Set against the sapphire backdrop of the Atlantic Ocean, Castle Hill on
the Crane Estate in Ipswich, Massachusetts, is today a National Historic
Landmark and the only known designed landscape of its size and kind
still in existence in North America. This beautifully illustrated and
practical guide provides the history and context of the stunning country
estate of plumbing magnate Richard T. Crane, Jr. and his family, which
draws many thousands of visitors each year. It includes the house
designed by architect David Adler in 1928, with period furnishings, and
marvellous natural landscapes and extensive gardens designed by some of
the century’s most notable landscape architects such as Arthur Shurcliff
and the Olmsted Brothers.

From Viking boxes to medieval manuscripts, mummified animals to elaborate stone carvings, Christ Church Cathedral has been the repository for an astonishing array of objects over the centuries, connecting us to the cathedral’s past in a direct and tangible way. 

These treasures provide impressive evidence of the cathedral’s extensive communications network, with Europe and beyond; the skilled craftsmanship that contributed to the creation of the cathedral building and its contents; and the many people who have passed through this extraordinary place.

This accessible book is an eye-catching introduction to the cathedral’s history, with lively commentaries on over 50 objects in Christ Church Cathedral. Generously illustrated with a wealth of items, ranging from the curious and the unexpected to the sumptuous riches of illuminated manuscripts and church plate. This is an enjoyable guide to Christ Church Cathedral, a place of worship in the centre of Dublin for almost 1,000 years. 

This sumptuously illustrated book presents the most important works from an extraordinary collection of Asian art. For two decades Francisco Capelo has been collecting exquisite works in a range of media – from Japanese scroll paintings to Chinese ceramics, and from Indian religious sculpture to Indonesian woodcarvings. Housed in an 18th-century palace in Lisbon, the Francisco Capelo Asia Collection now comprises more than 1,200 artworks from all over Asia and spanning many centuries.

Here, the highlights of this unique collection are beautifully photographed and enriched by insightful accompanying texts. The book serves as a lavish and informative introduction to the arts of Asia, from Korea and Tibet in the north to Sri Lanka and Indonesia in the south. More than 200 masterpieces are featured alongside articles by eminent art historians and scholars, enabling readers to share the excitement of their discoveries and to learn more about the abundance and breadth of Asia’s artistic traditions.

This uniquely designed book presents the first survey of contemporary artist Toni Dove’s pioneering work at the crossroads of performance, cinema, and virtual reality. Credited as one of the innovators of "interactive cinema," since the early 1990s, Toni Dove has created an oeuvre of "speculative technology" blending computer driven interactivity, live-mix performance and installation in projects which examine histories of consumer culture through evolving technologies. Dove’s collaborative practice brings together visual artists, filmmakers, fashion designers, robotics engineers, computer programmers, musicians, actors, and writers-each at the vanguard of his or her own métier.

Accompanying a major exhibition, this distinctively designed volume presents four of Dove’s most notable works, including the debut of her newest work The Dress That Eats Souls, which exists at the forefront of computer and robotic technology.

Contents: Director’s Foreword; Our Ghosts, Our Machines, Our Selves: The Art of Toni Dove; Beyond Mother Tongue: A Brief Archaeology; Toni Dove’s Nonmodern Ontologies; Carried Away; Collaboration, Toni Dove; On Narrative and Interface: An Interview with Toni Dove; Projects.

The collections of the Timişoara National Museum of Art trace their origins to the original Banat Museum founded in 1872 by Zsigmond Ormós, a great scholar and collector of the time. 

In 2006 Timişoara National Museum of Art was officially opened in its current form, housed in the splendid Baroque Palace on the city’s Union Square. Its collections include important works by Romanian master painter Corneliu Baba, an impressive contemporary art collection, decorative arts, and collections of Banatian, Romanian and European art from the 17th to the 20th century. 

In recognition of its status as one of the country’s finest art museums, in December 2020 it was designated a Museum of National Importance. The Museum will be a key visitor attraction during Timişoara’s year as European Capital of Culture in 2023.

Other titles by Director Victor Neumann – The Banat of Timişoara, The Temptation of Homo Europaeus, and Kin, People or Nation?

