Tania Ralli

Managing Editor, Arts & Culture

Searching for glimmers of hope in a tough year for the arts

“Gaze to the Stars”, an artwork by Behnaz Farahi, used projectors to display an eye looking out across the Charles River, onto the MIT Dome. (Robin Lubbock/WBUR)

Arts & Culture

2025: Year in review

Arts

Noah Schaffer

Contributor

Amelia Mason

Senior Arts & Culture Reporter

Noble

Music Writer

Lukas Harnisch

Maddie Browning

Arts Writer

The best local albums of 2025, according to our critics

Album art clockwise from top left: Jen Kearney's "Gas Station Poet" (Photo by Lisa Dragani, cover art by Nicole Anguish); DAV's "Everything I Didn't Say" (Courtesy Davin Smith); Dot Dev's "There Was a Wind, But No Chime" (Courtesy Elise Magnole); DJ Lucas' "My Side of the Mountain" (Courtesy Rory Mascis); The Favors' "The Dream" (Courtesy Darkroom Records); Yana's "Exit Strategy" (Courtesy Caity Krone); Pile's "Sunshine and Balance Beams" (Courtesy Mark Lapriore); Connis and loe4t's "New Sky" (Courtesy Connis); and Revolutionary Snake Ensemble's "Serpentine" (Courtesy Joanne Kaliontzis).

Music

Leaders at art museums have been grappling with a cascade of existential challenges in 2025. We checked in with directors at four Massachusetts institutions to see how they fared.

Massachusetts art museums look back on a tumultuous year

Andrea Shea

Correspondent, Arts & Culture

Clockwise from top left: MASS MoCA director Kristy Edmunds (Courtesy Greg Nesbit); ICA director Nora Burnett Abrams (Robin Lubbock/WBUR); MFA director Pierre Terjanian (Andrea Shea/WBUR); and Peggy Fogelman, director of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (Robin Lubbock/WBUR).

The Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston's Seaport. (Robin Lubbock/WBUR)

Visual Arts

WBUR's Morning Edition

Jesse Costa

Photographer

Robin Lubbock

Videographer, Photographer

Amy Gorel

Senior Editor

The photos that helped us tell the stories of 2025

(Jesse Costa and Robin Lubbock/WBUR)

Boston

News

Sean Burns

Film Critic

The best films of 2025, according to critic Sean Burns

Film stills clockwise from top left: "Peter Hujar's Day" (Courtesy of Janus Films); "It Was Just an Accident" (Courtesy NEON); "One Battle After Another" (Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures); "Blue Moon" (Courtesy Sabrina Lantos/Sony Pictures Classics); and "Eephus" (Courtesy Music Box Films).

1211_2025-best-films-sean

Film/TV

Media

Erin Trahan

Film Writer

The best films of 2025, according to critic Erin Trahan

Film stills clockwise from top left: "Ask E. Jean" (Courtesy Ivy Meeropol); "Cosmic Coda" (Courtesy Mary Jane Doherty); "Sorry, Baby" (Courtesy A24); "Sinners" (Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures); and "The Bend in the River" (Courtesy Robb Moss).

Film stills clockwise from top left: "Ask E. Jean" (Courtesy  Ivy Meeropol); "Cosmic Coda" (Courtesy Mary Jane Doherty); "Sorry, Baby" (Courtesy A24); "Sinners" (Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures); and "The Bend in the River" (Courtesy Robb Moss).