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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

Nimbus Dance

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

Musicalfare

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