Twinned with Shanghai, and home to the oldest Chinese community in the UK, Liverpool has always maintained an active dialogue with China. The Real Thing: Contemporary Art from China (30 March - 10 June), the first major UK exhibition of contemporary art from China, brings to Liverpool art from one of the world's most dynamic countries at a time of unprecedented interest.

"From the Ground Up: Renwick Craft Invitational 2007" features the work of Paula Bartron, Jocelyn Châteauvert, Beth Lipman and Beth Cavener Stichter. The exhibition, on view at the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum from March 9 through July 22, celebrates the creativity of four contemporary artists whose innovative approach to traditional craft media-clay, glass, fiber-make them figures to watch in American art.

The National Gallery of Canada, in conjunction with the Museum of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia, presents from 2 February until 6 May 2007, Robert Davidson: The Abstract Edge, an exhibition dedicated to the work of this contemporary Haida artist. This exhibition is presented by Bombardier.

The first project of its kind, Alien Nation is a timely, ambitious and thought-provoking exhibition co-produced by the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) and the Institute of International Visual Arts (inIVA) that explores the complex relationship between science fiction, race and contemporary art.

Fun, funky and provocative, Willie Cole's art explores identity, race relations, consumerism, the environment and other contemporary concerns. Bicycles, irons, hair dryers and high-heeled shoes are among the urban artifacts he transforms into powerful, iconic, "Africanized" works.

By turns humorous and critical, inspirational and tragic, TRANSactions dispels the myth that Latino people are a heterogeneous group with common experiences and ambitions. This traveling exhibition features approximately 50 works in all media by artists from the United States, Mexico, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Spain, Brazil, Columbia, Argentina and Chile.

The second largest contribution made to date toward keeping Thomas Eakins' masterpiece, The Gross Clinic, in Philadelphia, has brought to $37 million the total amount raised in the unprecedented drive to secure the painting for the city.

Contemporary artists employ a dazzling array of techniques and technologies to engage with and expand upon the centuries-old tradition of creating art on paper. This spring the Philadelphia Museum of Art will present a diverse selection of prints, drawings, and photographs created by artists from around the world dating from the mid-1980s to the present.