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Johnny Swing makes furniture from coins with each design requiring thousands of nickels, quarters, half-dollars or dollar coins.

Bleak, bulky yet strangely beautiful, village halls are the beating heart of rural Britain, where great events happen for £8 an hour. We meet a photographer celebrating these harmonious hubs

A row of karate kids are performing mawashi geri kicks in unison to the cries of their teacher. Coincidentally, in the room next door, the Brownies are learning first aid. The next morning, a gaggle of pensioners arrive and are soon waltzing to wartime classics. Then, by the afternoon, a jumble sale is in full swing. One week later, dozens of people are queuing up to vote, hot on the heels of a neighbourhood forum discussing a contentious planning application.

These are just a few moments in the life of a humble village hall. More than any other building type, the village hall represents the ultimate multifunctional democratic space. It is a forum for raffles, cake sales, birthday parties, fitness classes, political meetings and more – a witness, as Jethro Marshall puts it, “to great human events – mostly for around £8 per hour”.

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A new view of Gober World, where social distancing and supermarket pie are the norm.

A look at design-world events, people and products.

The Japanese glass virtuoso Rui Sasaki’s great subject is the weather.

New books on hand dryers, carpet patterns and Soviet and Scandinavian design influences.

The Observer’s critics recommend the best new arts shows to enjoy on TV and online

Nicola Benedetti’s Virtual Sessions
Star violinist Nicola Benedetti’s mass online tutorials, for players of every age and level, culminate in a grand finale performance of the Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis by Vaughan Williams, with Karina Canellakis conducting. Today at 4pm on Nicola Benedetti’s YouTube channel; details at benedettifoundation.org Fiona Maddocks

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Tests your arts knowledge with these questions from the Observer’s critics

Francis Ford Coppola was given his middle name in honour of who or what?

The Ford motor company

Michigan congressman Gerald Ford (later President Ford)

Film director John Ford

Which painter impressed a pope by drawing a perfect circle?

Michelangelo

Giotto

Leonardo da Vinci

Which TV anthology series did Lady Gaga join in 2015?

American Horror Story

True Detective

Unsolved

Which of the following did not happen to Brian De Palma?

He stole a motorbike and was shot in the leg following a police chase

He crashed a motorbike and lost one testicle and most of the skin from his buttock

As a child, he stalked his father with a camera, hoping to find proof of his infidelity

The Danish composer Carl Nielsen’s Symphony No 4 (1916) is also known as:

The Inexhaustible

The Indistinguishable

The Inextinguishable

The Bangladeshi film Amra Ekta Cinema Banabo (The Innocence) was released in Bangladeshi cinemas on 20 December 2019. Why was it notable?

It was made collectively, with no writer and director, but a series of votes put to the cast and crew

It holds the record for the longest non-experimental film ever made (the running time is more than 21 hours)

All major roles were played by animals

What was the subject of the first known painting?

An animal

A human being

A bird

In which Shakespeare play is a woman insulted by being called an acorn?

The Winter’s Tale

A Midsummer Night’s Dream

As You Like It

What was the 19th-century Russian composer Alexander Borodin’s other job?

Dentist

Banker

Chemist

Blockbusters presenter Bob Holness was the subject of an enduring myth that he had been the tenor saxophonist on Gerry Rafferty’s Baker Street, to a little presumed chagrin on the part of the real sax player, Raphael Ravenscroft. What was indisputably true about Bob, however, was that he had once portrayed James Bond 007. When and where?

1956, on a South African Springbok Radio production of Moonraker

1967, on one of the last series (a Dr No adaptation) to be broadcast late‑night on the BBC Home Service before it became Radio 4

1976, standing in as a double for Roger Moore for two days on The Spy Who Loved Me, while on holiday near the film set in Porto Cervo, Sardinia

Who played a character who luxuriated in the name of Camilla Fortescue-Cholmeley-Browne?

Zoe Boyle in Downton Abbey

Patricia Hodge in The Vicar of Dibley

Miranda Hart in Call the Midwife

Who designed the Cenotaph in London?

Edwin Landseer

Edwin Lutyens

Robert Lutyens

KSI is a UK rapper who released his debut solo album this month. Which of the following is not among his other job descriptions?

Boxer

YouTuber

Model

Which play did the Daily Mail call a “disgusting feast of filth”?

