Barbican to close its doors for a year for multimillion-pound renovation

The Barbican will close its doors for 12 months from June 2028 as it undergoes a multimillion-pound renovation that its leaders say will secure its future.The arts organisation’s Beech Street cinemas will remain open but its theatre, music venue, conservatory and visual arts galleries are set to shutter as the overhaul of the 43-year-old building begins in the lead-up to its 50th anniversary in 2032.The main Barbican site will close its doors in June 2028 and reopen in June 2029, but some disruption will happen before that as the foyer, lakeside area and internal control room are all renovated.The conservatory, which is open only for a few hours at the weekend and currently has netting to stop falling glass, will close earlier, in 2027.Philippa Simpson, the director of buildings and renewal at the Barbican, said the work could not be completed while the site was open to the public as it would be too dangerous, but that it was essential to secure the site’s future

Seth Meyers to Trump: ‘You can’t convince people the economy is good when they can see the truth’

Late-night hosts recapped Donald Trump’s attempts to reassure Americans on the economy as the private sector sheds jobs and grocery prices keep rising.Seth Meyers devoted his main segment on Wednesday’s Late Night to the US economy, which has seen better days. “Costs of everything, from food to electricity, are soaring while employers are shedding jobs,” he explained. “This is when a president needs to show empathy and demonstrate that he knows the plight of hardworking Americans, and – oh no, as I’m saying this I’m remembering who I’m talking about and realizing that there’s no fucking way he’s going to do that.”Instead the president, in an interview with Politico this week, gave the economy the grade of “A+++++”

The world’s most sublime dinner set – for 2,000 guests! Hyakkō: 100+ Makers from Japan review

Japan House, LondonThe fruit of a two-year odyssey through the workshops of artisans using ancient techniques, this delightful show features rippling chestnut trays, exquisitely turned kettles and vessels crafted from petrified leatherAs a retort to the doom-mongering prognostications of AI’s dominance over human creativity, it is momentarily comforting to tally up the things it cannot do. It cannot throw a pot, blow glass, beat metal, weave bamboo or turn wood. Perhaps, when it has assumed absolute control of human consciousness and the machinery of mass production, it will be able to. But for now, throwing a vessel and weighing its heft in your hand, or carving a tray and sizing up its form with your eye are still the preserve of skilled craftspeople, using techniques their distant ancestors would recognise.On show at London’s Japan House is the work of more than 100 pairs of eyes and hands, constituting an overwhelming profusion of human creativity, corralled into an exhibition of laconic simplicity

Dragon’s teeth and elf garden among 2025 additions to English heritage list

If Nazi tanks had ever attempted to invade Guildford, they surely would have been thwarted by concrete pyramid-shaped obstacles known as “dragon’s teeth”.Eight decades after the defences were installed in Surrey woodland, their history is being remembered by Historic England (HE), which has included them on its list of remarkable historic places granted protection in 2025.The heritage body publishes a roundup of unusual listings to draw attention to the diversity of places that join the national heritage list for England each year.As well as the anti-tank defences, this year’s list of 19 places includes a revolutionary 1960s concrete university block, a model boat club boathouse built in 1933 by men who were long-term unemployed, and a magical suburban “elf garden”.Claudia Kenyatta and Emma Squire, the co-CEOs of HE, said the listings provided a connection to the people and events that shaped communities

Discover Australia’s top 50 children’s picture books as nominated by Guardian readers

Put in your library reservations, plump up your beanbag: Guardian Australia can now reveal the best Australian picture books poll shortlist.Voting in the poll itself will open on 27 January at theguardian.com/bestpicturebook, which gives you a little under 50 days to read your way through these 50 nominees, the oldest of which was first published in 1973, and the newest in 2022.As a reminder, our eligibility criteria for nominees was:Primarily intended to be read aloud to children who don’t yet read independently.Able to be read in a few minutes – a child’s picture book, rather than a graphic novel or illustrated chapter book

Joyful, irreverent, endlessly quotable: why Hunt for the Wilderpeople is the perfect holiday movie

Picking a Christmas movie is hard work. It needs to be suitable for the entire family, which rules out Die Hard, and entertaining for the whole family, which rules out It’s a Wonderful Life. It has to be good, which rules out Love Actually, and it has to suit distracted viewing, which rules out Muppet Christmas Carol, of which it’s a sin to miss a single second.There is, however, no rule that says Christmas movies must include Christmas. Which is why Taika Waititi’s Hunt for the Wilderpeople is the perfect Christmas movie