New York Public Library

Harry Belafonte, singer, actor and civil rights champion inspired by artists' involvement in social causes, has died, aged 96

Belafonte cited Pablo Picasso and his artist friend Charles White among the visual and performing artists whose support of social justice movements inspired his activism

Harlem’s Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture receives $8m in state funding for major renovation

The centre, whose art collection is one of the richest in historic and Modern Black art, will put the state funds toward major improvements to its building

Three exhibitions to see in New York this weekend

From Sophie Taeuber-Arp at MoMA to Taryn Simon’s exploration of the NYPL’s picture archive

Top five museum acquisitions of the month

Our pick of the latest gifts and purchases to enter international museum collections—from a rising star of Weimar-era Berlin to a Bohemian Virgin and Child

New York Public Library shores up its marble lions

Two-month conservation effort for the sculptures follows a public appeal to donors