30.12.2022 13:30 Date: December 31, 2022 Today’s Doodle celebrates New Year’s Eve, a time to reminisce about 2022 and look forward to a fresh start in 2023. Whether you’re setting off fireworks or setting goals for next year, here’s to the great things to come in 2023! 3… 2… 1… Location: Tags:
28.12.2022 14:16 Date: December 28, 2022 Today’s Doodle celebrates the 118th birthday of Canadian sports star Fanny Rosenfeld, famously nick-named Bobbie Rosenfeld for her bobbed hair. Rosenfeld put her heart into advocating for women in sports, and ran in the first Olympics that allowed women to compete in track and field. Rosenfeld was born in Ekaterinoslav, Russia on this day in 1904, and her family moved to Barrie, Canada during her infancy. As a young girl, she excelled in sports such as basketball, softball, lacrosse, hockey, and tennis. The race that spurred Rosenfeld's track career was a sporting carnival, where her softball teammates encouraged her to enter the 100-yard dash and she beat the top Canadian sprinter. After that run, she underwent intense training and began making headlines at competitions like the Canadian National Exhibition’s Athletic Day and Ontario’s first women's track and field championship. Rosenfeld sprinted in the 1928 Olympic games in Amsterdam–the first Olympics where women were allowed to compete in track and field. She narrowly missed first place and earned a silver medal in the 100-meter race and her relay team won gold in the 4x100-meter relay. Not long after the Olympics, a severe case of arthritis forced Rosenfeld to change tracks from competing. She remained involved in sports as a coach, executive or manager to various women's sports teams and worked as an athletics reporter at the Globe and Mail for 20 years. Her column, “Sports Reel,” covered not only sports news, but also countered the stereotype that sports made women unfeminine. Rosenfeld was among the first athletes inducted into the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame and bestowed the Canadian woman athlete of the first half-century award. Ever since 1978, the Canadian Press has been granting the annual Bobbie Rosenfeld Award to a female athlete of the year. Bobbie Rosenfeld continues to inspire generations of young female athletes who see her legacy as a symbol that they too can achieve the impossible and overcome any hurdles in their pursuit of greatness. Location: Tags:
28.12.2022 05:00 Date: December 28, 2022 Today’s Doodle celebrates the 140th birthday of Lili Elbe, a former Danish painter. She is considered one of the most significant painters of her time as well as an influential figure in the LGBTQ+ community as one of the first recipients of gender affirmation surgery. The Doodle artwork was illustrated by Amsterdam-based guest artist . On this day in 1882, Lili Elbe was born with the name Einar Magnus Andreas Wegener in Vejle, Denmark. As a teenager, she moved to Copenhagen and enrolled at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, where she met Gerda Gottlieb. The pair enjoyed painting together, fell in love, and married before Elbe transitioned. One day when Gottlieb’s model didn’t show up for a portrait, Elbe put on a dress and posed for her wife instead. Elbe said she was surprisingly comfortable wearing the dress and stockings and began questioning her gender identity. Through these experiences, she began to envision living life as a woman, and she began living authentically as herself with the name Lili. In 1912, the couple moved from Copenhagen to Paris, where Lili could live as her true self with less criticism. Elbe learned about the possibility of gender-affirming surgery in the 1920s when the process was highly unknown and experimental. While risky, Elbe knew she wanted her body to match her gender identity and received a series of surgeries in Germany. The procedures allowed her to be legally recognized as a woman and she was granted a passport with her name. She chose the last name Elbe after the river flowing through Dresden—where she got the surgeries and was affirmed as a woman. At the time, the law did not recognize marriages between women, so the pair divorced amicably. Elbe remarried and had hopes of becoming a biological mother, so she sought a uterus transplant procedure. Sadly, she never achieved her dream of motherhood as she died soon after the surgery from her body rejecting the organ. Her legacy lives on through the two books about her life and through the LGBTQ+ film festival MIX Copenhagen, which presents Lili awards to the winner of Best Feature, Best Documentary and