The nickelodeon was a type of indoor exhibition space that was dedicated to showing projected motion pictures. These can be considered the beginnings of cinemas. Nickelodeons were cheap (they charged a nickel) and were particularly popular in the early and mid 1900s. This was due to several advantages.
First of all, nickelodeons were very affordable, which made them appealing to a wide audience. This came at a time when the urban middle class was rising. Moreover, these theatres offered a continuous selection of short films, which meant that they provided leisure activities at almost any time. The owners relied on "film exchanges" to have access to a wide variety of new films. This meant that the same audiences would keep coming back, as the content provided was new. This was a great advantage to the patron.
The answer to the first question:
"What are some of the best places to find art references?"
I've been drawing for a while, and I find that good references depend on what you're drawing, but if you like to draw people, like I do, I find references for people on Pinterest for one, but I also use real people as references (especially using my siblings :) )
A good way is to see how people work and practice anatomy and proportions, trust me, they are a BIG part of drawing, especially people!!
Hope this helped!! \(^u^\)
P.S. sorry I don't really paint, (cuz I'm bad at it) so I can't really answer that question (^w^')