Founded on the integral values of sociability, inclusivity, charity and integrity, Freemasonry began as a gathering of inspired men in London in 1717. Since then it has blossomed into one of the world’s oldest and largest non-religious, non-political fraternal organisations. Three Centuries of English Freemasonry tells its remarkable story, drawing on three centuries of innovation, creativity and charitable endeavour. Illustrated throughout, it also explains the rites, rituals and artefacts that lie at the heart of the fascinating world of Freemasonry.

The world’s oldest theatre site in continuous use, the Theatre Royal Drury Lane has been at the heart of Covent Garden for more than 350 years. Audiences have flocked to the Lane to see the greatest stars of the day in spectacular productions ranging from Shakespeare to pantomime, from thrilling dramas to ground-breaking musicals.

The present theatre was built in 1811, after a devastating fire destroyed the previous incarnation, and the Lane has now been restored to its original Georgian glory by Andrew and Madeleine Lloyd Webber. The world-class theatrical and performance space is today an entertainment and cultural destination alive throughout the day.

This souvenir guide tells the story of the Lane from its bawdy beginnings in Restoration London to its newly restored elegance, unearthing the secrets of a theatre that has survived tragedy and fire, royal scandals, ghosts and even murder, while keeping audiences enthralled for centuries.

"My perspective is that of a phenomenologist and specialist in French and Spanish cultures. As such, the book left a special impression on me: Neumann does not limit himself to the mentioned areas of Europe, but understands the continent in its entirety, that is, ‘West’ and ‘East’ as a whole." — World Complexity Science Academy

The Renaissance, the Reformation, the Enlightenment – these seismic developments in Western thought were not confined to Italy and her near neighbours, but were paralleled across the vast and culturally diverse territory stretching from Vienna to Constantinople. Drawing on an array of sources, many of which were little-known before he made this ground-breaking study, Victor Neumann charts the development of Eastern European thought and its literary and artistic expression from the Middle Ages to the modern age.

First published, to great acclaim in Romania in 1991, this newly revised, updated and illustrated edition has been published as Neumann’s home city of Timișoara prepares to receive visitors from across the world as European Capital of Culture, and at a time when the question of what it means to be European is being debated more than ever.

Opened in 1886, Telfair Museums in Savannah, Georgia, is the oldest
public art museum in the southern USA. Today, Telfair Museums consists
of three unique buildings: the Telfair Academy, the historic
Owens-Thomas House & Slave Quarters, and the contemporary Jepson
Center for the Arts. Telfair Museums was formally founded with the
bequest of Mary Telfair in 1875 and now has grown to over 6,300
paintings, sculpture, works on paper and decorative arts. Telfair’s
collections are particularly strong in American Impressionism, the
Ashcan School, and American and English silver. Director Robin
Nicholson’s text is an engaging insight into the history of Telfair
Museums and its varied collections, featuring artworks by Childe Hassam,
Henry Ossawa Tanner, George Bellows, Helen Levitt, and
Mickalene Thomas.

The Sydney Opera House is one of the most recognisable buildings in the world. Fusing ancient and modernist influences and situated on a site sacred to the Gadigal people for thousands of years, it is Australia’s premier tourist attraction, a UNESCO World Heritage-listed site and one of the busiest performing arts centres in the world. 

While the tale of The Sydney Opera House is one of breathtaking triumph, it is also one of personal cost. Its Danish architect, Jørn Utzon (1918–2008), left Australia midway through construction and never returned to see his masterpiece completed – a building that, according to Frank Gehry, ‘changed the image of an entire country’.

This souvenir guide traces the history of this extraordinary building – one that is synonymous with inspiration and imagination – through a beautifully realised combination of photography, text and quotes.  

The Swiss National Museum is Switzerland’s most frequently visited museum of cultural history. At its three sites in Zurich, Prangins and Schwyz, it presents Swiss identities from prehistory to the twenty-first century. At its Collection Centre, it preserves over 870,000 items and works of art as well as several million photographs for future generations.
This new addition to Scala’s Director’s Choice series celebrates the museum’s 125th anniversary, showcasing stunning new photography of some of the museums’ finest objects, a selection that has been expertly compiled by Denise Tonella, the museum’s director.