Best Short Film. Man into Woman is adapted directly from her diaries and became one of the first widely published books about a transgender person’s life, while The Danish Girl is a fictional book and film inspired by her life. Happy birthday, Lili Elbe! Q&A with guest artist Hilde Atalanta Today’s Doodle was illustrated by Amsterdam-based guest artist . Below, they shares their thoughts behind the making of this Doodle: Q. Why was this topic meaningful to you personally? A: Being invited to create this portrait of Lili Elbe meant a lot to me as we share similarities: both Lili and I are painters, and we are both trans individuals. During my process of researching Lili's life for the portrait, I read her letters and I could relate to her feelings: her hope to be seen as she is, her hope for positive change. It was a meaningful experience to realize that even though we are a century apart in time, we are connected in many ways. I'm very happy that I was able to give Lili the positive representation she deserved. Q. What were your first thoughts when you were approached about working on this Doodle? A: I was very excited and happy to be able to portray Lili. Oftentimes, when trans individuals are being portrayed by popular media, the struggles and stigma around trans experiences are being emphasized. Being able to portray Lili felt like such a beautiful opportunity to honour her and put her in the spotlight in a way that celebrates her identity; in a way that she deserves to be seen. Q. Did you draw inspiration from anything in particular for this Doodle? A: For this portrait I drew inspiration from the art deco era Lili lived in. I did research about Lili's life, and in which ways art and design influenced the world around her. Lili's wife, Gerda, was a painter herself, and at a certain point during their relationship she started to paint Lili – which I wanted to bring out in this portrait too. Lili, posing, in her most elegant way, as seen by her wife Gerda. A loving and empowering dynamic. Q. What message do you hope people take away from your Doodle? A: With this portrait of Lili I want to show the beauty, resilience, strength, and inspiration that makes trans individuals so wonderful. It is so important that trans individuals are being uplifted and positively represented in mainstream media. We need representation of our deep love, our sense of community, our tenderness, our strength. Our resilience, our empathy, our growth. We need to be able to tell our own stories with our own voices. To be able to create this portrait of Lili felt like a wonderful and meaningful way of honouring her. Location: , , , , , Tags:
20.12.2022 06:15 Date: December 20, 2022 Today’s Doodle celebrates the 106th birthday of Gonzalo Rojas, a Chilean poet, diplomat, and teacher who won the Chilean National Prize for Literature in 1992. He wrote and published more than 40 collections of poetry throughout his career, often focusing on melodic words that sound pleasing to the ear. Rojas was born in Lebu, Chile on this day in 1916. He attended boarding school on scholarship and eventually studied law and literature at the University of Chile in Santiago. While working on his first poetry volume, Rojas also taught literacy to miners in the Atacama desert. During this time, he also founded a literary journal called Antárctica and served as its editor. The publication of his first collection, La miseria del hombre , in 1948, won him international recognition as a poet. Rojas published countless more collections like Contra la muerte , Oscuro , and Del relámpago throughout his seven-decade career. He also worked as a lecturer and administrator at the University of Concepción, organizing seminars and conferences during the height of Latin American literature in the 1960s. In the early 1970s, Rojas served as a diplomatic ambassador until political tensions led to his exile. From there, he traveled to universities in Germany, Spain, the United States and more to teach Spanish literature. A Guggenheim scholarship allowed Rojas to return to Chile in 1979. He settled in the city of Chillán, where he continued publishing celebrated works of poetry. He went on to win the Chilean National Prize for Literature , the Miguel de Cervantes Prize of Spain, the Octavio Paz Prize of Mexico and the José Hernandez Prize of Argentina in his later years. Location: Tags:
19.12.2022 11:45 Date: December 19, 2022 Location: Tags:
