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2011: The year in visual arts

Ambition abounded among museums

By Sebastian Smee

 |  Globe Staff  

  December 25, 2011

2011 was an incredibly lively year for art in New England. Across the board, the region’s museums seemed to vault ahead in confidence and maturity, displaying new levels of energy and ambition. Things have been heading in this direction for several years. But suddenly, and thanks largely to new energies funneled into the field of contemporary art, artistic offerings no longer seemed stolid in some departments, threadbare in others.

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