CHICAGO, IL.- Celebrate a unique night out to raise funds for UNICEF. Evangeline Gouletas, President’s Council Member for the Midwest Region of the U.S. Fund for UNICEF, will underwrite the event. Guests will have the one-of-a-kind opportunity to meet one of the southeast's finest sculptors, Steve Miller, and accomplished author and motivational speaker Rudy Ferraro. Casey Marsh, Midwest Regional Director of the U.S. Fund for UNICEF, will speak to guests about UNICEF’s lifesaving programs worldwide.

PHILADELPHIA, PA - Recognizing artists as a vital component in Pre K - 12 educational reform, the University of the Arts and the Philadelphia Arts in Education Partnership (PAEP), in collaboration with the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, will begin offering a first-in-the-nation Teaching Artist certificate through the University's Continuing Studies Division this fall.

ST. HELENS, UK - The final piece of "Dream", a landmark new sculpture, was lowered into place on the site of a former coal mine in St.Helens, next to a busy motorway where it will be seen by millions of motorists each year. The spectacular 20 metre-high 'Dream' sculpture, by internationally renowned artist Jaume Plensa, is situated on the site of the former Sutton Manor Colliery in St.Helens, midway between Liverpool and Manchester. A celebratory, forward-looking symbol of both St.Helens' rich mining heritage and its more recent post-industrial transformation, 'Dream' will be highly visible to the 100,000 people who drive past the site on the M62 every day.

LEIDEN, NL - If you think the Middle Ages were boring and dark, you are wrong. Circa 800 A.D., Dorestad, located where Wijk bij Duurstede now lies (in the Netherlands), was a city that was bustling with activity, merchants and craftsmen. In the lively decor of the new family exhibition ‘Dorestad. World City in the Middle Ages’ (through 1 November 2009), young and old can acquaint themselves with life in this medieval port city. Archaeological discoveries, games and a scavenger hunt guarantee an adventurous journey of discovery for the entire family. On view at the National Museum of Antiquities.

WASHINGTON, DC - The monumental sculpture “Modern Head” by Roy Lichtenstein (1923-1997), a major figure in the pop art movement, now is part of the Smithsonian American Art Museum's permanent collection. In 1996, “Modern Head” was installed by the Public Art Fund of New York City in Battery Park City, one block from the World Trade Center. The sculpture survived the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack with only surface scratches and temporarily was used by the FBI as a message board during its investigation.

Basel, Switzerland - For Art 40 Basel the Art Statements sector includes 27 solo shows by young artists. Selected by the Art Basel Committee from a record number of more than 300 applications, the participating artists come from 13 different countries. Art Statements has promoted young artists for over 10 years now, offering them a special platform that brings them to the eyes of an international audience of curators, collectors and art critics. Many past artists have been awarded major exhibitions as a result of being discovered at Art Statements. These 27 projects promise art enthusiasts interesting and stimulating encounters with work from the rising generation of artists.

COLUMBUS, GA - Magnetic Landscape examines the ways several contemporary video artists use landscape as a way to create new visual metaphors. For decades, video art has been a force in the visual art world. Many artists create works that combine art, technology and science as a reflection of today’s society. Present day video art exists within a range of technology‐driven disciplines such as architecture, design, sculpture, electronic art and digital art.

NEW YORK, NY -  As part of its ongoing ContemporAsian series, The Museum of Modern Art presents a week-long run of Hyazgar (Desert Dream) (2007), from April 15 through 20, 2009, in The Roy and Niuta Titus Theaters. Written and directed by Lu Zhang (Chinese, b. 1962), the film focuses on Hungai, who lives with his family on the isolated Mongolian steppes and is obsessively devoted to the reforestation of the barren land that surrounds him. When his wife and daughter leave on a trip to the city, Hungai finds himself hosting a pair of North Korean refugees, Soonhee and her son Changho, who gradually fill familial roles that Hungai never cherished with his own wife and daughter. 

HELSINKI, FINLAND - In mid-September, the Ateneum Art Museum will open an exhibition of Pablo Picasso's art, and advance tickets went on sale on Monday the16th of  March. The tickets are only available from the Finnish National Gallery web shop at www.shop.fng.fi. This advance sale of exhibition tickets is a pilot project for Ateneum, and tickets are at first available for October and November.