An art gallery or art museum is a building or space for the exhibition of art, usually visual art. Museums can be public or private, but what distinguishes a museum is the ownership of a collection. Paintings are the most commonly displayed art objects; however, sculpture, decorative arts, furniture, textiles, costume, drawings, pastels, watercolors, collages, prints, artists' books, photographs, and installation art are also regularly shown. Although primarily concerned with providing a space to show works of visual art, art galleries are sometimes used to host other artistic activities, such as performance art, music concerts, or poetry readings.

The term is used for both public galleries, which are non-profit or publicly owned museums that display selected collections of art. On the other hand private galleries refers to the commercial enterprises for the sale of art. However, both types of gallery may host traveling exhibits or temporary exhibitions including art borrowed from elsewhere.

‎Robert A. Lehrman is an American novelist, commentator, speechwriter, Democratic aide, and teacher.

Former White House Chief Speechwriter for Vice President Al Gore (1993-95), Lehrman has written six books including several award-winning novels, and thousands of speeches for Democratic politicians, corporate and nonprofit CEOs, and celebrities. He is perhaps best known for his non-fiction book, The Political Speechwriter’s Companion: A Guide for Writers and Speakers, a systematic look at the techniques and strategies of modern political speech.

Lehrman frequently writes and speaks about politics and speech. He is a contributor to AOLNews, and has appeared in the Washington Post, New York Times, Politico, Christian Science Monitor and other periodicals.

A long-time Adjunct Professor at American University, Lehrman teaches public speaking and created AU’s course on political speechwriting which he co-teaches with Professor Eric Schnure. Along with American University Professor Leonard Steinhorn, he co-founded the commentary site, PunditWire.

Tadao Ando (安藤 忠雄, Andō Tadao^?, born September 13, 1941, in Minato-ku, Osaka, Japan and raised in Asahi-ku in the city) is a Japanese architect whose approach to architecture was categorized by Francesco Dal Co as critical regionalism. Ando has led a storied life, working as a truck driver and boxer prior to settling on the profession of architecture, despite never having taken formal training in the field. He visited buildings designed by renowned architects like Le Corbusier, Ludwig Mies Van der Rohe, Frank Lloyd Wright and Louis Kahn before returning to Osaka in 1968 and established his own design studio, Tadao Ando Architect and Associates.

He works primarily in exposed cast-in-place concrete and is renowned^{[by whom?]} for an exemplary craftsmanship which invokes a Japanese sense of materiality, junction and spatial narrative through the pared aesthetics of international modernism.^{[citation needed]}

Renzo Piano, Ufficiale OMRI (born 14 September 1937 in Genoa) is an Italian Pritzker Prize-winning architect. Architecture critic Nicolai Ouroussoff said of Piano's works that the "...serenity of his best buildings can almost make you believe that we live in a civilized world."

In 2006, Piano was selected by TIME as one of the 100 most influential people in the world. He was selected as the 10th most influential person in the "Arts and Entertainment" category of the 2006 Time 100.

Piano was born in Genoa, Italy, in 1937 into a family of builders. He was educated and subsequently taught at the Politecnico di Milano. He graduated from the University in 1964 and began working with experimental lightweight structures and basic shelters. From 1965 to 1970 he worked with Louis Kahn and Z.S. Makowsky. He worked together with Richard Rogers from 1971 to 1977; their most famous joint project is the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris (1977). He also had a long collaboration with the engineer Peter Rice, with whom he shared a practice (L'Atelier Piano and Rice) between 1977 and 1981.

Ai Weiwei (born 18 May 1957) is a Chinese contemporary artist, active in sculpture, installation, architecture, curating, photography, film, and social, political and cultural criticism. Ai collaborated with Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron as the artistic consultant on the Beijing National Stadium for the 2008 Olympics. As a political activist, he has been highly and openly critical of the Chinese Government's stance on democracy and human rights. He has investigated government corruption and cover-ups, in particular the Sichuan schools corruption scandal following the collapse of so-called "tofu-skin schools" in the 2008 Sichuan earthquake. In 2011, following his arrest at Beijing airport on 3 April, he was held for over two months without any official charges being filed; officials alluded to their allegations of "economic crimes" (tax evasion). In October 2011 ArtReview magazine named Ai number one in their annual Power 100 list. The decision was criticised by the Chinese authorities. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Weimin responded, "China has many artists who have sufficient ability. We feel that a selection that is based purely on a political bias and perspective has violated the objectives of the magazine".