1. Artists matter in society, and should be weighing in on the times in which we live.
2. If you give artists real opportunities to experiment, they can help push society forward.
3. Public spaces are meant for free and creative expression.

Creative Time, headed by president Anne Pasternak, and whose founding principles are laid out above, has been working for almost forty years on public art projects and spaces across Manhattan and beyond. Under Anne's guidance, they have helped to change the way we think about our public art. A space that might typically be thought of as "sculptures plopped in public plazas," Creative Time has managed to find and captivate a much larger audience with the famous works the organization has set up; like the 9/11 memorial light displays at The World Trade Center, the artwork at Battery Park City, Park Avenue Armory, the Coney Island boardwalk, and the Essex Street Market, and, most recently, Heard NY, the Nick Cave Project at Grand Central Terminal.

We sat down with Anne Pasternak for a few questions about Creative Time's past and future, as well as the importance of having an awareness about public art in the city. More»

New York has always been a hustling and bustling city, and a market for quick and easy food emerged early on. This market has developed throughout the years in numerous forms, from peanut carts, to hot dog stands, and recently food trucks. Now that summer has finally arrived, food festivals are around the corner as well. Check out some of the best food festivals coming up this summer! More»

[Lally Weymouth, Kate Hudson, Matthew Bellamy] From NPR's Friday Night Spin party to the Washington Post Pre-WHCD Reception to the A-List Vanity Fair/Bloomberg after-party, find out what and who you missed in Washington over White House Correspondents' Association Dinner Weekend! More»

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• Libyan authorities beat and hauled Iman al-Obeidi away after she told a gathering of foreign reporters at a Tripoli hotel Saturday about a horrific rape by 15 of Gadhafi's vigilantes.  She has disappeared. [LAT] More»

• Those TSA scanners could be on the way out. In Israel, mice are being trained to sniff out bombs and drugs, in a system researchers say will be more accurate than pat-downs, x-rays, or sniffer dogs. [Daily Mail]
• Was Mona Lisa Leonardo da Vinci's gay lover? An expert is arguing the painting was inspired by a beautiful boy apprentice who later became the artists lover. [Telegraph] More»

• Trump uninvites Tiger's ex, Rachel Uchitel. "Booya," says Trump. [Post]
• Tinsley Mortimer's bf Brian Mazza is stepping out on her. Possibly. [Gatecrasher]
• The newest city thief: he takes your money but leaves you flowers. [NYDN]
• Mike Bloomberg NOT AMUSED by Sarah Palin's tomfoolery. [WSJ]
• Seamus Mullen has departed Boqueria, presumably for new meatscapes. [Eater]
• Ouch. Lindsay Lohan lost another lawyer. [TMZ]

• Times Square bomber pleads guilty. That was easy. Except it wasn't. Because he almost blew up a car in Times Square. [Post]
• Only Attorney General Andrew Cuomo could start out giving a conference on blocking child pornography and blunder into questions about his youthful pot-smoking. Rock on, Cuomo. [NYDN]
• Don't shoplift in Chinatown or Flushing, for the punishment's worse than the crime. [NYT]
• Tim Gunn dares to talk smack about Anna Wintour. [Observer]
• The Mister Softee jingle will never not make Mayor Mike "John Wayne" Bloomberg freak out. [WSJ]
• The Naked Cowboy is in a throwdown with the Naked Cowgirl. [Post]

• Catherine Zeta-Jones regrets being "crass" at the Tonys, even though she said something that only our grandma thinks is racy. [NYDN]
• Indictment for John Haggerty, Mayor Bloomberg's right-hand man who got handsy with Mayor Bloomberg's cash. [Post]
• Blown glass art representations of deadly viruses are controversial. [NYT]
• Short-lived Yankees mascot has hidden past, unflattering silhouette. [WSJ]
• The Situation wants everyone to know he's a baller, and it's making MTV producers angry. [TMZ]

• Legislation introduced to snare cheating cabbies. [Post]
• Mayor Bloomberg answered the 100 millionth call to 311. It was probably a complaint about a naked homeless man pretending to be a chicken. That's what we always call about. [Gothamist]
• Jake Gyllenhaal is afraid of ostriches. [NYDN]
• Cynthia Nixon loves her girlfriend because she's "like a short man with boobs." [Post]
• The Hallo Berlin cart in Midtown may be gone for good. Scheisse! [MidtownLunch]
• The old Yankee Stadium is well and truly smushed. [wcbs]

• Stuyvesant High kids will stop at nothing to grope that special girl in the back of a rented limo, then spill grain alcohol punch down her gown. [Post]
• Oooooh. For 27 bucks, dirty MTA employees will sell you a master key to all the turnstiles in the city. [NYDN]
• Now there's a pedestrian plaza planned for Union Square. More folding chairs! More! [Gothamist]
• Shepard Fairey's new artwork should be called "They Shoot Murals, Don't They"? Or maybe "Once Tagged, Twice Shot." Ie people are firing bullets at it. For serious. [Animal NY]
• Ramona Singer of RHoNY has the most boring Sunday routine ever, probably because she didn't tell the Times about the four hours spends doing eyelid exercises. [NYT]
• Snooki slapped someone. [NYDN]
• Mike Bloomberg spends a lot of time in Bermuda. [NYT]