FRANKIE Goes to Hollywood singer-turned-artist Holly Johnson is one of more than 60 artists, musicians and writers to include a work in the Ghosts of Gone Birds exhibition - a project that aims to draw attention to the plight of our feathered friends.

Also involved are Sir Peter Blake; Rob Ryan; Gorillaz's Jamie Hewlett; Wallasey-born illustrator Ralph Steadman, who is most famous for his working partnership with US journalist Hunter S Thompson; wildlife artists Olly and Suzi; Charming Baker, who is collected by Damien Hirst; Pete Fowler, who designed the album artwork for Welsh band Super Furry Animals; Stuckist co-founder Billy Childish; and explorer Captain Scott's granddaughter Dafila Scott.

I'M VISITING London this weekend to see Tate Britain's Watercolour exhibition so was interested to see this video about Callum Innes, who is pushing paint to its limits.

The exhibition opens today and challenges our preconceptions about watercolour. Works span 800 years and include pieces by JMW Turner, Thomas Girtin, Anish Kapoor and Tracey Emin.

FURTHER to my post about attending the national press night of Jeremy Dyson's Twisted Tales at the Lyric Hammersmith before it comes here to the Liverpool Playhouse, the theatre has produced a video of some of the famous faces among the audience that night including Stephen Fry, Mark Gatiss, Mark Wootton and Derren Brown.

PAINES Plough, the theatre company working in collaboration with the Everyman & Playhouse on Laurence Wilson's Tiny Volcanoes, is creating "a theatrical tapestry of the UK, woven by writers asking if home is truly where the heart is".

I think this is a brilliant idea - not least because it draws the regions together when often we can feel isolated.

Liverpool is represented by Helen Blakeman, Lizzie Nunnery and Michael Wynne. Click here to listen to their plays.

AS PART of his Sunflower Seeds installation at Tate Modern, Chinese artist Ai Weiwei has been inviting visitors to record a video - either asking him a question or answering a question he has posed.

So far 11,500 people have asked him a question, on subjects ranging from his experience of house arrest to what he thinks of their break dancing (cue demonstration).

This is a video of just a few. . .

IT'S all happening in Yorkshire this year. The winner of the Northern Art Prize is being announced at Leeds Art Gallery on Thursday January 29, I have already blogged about Jaume Plensa's upcoming exhibition at Yorkshire Sculpture Park and now it's been announced that David Hockney's largest painting is going on display in York Art Gallery next month.

David Hockney, Bigger Trees Near Warter, 200, copyright David Hockney. Photography by Richard Schmidt. Collection of Tate, London

It is the first time the work, Bigger Trees Near Warter or Peinture Sur Le Motif Pour Le Nouvel Age Post-Photograpique 2007, has been displayed outside London.

I WILL definitely be making a trip over the Pennines this spring to see Jaume Plensa's first major UK exhibition. I really love Dream, the 20m-high sculpture of a girl's head in St Helens, and am looking forward to seeing more of his work - particularly in the beautiful surroundings of the Yorkshire Sculpture Park.

WE'VE had Superlambananas and penguins, Chester's had rhinos and Milton Keynes had cows. Now Bristol is getting in on the whole animal sculptures act by placing a series of life-size gorillas around its city centre.

Wow Gorillas! will celebrate the 175th anniversary of Bristol Zoo and, like our very own superlambs, will be individually painted by local and regional artists, community groups and schools.

MY LONG-awaited copy of the One and Other book arrived on Friday, filled with photographs of people taking an hour of their time to stand on the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square as the request of Antony Gormley.

Strange to think now that, back in July 2009, I was one of them, and even more bizarre to see the thing I took part in on a sunny Sunday afternoon being written about academically.

Me making origami birds on the Fourth Plinth with a Go Penguin

A WEEK today we'll finally learn the extent of chancellor George Osbourne's deficit plan, which is expected to include severe cuts to the arts.

Yesterday, National Museums Liverpool sent its petition of 18,000 signatures calling for adequate funding for NML venues to culture minister Ed Vaisey.

Meanwhile, collaboration appears to be key if arts organisations are to receive funding from external bodies.

These links on the subject make interesting (if scary) reading. . .