Thomas Kinkade, the self-appointed "Painter of Light," died last Friday. In the days since his passing, the debate that surrounded him when he was alive has grown even louder. Was Kinkade a great democratizer of art or a charlatan businessman? Susan Orlean penned one of the most comprehensive pieces ever written on Thomas Kinkade for the New Yorker in 2001, entitled "Art for Everybody."

In poet Kevin Young's new book, "The Grey Album: On the Blackness of Blackness," Young offers a remarkable, encyclopedic essay on the history of African-American culture. Young explores how African-American culture and American culture have affected one another. The book, part prose and part essay, also explores how African-American culture has become an essential and inextricable part of American culture.

Its reputation for parties, beaches, and condos was cemented by the eponymous Will Smith rap in 1997. Prior to that, it was best known as a haven for cocaine and pastel suit-wearing cops. But for the past ten years, Art Basel Miami has brought a cavalcade of new, fierce artistic talent — curators, critics, gallery owners, and creatives working in all types of media — to an international audience.

In the past month and a half, a $200,000 Picasso sketch titled "Tete de Femme" was stolen from a San Francisco gallery, a $350,000 Fernand Léger was lifted from a New York gallery, and eleven paintings valued at $387,000 were stolen from a gallery in Toronto. High profile arts heists are on the rise around the world and, according to the FBI, the international black market for art and cultural property is now worth $6 billion annually. How does one go about stealing a great work of art, and how did art become such a commodity?

Almost three months after his arrest in April, world-renowned artist and social activist Ai Weiwei was released Wednesday on bail from prison in China. Ai was arrested on charges of tax evasion during a crackdown on human rights activists, and has not commented on the government or his arrest since yesterday. He is perhaps best known for his design of the "Bird's Nest" stadium at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

One of China's most famous artists, Ai Wei Wei was detained Sunday. The artists is an outspoken critic of the Chinese government and many suspect that his detention is part of the government's crackdown on dissent. He is now being investigated for economic crimes according to a government spokesman. The BBC's Beijing correspondent Martin Patience spoke to Wei Wei's wife yesterday who said she hasn't heard from her husband. "I don't know whether to believe the information I received. I don't know what the situation is, the authorities haven't given me an explanation."

The Broadway production of "Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark," saw another crisis on Monday night, as one of its actors fell over 20 feet, severely injuring himself. This is the fourth performer to be hurt since September. David Cote, theater editor for Time Out: New York, says he has never seen anything like this. "This show is cursed."

Famous painter JMW Turner's work, "Modern Rome — Campo Vaccino," is considered part of the British identity. So when budget cuts in the U.K. threatened to send Turner's masterpiece to highest bidder — the J. Paul Getty Museum Los Angeles — the Brits began an effort to try and raise $50 Million to keep the "national treasure" in its native land. 

The MIT Media Lab turns 25 today. We take a look back at the novel idea behind this multidisciplinary academic lab that harnessed (and continues to harness) the creative energy of the digital revolution to develop major innovations in art and design, IT and mass communications. The display behind e-book readers such as the Kindle and Nook, the innovation behind the wildly popular "Guitar Hero" video games, and the "One Laptop Per Child" initiative all came from the Media Lab.

All this week, we've talked about class on The Takeaway. And we gave you an assignment: take a photo of something in or around your house that indicates what class you're in. 

You sent us some great photos, which you can see after the jump — and we've asked photographer Karen Marshall to help curate them. Marshall is a documentary photographer. She's on the faculty at the International Center of Photography, where she is a seminar leader in the photojournalism documentary program.

Co-host Celeste Headlee is broadcasting from member station KUVO in Denver, Colorado today and tomorrow, and in southern Colorado, there’s a story that’s been brewing up a storm of opposition. The controversy starts with the work of two well-known artists: Jeanne-Claude and Christo. The pair are most famous for draping fabric over public monuments and natural landscapes, like the famous Gates Project in New York’s Central Park. Jeanne-Claude passed away this past November. Her longtime husband and collaborator is working to finish some of their last projects.  The Over the River Project is one of them.

Everyone knows that beloved actor Leonard Nimoy will forever be associated with his most famous role: "Star Trek's" Mr. Spock. Of course, Nimoy went on to have a successful career in acting for decades after "Star Trek." Becoming known for just one iconic character can challenge any actor: Nimoy even wrote a pair of books balancing his own identity with Spock's. The first, "I Am Not Spock," was published in 1977, and the second, written nearly 20 years later, was called "I Am Spock."

Nimoy continues to work on another artistic passion that has a lot to do with the exploration of identity and self: portrait photography. His latest photo exhibition is called "Secret Selves." It's being shown at Mass MocA  (the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art) and also at the R. Michelson Galleries in Northampton, Mass.

American Beat poet, author, cartoonist and musician Tuli Kupferberg died this week at the age of 86. Although Kupferberg wasn't a household name, his band, The Fugs, ran in the same circles as The Velvet Underground, Andy Warhol and Frank Zappa and the "Mothers of Invention."

If a picture paints a thousand words, what story is told by photographs of dilapidated buildings and abandoned factories? Photos of city ruins have been around for centuries, but they have not always been referred to as "ruin porn."  That's a phrase some criticsuse to describe recent photo journalism in Detroit. But does the term apply to art, as well as journalism?

Yesterday, artist Louise Bourgeois passed away at the age of 98. Although the French-born artist had been developing her craft since at least the early 1930’s, and found some success in the New York City art scene of the 1960’s, fame eluded her until 1982 when she had her first retrospective at New York’s Museum of Modern Art. And the international art world took notice of the 70-year-old sculptor, painter, thinker and explorer of the human psyche.

Nominations for theater's Tony awards have been announced, and three productions have taken the majority of the nominations. The revival of August Wilson’s “Fences” received 10 nominations, the musical version of the classic drag comedy “La Cage aux Folles” snapped up 11: the same number as “Fela!” It's a depiction of the life of Nigerian composer and political activist Fela Kuti.

Tax day is quickly appraoching and many Americans may be scrambling to file their taxes and fork over a chunk of money to the federal government. But imagine if instead of paying taxes in the form of money, you could give the government a piece of art. That's the arrangement in Mexico, where the government has been allowing artists to offer pieces of art instead of paying income tax since 1957. It's resulted in a masterful art collection housed and displayed in Mexico City.

A photo-journalism and essay project by the Miami-based Iris Photo Collective portrays the complex connections between Haiti and her neighbor Cuba. We speak with Iris co-founders Carl Juste and Luis Rios talk about the photographs and essays, produced before the earthquake, and how their context has changed after the disaster.