THE SOANE Museum at No 13 Lincoln's Inn Fields plans a second exhibition, Inspired by Soane, from 30 September to show that he is a living inspiration to architects working today. Four architects illustrate with drawings and photographs and some scale models what they have learnt from John Soane.

It has been a good year for the big galleries, a less successful one for small museums, and a period of unease for the independent commercial galleries. The closure of the Michael Parkin Gallery was a sad loss and a warning.

Small venues, such as churches, are the bedrock of London's musical life

ART

Pieter de Hooch

If, like me, you weren't able to see the once-in-a-lifetime Vermeer exhibition in Washington and The Hague a couple of years ago, you'll be fed up hearing how marvellous it was. It was a great shame that it didn't come to this country, but this autumn there's a sort of compensation at Dulwich Picture Gallery, where they are about to open what purports to be the first-ever show of work devoted to Vermeer's contemporary, Pieter de Hooch.

Paula Rego's strength is her storytelling. If that disappears, Tom Lubbock finds there's not much left to appreciate

From the Bank of England and Dulwich's picture gallery to a villa tucked away in the suburbs of Ealing, John Soane left London a rich heritage. Andy Bull sets out on the trail of the architect, collector and genius

january

Painter, poet, printmaker, collector, composer, curator, sculptor, singer, translator... At 60, the polymathic Mr Phillips is still just trying to do what he's always done: be an artist as best he can. Profile by Andrew Lambirth

Anamorphic skulls, a head made of blood, the morbid sensibilities of the pre-Raphaelites and the last days of Richelieu. Richard D North goes on a funereal procession through the major London exhibitions but finds, as the seasonal excesses move into high gear, that he has plenty to smile about.

The Courtauld Gallery closes tomorrow for refurbishment: some works will be lent, others stored. Vanessa Thorpe reports

Dulwich Picture Gallery, as its name suggests, is not a place where one expects to see sculpture. Paintings are their thing, old ones mostly, including some of London's best works by Rembrandt, Watteau and Poussin. This summer, however, the place has a pointedly different feel thanks to an exhibition of sculpture by Stephen Cox.

Sir: Eleanor Boyle (Letters, 30 June) will be pleased to know that we at Dulwich Picture Gallery operate exactly the Continental free day system, which she advocates. Normally the Gallery costs pounds 3 or pounds 1.50 concession, with free admission for children and the unemployed; on Friday it is free for all. England's oldest public art gallery receives no revenue funding from the state.