Best art museum
The Museum of Fine Arts, spreading along Huntington Avenue, is Boston's museum MVP, its Big Papi, its starting pitcher, its reliable slugger, its Golden Glover. It takes this category every year. And it's just getting bigger and better. A sweeping renovation is in the works, headed up by London-based architecture firm Foster and Partners. Not only will the remodeling increase the amount of space (and educational programs, conservation facilities, and special exhibits), but it's going to change the way we move through the museum, the way we encounter the art. As it is, the MFA's exhibitions - such as "Art Deco: 1910-1930" - excel, and its artists - including Cerith Wyn Evans, Sarah Sze, and Josef Sudek - excite.

When the renovations are complete, the MFA will move from homerun to grand slam. Last year, in the category of the under-appreciated, Phoenix readers chose the Fogg Museum, a quiet force too few people were reckoning with to launch it to flat-out best. Now it seems more are taking notice of its might, as this year the Fogg takes the best museum slot. Built in 1895, Harvard's oldest art museum traces the history of Western art from the Middle Ages to today, with stellar Impressionist and Post-Impressionist collections, as well as the most significant set of Picasso's works in the area. Surrounding its Italian Renaissance courtyard are works by Bernini and Botticelli, van Gogh, Degas, and Gauguin, Pollock and Rothko. It's a manageable size, and a single ticket gives access to the Sackler and Busch-Reisinger museums as well.

Museum of Fine Arts, 465 Huntington Avenue, Boston, (617) 267-9300, www.mfa.org; Fogg Museum, 32 Quincy Street, Cambridge, (617) 495-9400, www.artmuseums.harvard.edu/fogg.