Edward Bond’s Saved

Sarah Kane’s Blasted

Mark Ravenhill’s Shopping and Fucking

In which year did Michael Jackson tell the world he was “Bad”?

1986

1987

1988

Name the odd one out:

Ben by Michael Jackson

Martha My Dear by Paul McCartney

Nadine by Chuck Berry

Which label boss issued a company memo that said: “We will release only No 1 records”?

Berry Gordy of Motown

Alan McGee of Creation Records

Simon Cowell of Syco Music

Which has the highest dome?

The Pantheon, Rome

St Peter's, Rome

The Capitol, Washington DC

17 and above.

Wow. You pretty much ARE culture, aren't you? But don't let that crown slip... check back next week for more quizzery.

13 and above.

Pretty impressive stuff! But there's always room for more culture, and more points. See you next week?

9 and above.

Solid stuff! Maybe next week you can really push for the big leagues…

0 and above.

Well, we don't want to make anyone feel bad. But that was... quite bad. Time for a brush-up?

4 and above.

Not bad, not bad. But we think you know you could do better

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Jane Hilton lived for a year in Nevada while making a documentary and fell in love with its climate, colours and light

When this roadside sign caught Jane Hilton’s eye in Dayton, Nevada, back in 2002 she decided to capture the image as an exemplar of the deadpan humour of the sagebrush state. “Little did I know how pertinent it would feel almost two decades later, after two months of lockdown,” she says. “It’s all about the timing, isn’t it?”

Hilton made her name documenting US culture, in particular the American west, over the past 20 years. At the time she took this photograph she was directing a documentary series for BBC Three called Love for Sale about sex workers in Nevada, the only American state where prostitution is legal.

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Some are now shops, some are churches – but each had a role in musical history. Photographer Paul Talling has documented the story of 150 of them

When they were in their prime, these places saw it all: the Who smashing their guitars on stage; the debut of a 16-year-old Amy Winehouse; the arrival of 60s rhythm and blues, 70s punk, 80s pop and 90s rock.

But some of the venues that helped launch musical careers from Status Quo to the Sex Pistols are now far from the spotlight, languishing in corners of London as laundrettes, fried chicken joints and even police stations.

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American portraitist Elsa Dorfman, known for her intimate large-format Polaroids of friends, artists, celebrities, and herself, has died at age eighty-three from kidney failure, the Boston Globe reports.

Photographer Peter Mitchell has been shooting Leeds for more than 40 years. His new book, Early Sunday Morning (RRB Photobooks, £50), captures terraced houses, cobbled streets, corner shops and scenes of destruction, 1970-1980

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Street life, park life, beach life, country life - the best photography commissioned by the Observer in May 2020.

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Meant to be a dove, but looking more like a hen, one man’s vision of a temple for all faiths has enjoyed an unlikely resurrection

Who hasn’t at some time in their life dreamed of building a secret underground temple, a giant golden llama or a monument to Shirley Bassey made entirely of Nobby’s Nuts? Such singular visions, however, remain unbuilt without the necessary ingredients of money, monomania and several hundred spare weekends. But add a catalysing crisis, epiphany or “calling”, and you’re away.

For Daniel Alamsjah, a devout Christian living in Java, Indonesia, his call came one night in 1988 in the form of a divine vision. Before him, Alamsjah saw a building shaped like a giant dove, residing on a hilltop. It would be, a disembodied voice affirmed, a place of worship for all faiths. And Alamsjah was just the man to build it.

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The new normal, the abnormal and the death of George Floyd – the most striking photographs from around the world this week

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In January, Viktor Kiš, a sculptor and festival organizer with little museum experience, was installed by the Serbian prime minister as acting director of the Museum of Contemporary Art Belgrade (MoCAB).

The only remaining drive-in cinema in Sydney, Skyline Drive In Blacktown, officially reopened on Thursday night following the closure of all Australian cinemas due to the coronavirus pandemic in March. Since its reopening, Skyline has introduced social distancing, both between cars and in common areas, online bookings, contactless payment in its diner candy bar, hand sanitisation facilities and increased the frequency of cleaning. The drive-in cinema first opened on 21 December 1963, with the first film screened being the Pat Boone and Bobby Darin-starring Rodgers and Hammerstein musical State Fair. Before the Covid-19 pandemic, the drive-in cinema had only previously been temporarily closed for eight weeks in 2013 for renovations.

