One of the creative forces behind the play that swept the Oliviers has fired a broadside at Culture Secretary Maria Miller and said the economic case for theatre was “done and dusted”.

The oldest theatre still in its original form in Britain faces closure unless it can raise about £120,000, the latest regional arts centre to run into financial problems since the recession.

As more of modern life shifts online, away from the old world of bricks and mortar, our writer considers the fundamental change to modes of existence

Stalled by downturns, delays and even the threat of a boycott by artists over the conditions of the building workers, Abu Dhabi’s masterplan to convert a vast sandy swathe of Saadiyat Island into a world-beating “cultural quarter” has sometimes looked like a desert mirage.

You get a sense of frontman Charlie Fink’s ambition early on, when his band reveal their idea of a “stripped-back set” involves Tom Hobden’s violin soaring over a string quartet in the midst of a rollicking "Tonight’s The Kind Of Night".

He's been making beautiful footwear for years, but now Pierre Hardy has designs on faces too, with a make-up range. Rebecca Gonsalves reports

Click the links below to visit the Saatchi Gallery installation viewer and scroll to see the images

She said the arts must make the case for themselves as a "commodity". How her audience prevented themselves from pelting her with coffee cups, I just don't know.

It’s back! Our antidote to those greed-is-good rich lists returns for a sixth successful year. On the next pages Jemma Crew names 100 inspiring people who have selflessly enriched the lives of others in the past year

The art world grew smaller the day Calder first popped his sculptures in the post

Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy and his supermodel wife, Carla Bruni, were clearly taken with President Barack Obama and his family back in 2011.

'I am the finest swordsman in England'

Batsman of the day

Billy Childish, who was closely associated with the Young British Artists, but always asserted his independence, has used thick paint to capture his mother in his latest portrait (pictured). He is not alone in using his mum as inspiration for his work – there is a long tradition of artists, including Lucian Freud and David Hockney, painting or photographing their mums.