Imagine being able to see artwork in the greatest museums around the world without leaving your chair. Driven by his passion for art, Amit Sood tells the story of how he developed Art Project to let people do just that.

While on lockdown, the galleries of Singapore's iconic ArtScience Museum were empty -- but online, the museum was abuzz. Curator Honor Harger shares how they're engaging deeply with its visitors through streamed talks, performances and workshops that investigate the COVID-19 landscape and uplift marginalized voices. (This virtual conversation, h...

Wandering a museum hall can whisk you off to another time, leave you in awe of an artist or teach you something new about our natural world. Enjoy these talks about museums.

Sometimes, small things make a huge impact. After studying how bees in urban environments can survive by navigating small land patches, ecologist Amanda Schochet was inspired to build MICRO, a network of portable science museums the size of vending machines. Learn how these tiny museums are being deployed in libraries, community centers, transit...

Archaeologist and curator Chip Colwell collects artifacts for his museum, but he also returns them to where they came from. In a thought-provoking talk, he shares how some museums are confronting their legacies of stealing spiritual objects and pillaging ancient graves -- and how they're bridging divides with communities who are demanding the re...

Who deserves to be in a museum? For too long, the answer has been "the extraordinary" -- those aspirational historymakers who inspire us with their successes. But those stories are limiting, says museum curator Ariana Curtis. In a visionary talk, she imagines how museums can more accurately represent history by honoring the lives of people both ...

A third of the world watched live as the World Trade Center collapsed on September 11, 2001; a third more heard about it within 24 hours. (Do you remember where you were?) So exhibits at the soon-to-open 9/11 Memorial Museum will reflect the diversity of the world's experiences of that day. In a moving talk, designer Jake Barton gives a peek at ...

African artifacts shown in museums worldwide are often not borrowed, but stolen -- and TED Fellow Jim Chuchu is on a mission to get them back. Learn the sordid history behind how many of the collections in the West came to be, Chuchu's extensive work tracking and restoring Kenya's cultural heritage and what these efforts can mean for the wider A...

During his term as director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and now at San Francisco's Fine Arts Museums, Thomas P. Campbell aims to make museum offerings both narrative-driven and accessible.

Craft curator Nora Atkinson takes us on a trip to Nevada's Black Rock Desert to see the beautifully designed and participatory art of Burning Man, revealing how she discovered there what's often missing from museums: curiosity and engagement. "What is art for in our contemporary world if not this?" she asks.

As the director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, Thomas P. Campbell thinks deeply about curating—not just selecting art objects, but placing them in a setting where the public can learn their stories. With glorious images, he shows how his curation philosophy works for displaying medieval tapestries—and for the over-the-top fashion...

Sheikha Al Mayassa is the young and progressive force behind Qatar's mission to become the Middle East's foremost destination for the arts and culture.

Are you looking closely? Visual educator Amy Herman explains how to use art to enhance your powers of perception and find connections where they may not be apparent. Learn the techniques Herman uses to train Navy SEALs, doctors and crime scene investigators to convert observable details into actionable knowledge with this insightful talk.

Digital archaeologist Chance Coughenour is using pictures -- your pictures -- to reclaim antiquities that have been lost to conflict and disaster. After crowdsourcing photographs of destroyed monuments, museums and artifacts, Coughenour uses advanced technology called photogrammetry to create 3D reconstructions, preserving the memory of our glob...

When the Museum of Modern Art's senior curator of architecture and design announced the acquisition of 14 video games in 2012, "all hell broke loose." In this far-ranging, entertaining, and deeply insightful talk, Paola Antonelli explains why she's delighted to challenge preconceived ideas about art and galleries, and describes her burning wish ...

Museums are vessels of memory, knowledge, inspiration and dreams. Anne Pasternak, director of the Brooklyn Museum, makes the case for cultural institutions to take a leading role in supporting the world's recovery from COVID-19 -- and shows how, in times of turmoil and disruption, the arts help us come together, heal and rebuild a better society...

An iconic painting. An ancient manuscript. A cylinder with 2600 years of history. Learn about artifacts and images that have intrigued humans for centuries, and why we find them so alluring.

Luke Syson was a curator of Renaissance art, of transcendent paintings of saints and solemn Italian ladies -- Very Serious Art. And then he changed jobs, and inherited the Met's collection of ceramics -- pretty, frilly, "useless" candlesticks and vases. He didn't like it. He didn't get it. Until one day ...

How do you make a great public space inside a not-so-great building? Liz Diller shares the story of imagining a welcoming, lighthearted -- even, dare we say it, sexy -- addition to the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, DC. (From The Design Studio session at TED2012, guest-curated by Chee Pearlman and David Rockwell.)

As a curator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Luke Syson accesses the richness of European history through sculpture.

Paola Antonelli is on a mission to introduce -- and explain -- design to the world. With her shows at New York's Museum of Modern Art, she celebrates design's presence in every part of life.

William Noel is a curator who believes museums should make their collections free and available on the Internet.

Principal of the New York media design firm, Local Projects, Jake Barton creates interactive and digital exhibits for the likes of the 9/11 Memorial Museum, Cleveland Museum of Art and Storycorps.

Chance Coughenour is recreating heritage and culture that's been lost throughout the world.

A treat for your mind and your eyeballs.

MOMA design curator Paola Antonelli previews the groundbreaking show Design and the Elastic Mind -- full of products and designs that reflect the way we think now.

Chip Colwell is an archaeologist who tries to answer the tangled question: Who owns the past?

Marc Pachter has spent his career curating and creating intimate portraits of the lives of others.

Art invites viewers into perspectives and ways of life different from their own -- and with that, helps foster a sense of empathy required for democracy. Learn about the creative avenues art takes in giving power to the people.

Observe our modern times through the lens of art history with these compelling, masterful talks.