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More than 1,500 arts and culture workers have signed a petition protesting the legislative plan passed Thursday by China’s National People’s Congress, granting the country the right to suppress subversion,

American artist and op art pioneer known as ‘the new wizard of op’

One Friday evening in 1953, Richard Anuszkiewicz, who has died aged 89, was painting in his cubicle at the Yale School of Art when a white-haired figure appeared silently at his side. This was Josef Albers, the ex-Bauhaus master who was then chairman of the school’s painting department. Albers was famed for the brutality of his Friday night critiques, or “crits”. Ex-GIs, back from Korea, would emerge from them with tears running down their faces. “You never really knew whether he was going to tear you down or build you up in a crit,” Anuszkiewicz recalled in an interview in 1996. “You had your suspicions, though.”

When the German paled in front of Anuszkiewicz’s painting – of a butcher in a gory apron, in the gritty, New York Ashcan school style – the 23-year-old student feared the worst. Instead, Albers croaked, “Ach, boy, you don’t mind if I don’t look at it. I can’t stand blood,” and stalked off. This was the more unexpected because figure painting was one of many genres for which Albers had no time. The worst sin, though, was to paint like Albers. He was then three years into the series Homage to the Square. Students who painted squares would receive the rebuke, “That’s my shape! Go get your own.”

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The auctioneer will be in London; the telephone bids will be taken around the world. Viewers will be watching everywhere but in the showroom.

The song that became “The Star-Spangled Banner” had a modest debut in a newspaper. That first dated printing will be auctioned online at Christie’s.

Effective today, South Korea is reimplementing lockdown measures—including the closure of public spaces—in Seoul for the next two weeks, until June 14. Museums, parks, and art galleries in the capital

Science and children’s museums are studying how to rethink their many tactile exhibits to keep people safe.

With workers in quarantine, the busy neighborhood now feels like a secret backyard for families. Our critic walks with the architect Claire Weisz.

My stepdaughter, Rebecca Fairman, who has died aged 59 of lung cancer, had a distinguished career as a graphic designer before turning to the world of fine art, becoming a ceramic artist and successful gallery owner.

Rebecca was born in north London, the daughter of Sheila (nee Pratt), a painter, installation artist and art school lecturer, and the painter David Tindle. She lived her formative years in Croydon, south London, leaving Monks Hill high school at 16, much to the dismay of her mother, who had hoped she would go on to art college. Instead, Rebecca set out on a career in graphic design, making rapid progress in the profession, setting up her own company, Rebecca Fairman Design, in her late 20s with a studio in Shoreditch, east London. Her success enabled her to move from her flat in Crystal Palace to a large, grade-II-listed townhouse in Bermondsey in 2000.

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Since its emergence in Wuhan, China, last December, the novel coronavirus Covid-19 has upended numerous cities and countries across the globe. Among the various sectors that have been heavily affected

The site in northern Italy was excavated in 1922, but then reburied and mostly forgotten about. But not by archaeologists, who made “an important find” of mosaics from the third or fourth century A.D.

A giant metal kookaburra with a sense of humour, Martin Creed’s video call to inaction and a graffiti take on lockdown – all in your weekly dispatch

Stefan Brüggemann’s OK (Untitled Action)
Are we all going to be “OK”? The Mexican artist has sprayed a three-storey building in Folkestone gold, before scrawling the two-letter word across it, graffiti-style – a response, he says, to our current situation under lockdown. • Creative Quarter, Folkestone

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Nick Burton’s Our Plague Year draws eerie parallels between Eyam in 1665-66 and today – complete with self-sacrifice, selfish second-homers and confusing public messages

‘Know what’s been bothering me since the lockdown? Nobody trusts nobody no more,” says a long-haired young man, building a wall (or perhaps a tomb). “Everybody’s like, ‘Don’t come near me bro, you might have the infection.’” But this isn’t lockdown Britain – nor indeed lockdown anywhere in 2020. It’s the Derbyshire village of Eyam during the 1665-6 plague outbreak, as imagined by artist Nick Burton in the exquisitely doomy new comic strip Our Plague Year.

