Three USC Annenberg/Getty Arts Journalism Fellows, including design writer Alissa Walker, are exploring “a new context for covering arts and culture”—hyperlocal, personal, and accessed by bike, foot, or public transit.

Naming the BMW Guggenheim Lab and TED talks, Christine McLaren writes that “while there is a certain glory in producing sexy ideas, it is the follow-through and facilitation of those ideas that will make real change come about.”

The term “curating” is trending upward outside its usual museum- and academia-based contexts—sparking a bit of defensiveness among some who feel curation is a discipline.

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology says its MITx program, a free “online interactive learning platform,” will go live in spring. The aim is to supplement on-campus education and “host a virtual community of millions of learners around the world.”

2011 was the year that proved, to the dismay of many, that public protest actually works. TIME acknowledges this in a piece giving props to activists in Tunisia and Egypt, New York, Wisconsin, and beyond. Person of the Year Runner-Up: Artist Ai Weiwei.

As the BMW Guggenheim Lab—a “think tank, public forum, and community center”—plans its next move, to Berlin in May, then to Mumbai and beyond, its former NYC site plans its future: First Street Green aims to make sure the site stays vibrant.