A thousand artists were asked to name the work best expressing national identity. Their choice was surprising

The Crisis Commission exhibition sees some of the most celebrated artists unite to bring major new works to Somerset House.

Despite fears that the North-east series was a freak show, hotels are busy and the diary is full

A boat-shaped holiday let on the roof of the Queen Elizabeth Hall is a bold addition to London's landmarks, says Stephen Bayley.

We all know what a Gormley looks like: gazing straight ahead with his arms limp by his sides, he’s been placed by his creator on bleak seashores, on the roofs of high buildings, and anywhere else you’d least expect to find him, so it was no surprise to be confronted by the back view of a Gormley who remained motionless at the front of the Barbican stage for so long that one was driven out of boredom to read the programme.

Ed Vaizey, the Minister for Culture, Communi-cations and Creative Industries, has a conscience. He apologised at the private view of hundreds of artworks generated by youngsters involved in the National Art and Design Saturday Clubs for the lack of government cash for artists manque. The show at London's Somerset House eventually attracted 3,300 visitors – he even arranged an intern stint at the DCMS for one of the young artists.

One of the largest and most controversial stars in American sport is coming to Anfield – and it's bad news for whoever is sitting behind him.

An exhibition of contemporary art featuring the work of Werner Herzog and Antony Gormley opens at a gallery in Metz, France later this month.

Evidently, this column needs to reopen its campaign against the empty vogue-word "iconic". Here is the opening sentence of an article about large-scale works of public art, published on Wednesday: "It started with The Angel of the North, Antony Gormley's iconic steel sculpture which looms over the A1 and put Gateshead on the map for the right reason."

Contemporary art is often characterised as intensely international. So it is perhaps remarkable how many of the proposals for a work of art to grace the fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square seem to have made reference to the British national spirit.

hHgh on a hill was a lonely Gormley, layee odl, layee odl, lay-ee-o... As Maria might have trilled had she spotted the solitary, watchful figure, his feet planted firmly in grass and edelweiss, his gaze directed balefully out over the snowy peaks of the Alps. In fact, this Gormley is far from lonely. He's one of 100 identical figures, cropping up across the mountains of Vorarlberg in west Austria, like so many cast-iron von Trapps.