19.12.2022 01:45 Date: December 19, 2022 One could say painting came easel-y to Judith Leyster, a 17th-century master painter and a central figure in the Dutch Golden Age. However, misogyny and a forged signature caused art dealers to misattribute her paintings to male artists for decades. On this day in 2009, the National Gallery of Art and the Frans Hals Museum held exhibitions to rightfully honor her legacy. Today’s Doodle celebrates her work. Leyster, whose name means “lodestar” , was born in Haarlem in 1609. Although art historians know little about her formal education, rumor has it she showed remarkable talent at a young age. When poet Samuel Ampzing visited Haarlem to chronicle the city in 1628, he famously described 19-year-old Leyster as a painter of “good and keen insight.” At the time, professional female painters were rare in Europe. But Leyster never let this dissuade her. Using her spontaneous and free signature brushstrokes to capture everyday life, Leyster finished her first known painting, Serenade and Jolly Topper, in 1629. She signed with a distinct monogram: “J.L.” crossed by a star—a play on her last name. A few years after completing her first painting, Leyster became one of the first women admitted to Haarlem’s prestigious painters’ guild. During this time, she also set up her own studio and began taking in students. Leyster may have earned the respect of her peers and enjoyed financial success as an artist, but she was erased from history when art scholars later mistook her paintings as those of her male contemporaries’. In 1892, a keen observer finally noticed a star insignia on one of Leyster’s paintings in the and remarked that it did not match the signature of the male artist’s. This forced the artworld to reckon with their decades-long misattribution, allowing Leyster to reclaim her place in history. Scholarly detectives have since identified more than 30 Leyster masterpieces. Curious to see them? Among her known works, the most famous is a self-portrait turning to the viewer with a knowing smile. Curious to check out Leyster’s masterpieces? Art lovers can enjoy a collection of her work on . Location: , , , , , Tags:
18.12.2022 07:00 Date: December 18, 2022 Today’s Doodle celebrates Qatar National Day. On this day in 1878, Sheikh Jassim bin Mohammed Al Thani succeeded his father, Sheikh Muhammad Bin Thani, as the ruler of Qatar. Known as the country’s founder, Sheikh Jassim unified the tribes in the region to create the modern State of Qatar. National Day is celebrated on December 18th to honor the unification of the country almost a century prior. On the public holiday, people in Qatar celebrate with a huge parade through the capital, Doha, as planes perform stunts above the procession. In the afternoon, there are dazzling fountain shows featuring colorful water jets that spray to the rhythm of music. And the sunset finale ends with a breathtaking fireworks display. To celebrate their core values of solidarity, loyalty, and pride, people in Qatar decorate their cars and homes with patriotic symbols such as the maroon and white flag waving in the artwork of today’s Doodle. Happy National Day, Qatar! Location: Tags:
17.12.2022 21:45 Date: December 18, 2022 Today’s Doodle celebrates Doris Pilkington Garimara who was an award-winning Martu author. Doris’ work recounts the experiences of the Stolen Generations and their reconnection with Indigenous Australian culture and identity. On this day in 2004, Doris Pilkington Garimara received a Western Australian State Living Treasure award for her writing, which has enriched Australian arts and culture. The Doodle artwork was illustrated by Warumungu/Wombaya guest artist who lives and works on Gadigal land. Doris’s most renowned book, Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence, details her mother Molly’s remarkable escape from Moore River Settlement. Moore River Settlement was a camp for Indigenous people that were forcibly removed from their families as a part of assimilation policies. In 1931, 14-year-old Molly and her two young family members spent nine weeks trekking 1,000 miles of harsh desert to escape. They traveled along a fence that stretched across Western Australia, knowing that their hometown, Jigalong, was on the northern end of the fence. The book concludes with Molly’s return home. But she’d have to make the same journey years later when her family was forcibly taken to the Moore River Settlement once again. Doris Pilkington was born Nugi Garimara on July 1, 1937, in Western Australia. In her book Under the Wintamarra Tree, she wrote about her experience dealing with cultural erasure when she and her baby sister Annabelle were forced to accompany their mother to the camp. When