Arts
For a city its size, Buffalo has an embarrassment of riches when it comes to the arts. Apart from 800-pound gorillas like the Albright-Knox, Shea’s, Studio Arena and the Philharmonic, we’re blessed with many smaller galleries, theaters and performance spaces where local visual, literary, musical and performance artists can share their work.
Many of these smaller venues also play host to internationally recognized artists and works in various realms, giving us the opportunity to remain well informed about what’s happening on the global scene.
Our colleges and university also create an environment where younger people can explore their creative impulses. Many, in fact, stay here—recognizing the underground network of artists and venues here that can serve as a fertile environment in which to practice in their own particular field. Some of the individuals you see listed below are ex-pats who had left for supposedly greener pastures, only to find they missed the green, green grass of home. This too is our gain, for when they return they tend to be wiser and more focused on work than hype.
Anyone who doubts Buffalo’s interest in its arts scene need only review the uproar caused when the Albright-Knox moved to auction off many of its antiquities in an effort to focus on contemporary work. The fact that so many had such strong opinions, one way or the other, is proof that our cultural organizations are deeply ingrained in our sense of who we are as a city.
Our readers responded to our Best of Buffalo survey on the arts with a wide-ranging selection of talented individuals and organizations who are helping to carry us far beyond our image as an economically distressed, sports-crazed, snow-bound, gray, Rust Belt burg.
And while it may be true that there are fewer local wealthy philanthropists interested in pouring money into our cultural institutions than there used to be, there is a growing, enthusiastic, educated and hip crowd here who are less interested in expensive, gilded imports to our marble galleries than they are in creating and appreciating real, vibrant and thoughtfully creative, homegrown works of beautifully provocative art. It’s all here, it’s all good and it’s all a part of what makes our city truly special.
—buck quigley
best small gallery
Big Orbit Gallery
CEPA Gallery
College Street Gallery
El Museo
Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center
best new arts/
performance space
Soundlab
The Church
Hallwalls
Tornspace Theater
Ghostlight Theater
best painter/sculptor
David Derner
AJ Fries
Catherine Parker
Bruce Adams
Elizabeth Jenney
best writer/playwright
Kurt Schneidermann
Manny Fried
Jon Elston
Matthew Crehan Higgins
Annette Daniels Taylor
best poet/
spoken-word artist
Michael Basinski
Celia White
Carl Dennis
Kevin Fehr
Gabrielle Bouliane
best video/film artist
Nick Adrian
Marc Odien
Addison Henderson & Korey Green
Jax DeLuca
Dom Luongo
best genre-defying artist
Mark Freeland
Kadri
Leah Rico
Anna Olsen
Aaron Piepszny
best performance
artist/dancer
Beth Elkins
Matthew Clark
Kadri
Michelle Gigante
Aaron Piepszny
best dance company
Neglia Ballet Artists
Nimbus Dance
Zodiaque Dance
Greater Buffalo Youth Ballet
Matthew Clark Dance Academy
best theater company
Kavinoky Theater Company
Buffalo United Artists
Irish Classical Theater Company
Theater of Youth
MusicalFare
best local theater production
Die Mommy Die! (BUA)
The Birthday Party (ICTC)
A Man of No Importance (ICTC)
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (Kavinoky)
Reefer Madness
(Alleyway)
best actor
Brian Riggs
Jimmy Janowski
Paul Todaro
Chris Kelly
Guy Tomassi
best actress
Josephine Hogan
Leah Russo
Lisa Ludwig
Lorraine O’Donnell
Michele Roberts
best cultural asset/
organization
Shea’s Peforming Arts Center
Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra
Albright-Knox Art Gallery
UB Center for the Arts
Shakespeare in Delaware Park
best supporter of the arts
Robbie Takac
Ani DiFranco
M&T Bank
Celeste Lawson
The people of Buffalo
best film series
Anything at Hallwalls
Buffalo Film Seminars
Bacchus’ Summer Film Series
Cinema Sotto Le Stelle
Emerging Cinema
best cinema
Market Arcade Film & Arts Center
North Park Theater
The Amherst Theater
The Screening Room
Hallwalls
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