be shown in the Art Dubai Fair in March 2011, and be handed the $5,000 (think Dubai shopping spree).

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Vancouver’s Coolest Public Art: The Drop

Photo: Ted Topping

Vancouver is still basking in the afterglow of the 2010 Winter Olympics and one of the best remnants of the Games is the public art that now decorates the city’s parks and buildings. For the next few weeks, Jaunted's Vancouver Embed Tuija Seipell of The Cool Hunter will be reporting on the best of the bunch.

The massive, vibrantly blue Drop is part of the Vancouver Convention Centre Art Project. Located right at the edge of the new building, the 65-foot tall Drop overlooks the cruise ships departing for Alaska and the float planes taking off for the islands.

It is the first North American commission for Inges Idee, a group of four German artists who have created large-scale sculptures around the world since 1993. At first glance, the Drop appears to be made of glass, but its central “spine” is made of steel, then covered with Styrofoam coated with a thick, strong coat of blue polyurethane. The elegant figurehead pays homage to the omnipresence of water in Vancouver.

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Vancouver’s Coolest Public Art: Douglas Coupland's Digital Orca

Photo: Ted Topping

Vancouver is still basking in the afterglow of the 2010 Winter Olympics and one of the best remnants of the Games is the public art that now decorates the city’s parks and buildings. For the next few weeks, Jaunted's Vancouver Embed Tuija Seipell of The Cool Hunter will be reporting on the best of the bunch.

If you showed up in Vancouver right now and only had the time to see one piece of public art, I’d recommend you head to see Douglas Coupland’s Digital Orca. It is located outside the new Vancouver Convention Centre that acted as the Broadcast Media Center for the Olympics (the ”old” Convention Centre right next to it was home of the print media).

The Orca is also immediately next to the outdoor Olympic cauldron, originally lit by Wayne Gretzky during the opening ceremonies. In a handy three-for-one, you’ll get to see the Orca, the cauldron and the new Convention Centre, plus you’ll enjoy a fantastic view of the North Shore Mountains, too.

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Vancouver’s Coolest Public Art: The Totems in Stanley Park

Detail of Ga'akstalas pole carved by Wayne Alfred and Beau Dick. Photo: Ted Topping

Vancouver is still basking in the afterglow of the 2010 Winter Olympics and one of the best remnants of the Games is the public art that now decorates the city’s parks and buildings. For the next few weeks, Jaunted's Vancouver Embed Tuija Seipell of The Cool Hunter will be reporting on the best of the bunch.

New, colorful public art can be found in Vancouver even at one of the most-visited tourist sites in all of British Columbia, Stanley Park. Here you'll find the Brockton Point totem poles, where tourists pose day in and day out, overlooking the detailed magnificence of the totems.

The totems and their interpretive storyboards tell fascinating stories of the past. Even if you have visited the totems before, now is the time to return to check out the awesome updated carvings.

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Vancouver’s Coolest Public Art: The Monument for East Van

Photo: Scott Massey

Vancouver is still basking in the afterglow of the 2010 Winter Olympics and one of the best remnants of the Games is the public art that now decorates the city’s parks and buildings. For the next few weeks, Jaunted's Vancouver Embed Tuija Seipell of The Cool Hunter will be reporting on the best of the bunch.

Ken Lum’s Monument for East Vancouver is definitely in the cool category of Vancouver’s new public art. In its simplicity, earnestness and tongue-in-cheek quality, the funky sign-like sculpture matches the sensibilities of the area. The locals just call it "The East Van Cross."

An imposing landmark at the crest of East 6th Avenue and Clark Drive, it is visible from many vantage points, including the Skytrain. The East Van Cross is shaped like a Latin cross and bears the giant crossword "EAST VAN." According to the Vancouver-born Lum, the shape and wording are a well-known unofficial East Vancouver “logo” that he was able to trace back to at least the 1940s. This symbol has been seen in graffiti and T-shirts for a long time and Lum wanted to make it “official” this way. The Monument for East Vancouver was erected in January 2010 as part of the City’s Olympic and Paralympic Public Art Program.

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Vancouver’s Coolest Public Art: The Birds at the Olympic Village

Photo: Tuija Seipell

Vancouver is still basking in the afterglow of the 2010 Winter Olympics and one of the best remnants of the Games is the public art that now decorates the city’s parks and buildings. For the next few weeks, Jaunted's Vancouver Embed Tuija Seipell of The Cool Hunter will be reporting on the best of the bunch.

There is no avoiding public art in Vancouver these days, especially in the downtown core and in neighborhoods within walking distance from it. New and prominent installations seem to be everywhere. In addition, the art we have accumulated recently appears to be particularly engaging and fun, as I have never seen as many people taking pictures of public art as I have this summer. People pose among the art, mimic the poses of the sculptures, climb them (although in most cases one probably shouldn’t) and give them fun names.

With the City’s Olympic and Paralympic Public Art Program, the new Convention Centre’s art program, the Vancouver International Sculpture Biennale, plus the many new buildings all presenting public art, it’s been a tough task to choose eight key pieces for this series of Vancouver’s Coolest Public Art, but I’ll start at the Olympic Village, which is now open to the public, and its sculpture "The Birds."

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Capture Your First Love or a Wish at the New Museum

If you never got over your first love—who hasn't?—come to the New Museum in New York City's Bowery area to find some closure. The exhibit "Rivane Neuenschwander: A Day Like Any Other" tackles a number of topics, but we're digging the theme of longing in several of the participatory pieces.

In Brazilian artist Rivane Neuenschwander's First Love, you sit with a police sketch artist—you know, the ones who come up with those mugshots of criminals in the newspapers. You describe your first sweetheart's face to the police artist, who then creates a black-and-white portrait of that special someone. The portrait gets hung in the gallery for the rest of the exhibition with the chance that the heartbreaker will see her picture on the wall.

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The Egyptian God Anubis Freaks Out Travelers at Denver Airport

It’s only a few weeks until King Tut and his treasures arrive in Denver for a stop at the Denver Art Museum. Starting June 26, the boy king will be on display, but you’ll actually be able to see some of his possessions and history as soon as you arrive in the city. Officials with the traveling exhibit have installed a 26-foot statue at the airport, but the thing is kind of a downer.

It’s a replica of Anubis—that’s the god of the afterlife for these that don’t remember—and this creature from beyond weighs in at seven tons. It’s definitely large enough to provide an interesting welcome for travelers around the country. Many are already questioning why on earth they’d throw up a huge monument to the underworld at a place like an airport, especially with Anubis being the one responsible for helping out the newly dead on their final journey.

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