Molly made the second long trek home with 18-month-old Annabelle, she had to leave four-year-old Doris behind as she couldn’t carry both daughters. At Moore River Settlement, Doris slept in rooms with barred windows, learned to feel ashamed of her culture, and received punishment for speaking her native language, Mardudjara. Those who tried to escape were held in solitary confinement, and Doris wouldn’t get a chance to see her mother again until age 25. After years of unlearning the shame around her culture, Doris took ownership of her birth name and began speaking and writing in Mardudjara. Today, her stories inspire Indigenous Australian people to reconnect with their stolen heritage. Thank you for sharing your people’s story with the world and encouraging a reclamation of culture, Doris Pilkington Garimara. Special thanks to Doris’s family for their collaboration on this project. Below her daughter, Bernadine Maria Pilkington, shares her thoughts on today’s Doodle and her mother’s legacy. Our mother, Doris Pilkington Garimara was the Queen of our family. She instilled in each of us a strong work ethic, the strength to tackle any problem head on, the importance of family, and to never give up. She achieved so much....writer, journalist, mother, grandmother great-grandmother, State Living Treasure, Co-Patron of Sorry Day Committee, mentor, and the list goes on. She left an important and enduring legacy to her family, friends, and the people of Australia. Our Mum had a very dry and witty sense of humour and a cheeky personality. She would watch an afternoon soap called Bold and the Beautiful, and throw some very choice words at the tv. Mum was born prematurely under a wintamarra, or mulga tree, and fought to stay alive. She believed that her very survival had a purpose. Location: Tags:
17.12.2022 21:45 Date: December 18, 2022 Location: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , Tags:
17.12.2022 02:00 Date: December 17, 2022 Today’s Doodle celebrates Ana Mercedes Hoyos, a distinguished Colombian artist. She was an award-winning painter and sculptor who won over seventeen national and international awards. Hoyos was a pioneer in modern art who focused on the complexities of Colombian culture. On this day in 1968, Hoyos was awarded first place in the Bogotá Museum of Modern Arts’ “Environmental Spaces” exhibition. Born to a family of architects in Bogotá, Colombia on September 29, 1942, Hoyos was encouraged to study art history from an early age. She attended Colegia Marymount before studying visual arts at the University of Andes. She first explored more minimalistic and abstract styles, which led to her first series Ventanas . Many consider this collection the turning point of her career, as it won the Colombian National Salon of Artists’ Caracas Prize. In the next few decades, Hoyos ventured into new realms. In the mid 1970s, she released Atmósferas , a series exploring the parameters of light that won international recognition. She then created works featuring flora and fruit typically found in Cartagena, where she lived in the 1980s. Hoyos’ artistic journey eventually led her to still-life paintings that examined the multicultural diversity of Colombia. These still lifes combined exaggerated light with explosive tropical colors to capture the Caribbean’s rich cultures and sceneries. Hoyos’ paintings portrayed Afro-Colombian heritage in a magical, mesmerizing way. Nowadays, people can enjoy her work far and wide at renowned art institutions like the Museum of Modern Art in Mexico City, the United Nations University in Tokyo, the National Museum of African American History and Culture in D.C., and perhaps most importantly, the Bogotá Museum of Modern Art, where her journey started. Location: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , Tags:
16.12.2022 06:30 Date: December 16, 2022 Today’s Doodle celebrates Bahrain National Day. On this day in 1971, Isa bin Salman Al Khalifa took power after centuries of foreign rule. National Day celebrations span two days, as the sound of violins and rebabs fill the air with traditional Khaleeji music. Majestic fireworks, cultural concerts, acrobatic performances, magic, and laser shows entertain people until sun down. In the evening, colorful lights illuminate up to half a mile of city streets and walkways. Buildings across the country are decorated with national flags—like the one found in today's Doodle. Happy National Day, Bahrain! Location: Tags:
