• News 'n' notes open a bright new year
ArtBeat welcomes the year 2009 with some well timed news and notes.

• A year of highlights, new faces
The wise and gifted Satchel Paige once said: "Don't look back. Something might be gaining on you."

• Rattle and humbug? Not this year
/cut/4/cKATE MERCER/ Staff Photographer "With age comes wisdom and a profound understanding of what is real and what is illusory. The delighted laughter of children is real; the admiring gaze of a loved one is real. The rest of it matters not at all."

• A bailout plan worth talking about
A billion here, a billion there and before long you're talking serious money.