Winner:
Flynn Center for the Performing Arts

Runner-Up:
FlynnSpace

SMALL CITY, BIG NAMES

The Flynn has come a long way since the early ’80s, when it was a decaying, X-rated movie palace on Burlington’s Main Street. Decades of detailed restoration have restored its Art Deco beauty. Careful planning has guided its expansion into a performing arts complex, including topnotch educational opportunities for kids and workshop space for artists-in-residence. And a succession of creative curators has made it a destination for the best music, dance, theater and performance arts acts in the country. Seeing a performance at the Flynn is every bit as dazzling as going to the theater in New York, Boston or Montréal — and you don’t have to dress up. No wonder the big stage broke the applause-meter with Seven Days readers, and the little stage — the FlynnSpace — came in second.

-Paula Routly