The rather jolly Christmas light display beloved of homeowners and local authorities across the land has been given a stunning 21st-century makeover for the Holburne Museum in Bath.

Who are the people that make up modern Britain? It's a question that documentary photographer Jason Wilde is attempting to answer with his ambitious ongoing project, "Free".

As day turns to night the rolling countryside landscape transforms, taking on a magical and ghost-like presence under moonlight.

This group show with a rather grandiose title has been curated by a Turner-shortlisted male artist who goes by the name of Bob and Roberta Smith. Smith has been artist-in-residence at the New Art Gallery, Walsall, combing through a remarkable archive of the works and personal effects of Jacob Epstein, which were bequeathed to the city by Epstein's widow in 1973.

A new art gallery named after one of the country's greatest sculptors will open in May. The £35m Hepworth Wakefield is named after Barbara Hepworth, who was born and grew up in the West Yorkshire city. It will be the largest purpose-built gallery to open in Britain since the launch of Tate St Ives in Cornwall in 1993.

Susan Philipsz becomes first sound artist to receive prestigious award.

At first, the large, low-lit gallery space looks rather unprepossessing: a circle of vintage microphones, all spot-lit, stand at its centre, as if waiting for a 1960s variety show to start. But where are the contestants? In the room's far corner, there's a long table that resembles an airport scanner (its surface, brilliantly lit with white light, is moving and moving). What else? Not much. A wall-hung mirror waits patiently for a human stare. When you look into it, with the usual degree of curiosity mingled with apprehension, you see the predictable sadness of yourself. But you see something else too: a word has been blazoned in light across your forehead: autopoiesis (auto-creation). How has that happened? Elsewhere, a series of tiny green computer screens, also wall-hung, are connected to each other by a tangled skein of wiring. Each screen has a bizarre question. Otherwise, nothing is happening. The room is utterly soundless. Is this all there is?

Some of the less enthused visitors to the Tate Modern might be relieved to stumble upon the haven of this pub, complete with bar and piano, as they make their way round the London art gallery.

It is ten years since the New Art Gallery in Walsall opened its doors beside the Walsall Canal. (You can see a narrow boat drawn up beside the café's window as you bite down on a panini.) Would this splashy, handsome gallery help to give a new vitality to this small Black Country town? Could there be a mini-Bilbao effect in the making? Ten years on, things are looking pretty good – there were 6,000 visitors during half-term week; kids seem to be dragging their parents back for a second look – and it's evidently time for a show on the theme of non-stop partying.

As an exhibition inspired by J G Ballard's controversial novel Crash opens in London, Charlotte Cripps talks to the artists involved about sex, death and the late writer's influence on them and their work

Who says the humble wall can't be a talking point? A new show called Walls are Talking: Wallpaper, Art and Culture, at the Whitworth Art Gallery in Manchester, is the first major UK exhibition of wallpaper by artists. It transports domestic wallpaper design far from the world of the cosy sprigged Laura Ashley pattern and into an altogether darker place, where themes of warfare, racism and sexuality often take centre stage.

The Staffordshire Hoard, a vast haul of Anglo-Saxon gold and silver discovered by an amateur treasure hunter in July, has been valued at £3.28 million by the British Museum.

Pop Art given a good stuffing