If it's as cold where you are as it is here, just stay inside—we have some weekend reading.
Are corporate sponsorships in the arts necessary? Tate Britain—and many others—say yes, but oil giant BP gives Tate an average of $375,000 a year. Is the controversial association really worth it?
So, here's a book: the Internet infrastructure of New York from artist Ingrid Burrington. If you're in New York the book is featured in Eyebeam's annual showcase in DUMBO, or you can order it here.
How Arup used a microsimulator to design the new Fulton Center subway station in lower Manhattan. (Too bad they couldn't do something about all the microorganisms.)
The New-Yorkification of London's Soho? Lamenting the loss of music history, burlesque, and street life on Denmark Street and the environs.
Next Tuesday, the publishers of, among other imprints, Yale University Press, Siglio, and David Zwirner Books will speak on "trends" in art book publishing at the New York Public Library.
New York Mayor Bill de Blasio announced, in his state of the city address this week, a new housing initiative to keep artists and musicians from leaving New York. Will it be enough?
Back in the '90s, a Louis Kahn building changed my life. Here's the story of how another Kahn building, this one in Philadelphia, met an unnecessary, undignified end, just last year.
Rembrandt collected corals and shells; more recently, for artist Peter Blake, it was figurines of elephants. A new exhibit at the Barbican in London on what curiosities artists obsess over and possess.
"Rated PG; Brutal treatment of toes and toenails": This film on choreographer Justin Peck looks terrific.
—Eugenia Bell
Homepage image of Louis Kahn's shopfront for Coward Shoes/1122 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia from the Philadelphia Free Library