15.12.2022 21:01 Date: December 16, 2022 Today’s Doodle celebrates Kazakhstan’s Independence Day. On this day in 1991, the Supreme Soviet of Kazakhstan declared full independence and left the Soviet Union. As the last Soviet republic to become independent, Kazakhstan represented the entire Soviet Union for a brief moment in time. Historically populated by nomadic tribes, Kazakhstan is home to over 130 ethnic groups today. For this reason, multicultural celebrations are a big part of Independence Day festivities. The Kazakh flag is light blue with a gold sun and eagle in the middle. There is also a gold traditional Kazakh embellishment along the hoist end of the flag. The blue background represents tranquility, well-being and the sky nomadic people have lived under, while the gold eagle and sun stand for freedom. While December 16th officially marks Independence Day, celebrations take place on both the 16th and 17th. On the eve of Independence Day, the government honors Kazakhs who have contributed to the country in areas like health, education, culture, and sports. As the sun rises on this holiday, Kazakhs attend festivities in the presidential palace and dress in traditional clothing like gold-embroidered Shapans and fur-lined outer garments to protect the wearer from the winter wind. Traditional tents called Kurts offer preserved local delicacies that reflect the nomadic lifestyle for citizens to enjoy. The dishes include various fermented dairy products, tandyr nan and fluffy fried Kazakh bread called Baursak. Happy Independence Day, Kazakhstan! Location: Tags:
15.12.2022 11:15 Date: December 15, 2022 Today’s Doodle celebrates Japanese Brazilian table tennis player Claudio Kano. He is widely considered one of the greatest Brazilian players of all time and helped popularize the sport. Kano was born on December 18th in São Paulo, Brazil. At 10 years old, he started playing table tennis at Clube Showa where the best local players hung out. Kano’s skill and work ethic impressed the players, who recommended that he join the São Bernardo club—one of the best table tennis teams in the country. A few years later, Kano was playing against some of the most competitive players in the world. Fluent in English, Japanese, and Spanish, Kano quickly made friends with professional players on the international circuit. After playing with Olympic champions in Sweden for four years, Kano returned to Brazil as one of the most talented players in the country. At just age 17, Kano became the unofficial manager of Brazil’s national team and mentored younger players. With charisma and discipline beyond his years, Kano also became a role model for children across Brazil. He went on to win two gold medals in men’s doubles and men’s team table tennis at the 1983 Pan American Games, which catapulted him to a national hero status. Kano won 10 more medals, including five golds, at the Pan American Games. Kano also competed in the 1988 Seoul Olympics and the 1993 Barcelona Olympics, placing in the top 20 in both games. At age 30, he was on the cusp of competing in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics when he passed away in a tragic motorcycle accident. The star table tennis player leaves behind a shining legacy and thanks to his success, table tennis is now a celebrated sport in Brazil. The country's top players continue to look to Kano as an inspiration. Location: Tags:
12.12.2022 17:01 Date: December 13, 2022 Location: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , Tags:
12.12.2022 07:45 Date: December 12, 2022 Today’s Doodle celebrates Kenya Independence Day, or Jamhuri Day in Swahili. The holiday commemorates two important anniversaries in Kenyan history. On this day in 1963, Kenya achieved independence from Great Britain, and exactly one year later, the country officially became a republic. National Day celebrations kick off in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi. Government officials, officers and the public gather at Nyayo Stadium where the president addresses the nation in an annual speech. The Kenya Marching Band performs the national anthem and drums up other popular songs. Later, jets and helicopters soar overhead. The Kenya national flag depicted in today’s Doodle flies high throughout the country. The national colors of green, red, black, and white also appear on traditional clothing called kikois and kitenges, which is another symbol of pride. People wrap the bright, woven fabric around their bodies or use them as tablecloths for celebratory dinners. Independence Day, celebrations are marked with food, music, dancing, and a National Parade streamed across local TV Stations. Happy National Day, Kenya! Location: Tags:
