Wow, 2018—what a time to be alive. We’ll spare you the rehashing of the year’s indignities, injustices, and threats of existential extinction, as you’ll be reading about some of them in the pages to come, anyway. But one thing we will say about 2018 is this: It was a year of extremes. We really loved the things we loved, really hated the things we hated, and were supremely ambivalent about the things we were ambivalent about.

In our Year in Arts and Culture Superlatives, we tried to get some perspective on the things that mattered and how they fit together, from the biggest losses in the Triangle’s cultural landscape to the gains we hope will compensate for them, from the things that narrowly escaped extinction to the things we wish hadn’t. We also run down some of the most memorable things we ate and drank, some food buzzwords we’re starting to side-eye, and our favorites from a bumper crop of music, visual art, theater, dance, books, and film.

And as much as we found to be depressed about in 2018, we found just as much to be hopeful for in 2019, thanks largely to the energy and efforts of the Triangle’s artists and the ever-increasing quality of their work. 

From SPARKcon to the Chelsea Theater, a number of crucial Triangle institutions barely escaped oblivion this year.

We salute some of dearly departed institutions, most—but not all—of which we wish had landed in Narrowest Escapes.

From Alamo Drafthouse to reams of new restaurants, there was plenty of new to fill the gaps in the old this year.

Even fresh off our Indies Arts Awards, we can’t find enough space to sing the praises off all the people who made power moves in the Triangle this year.

There are always things we like better than others, but these are a few that made us say “hard pass.”

The best worst festival, the worst best festival, and other split hairs about our music-fest landscape.

Our most memorable bites and drinks plus, four food buzzwords we’re putting on notice in 2019.

In a year bursting with good local music, these are the albums we couldn’t live without.

These shows spoke to the temper of our times and the vibrancy of our local performing-arts community.

It’s a sign of the changing times that one of our favorite films of the year barely made it to the big screen at all.

From overstated sculpture to understated water art, these five exhibits stood out as particularly challenging, dazzling, or both.

Our speculative-fiction expert runs down the best sci-fi, fantasy, and other genre books the Triangle produced this year.