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Dealer Charles Saatchi says the white box gallery space is dead. “Many in the art world, artists included, feel contemporary art can only be seen properly in a perfect white space. If art can’t look good outside the antiseptic gallery spaces dictated by museum fashion of the last 25 years, then it condemns itself to a worryingly limited lifespan. What’s more, that once cutting-edge gallery style is beginning to look like a cliche trendy bar or loft conversion. It’s time for a rethink.”

Early reviews of Chicago’s new Soldier Field have been critical. But Herbert Muschamp suspects the verdict will change: “I suspect that it won’t be long before the city embraces the new field. The design’s urban and architectural merits are considerable. Its conceptual qualities are better still. If you set out to write something bad about the design, you ultimately end up with a critique of the society that produced it. But the design is much more than a symptom of our time. It is a creative response to it. Soldier Field is a daring study of urban America in extremis, precariously poised for a future beyond its widely unlamented demise.”

Manhattan’s New Museum has taken in the Rhizome.org digital artist internet site. The museum world still doesn’t really know what it’s relationship with digital art is, so this is an interesting partnership. “When digital artists began to create online artworks in the mid-1990’s, much of the art form’s energy was derived from the notion that the works did not need museums or galleries to reach an audience. Spawned by that sensibility in 1996, Rhizome quickly became one of the most popular Internet sites devoted to the digital arts. It is an online-only meeting place where members can announce new artworks, request technical assistance or argue over obscure aesthetic issues.”