TOP OF mind

Conscious Curation

Many major museums—like the Smithsonian, the Penn Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, and the British

Museum—are using 3D technology to replicate artifacts from prehistoric cave art in France to Jackson Pollock’s drip paintings, making art and artifacts broadly accessible—and repatriating objects stolen from colonized societies. The Smithsonian, for example, 3D printed a whale hat from the Tlingit clan in southeastern Alaska. Museums can display objects concurrently, and anyone with access to a 3D printer can get the digital files online and make their own copy. Plus, archaeologist Néstor Marqués says, “3D printing [can] create perfect replicas of the objects, or resize them if the objects are so small that their details can’t be seen properly,” a boon for education and research. And, since 2019, Google’s Arts and

Culture Institute, nonprofit CyArk, and 3D printing company Stratasys have collaborated on the Open Heritage project, which aims to “bring important monuments and artifacts around the world to life” by reproducing smallscale versions of cultural heritage sites.

THE SPOILERS YOU’RE LOOKING FOR

When choosing what to watch, it’s often good to look both ways, so to

There Is Such A Thing As A Free Ride

Kansas City is on track to become the first major US city with free public transit, after city council agreed to waive the fare on city busses for all riders. The joint initiative between the city and the local transit authority aims to make life easier for those on a low income, while encouraging others to make the eco-friendly choice to leave their cars at home. Doing away with transit fares is estimated to cost the city eight million dollars, and will save the frequent commuter one thousand dollars a year. Kansas City’s streetcars are already fare-free.

PLAY, BY THE RULES

To grow a garden and eat fresh produce; to play in vibrant neighborhoods, schoolyards, and parks; and to splash in the Chesapeake Bay are among the legal rights of children in Baltimore.

The city adopted a Children’s Outdoor Bill of Rights in May 2019, one of 18 cities funded by Cities Connecting Children to Nature, which aims to fuel systemic shifts to make nature more accessible for children and families, especially those in underserved communities.

Mary Hardcastle, director of the Carrie Murray Nature Center, helped develop the Bill of

Rights and says it’s led to the start of a Nature Daycare, as well as bubbling up throughout government a proactive vision for nurturing healthy families through exposure to nature.

“In providing access to nature, we also want to address issues of equity, trauma, and healing,” adds Hardcastle.

Put Your Worries To Sleep

A Guatemalan tradition—where children tell sorrows to tiny “worry dolls” before sleep— inspired Peter Wieben to develop the free Worrydolls app for smartphones. It displays adorable illustrations of worry dolls, along with space to type your troubles in. It’s simple, yet powerful: Studies show describing difficult emotions can help to resolve “an undefined cloud of anxiety,” notes Wieben. By observing that most worries tend to go away over time, Wieben says, we learn that we can “simply watch the worry arise and fall,” not taking it too seriously.