Burton has a flair for the bittersweet. The two-page comic Lily that he showed in the Manchester Open Exhibition at Home last year was a romance between a bicycle and the woman who first rode it. Recalling Lily, Bren O’Callaghan, the curator of Home, contacted Burton in March asking if he might consider producing a comic “addressing some of the themes that were prevalent in our society at the moment”.

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“Lithopy,” a social satire, and other futuristic works, mark a new direction for digital storytelling.

As people around the world stay indoors to curb the spread of Covid-19, Artforum has invited artists to share a drawing—however they would like to define the word—made in self-isolation. Check back each

European cultural figures are protesting a new $826 billion recovery plan that aims to mitigate the economic fallout facing the twenty-seven member states of the European Union because of the coronavirus

As art institutions in the United States work on plans to reopen amid the Covid-19 pandemic, administrators are tasked with developing new protocols that will protect staff and visitors and are rethinking

Minneapolis was rocked by a third night of protests on Thursday over the death of George Floyd, as thousands of demonstrators took to the streets and fires erupted around the city, including at a police precinct

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Included in the secret Red Book, the illustration marks Jung’s departure from science into the realms of myth, magic and soul

This could be a page from a medieval illuminated manuscript, but the symbolism is hard to place. The tree with its roots in hell and its branches stretching to heaven recalls any number of myths and religions, from Eden’s tempting apples to Yggdrasil, the tree connecting the nine worlds of Norse mythology. The snake is a major player in numerous cosmologies from the Amazonian sacred anaconda to the biblical seducer. The mandala in the sky invokes eastern spiritualism.

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To meet rising demand for animal companions in lockdown, Public Animal Shelter in Rio de Janeiro allows people to check the profiles of available cats and dogs via social media. It then delivers the chosen pet to their new home

• Coronavirus – latest updates
• See all our coronavirus coverage

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The Bike Station, a Scottish bicycle recycling charity, is offering free bikes to NHS staff and other key workers during the coronanvirus crisis. Photographs by Murdo MacLeod

• Coronavirus – latest updates
• See all our coronavirus coverage

A chance to clear the head after a stressful day; a safe and speedy means of travel in these anxious times; the opportunity to explore a longer-term lifestyle change: bicycles mean many different things to the frontline workers in Edinburgh and Perth who have taken delivery of hundreds of so-called hero bikes.

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Falmouth Art Gallery in Cornwall set today’s quiz, which lets you explore the art collections of museums around the UK closed due to coronavirus – while answering some difficult questions

This quiz is brought to you in collaboration with Art UK, the online home for the UK’s public art collections, showing art from more than 3,000 venues and by 45,000 artists. Each day, a different collection on Art UK will set the questions.

Today, our questions are set by Falmouth Art Gallery. The award-winning gallery houses one of the most important art collections in Cornwall, featuring works by major artists from Sir Edward Burne-Jones and Thomas Gainsborough to Tacita Dean, Grace Gardner, Ben Nicholson and George Frederic Watts.

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From impressive original designs to those more recently inspired by the movement

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The artist continues his campaign for free speech and human rights with face coverings whose sales will benefit humanitarian organizations.

The organization says the art installation must go so a redesign of the Washington campus can proceed, but a local review panel indicates there may be alternatives.

Artist Nan Goldin and her activist group P.A.I.N. (Prescription Addiction Intervention Now) are working to get compensation for victims of the opioid epidemic and their families through the newly launched

A year after opening the Shed, Elizabeth Diller is trying to adjust to a world in which she and colleagues can no longer kick around ideas in person.

Get up close to the finest mosaics in Western Europe, 19th-century busts (an earlier form of self-promotion), the archaeology of Turkey, the Met’s conservation projects and stately European homes.

The Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA) is launching three new initiatives that will provide immediate relief to Baltimore’s artistic community amid the coronavirus pandemic. “As part of our mission of civic

Susan Delvalle, the head of the national nonprofit Creative Capital, has announced that she will step down from the helm of the organization, which she has led through a period of major growth since

Susan Delvalle, the head of the national nonprofit Creative Capital, has announced that she will step down from the helm of the organization, which she led through a period of major growth since assuming

A data-driven media installation, created to reflect marine conditions around the world, has altered with the slowing human activity.

Galleries and museums are getting creative about presenting work online during the coronavirus crisis. Here are two shows worth viewing virtually.