IfWestern New York’s art and theater scenes had a single question to ask as they glanced back at the last 12 months, it might go a little something like this:

“What recession?” From monumental museum shows to do-it-yourself exhibitions at our many alternative art spaces, 2009 has been jammed to the bursting point with more compelling visual art than you could shake a paintbrush at. It was the same story on the theater scene, which turned in what was likely its most productive year in history.

Shifting between the massive spheres of local art and theater, it was quite literally impossible to see every production or exhibition. But I saw a heck of a lot. Here’s a selection of highlights, in no particular order and utterly subjective, from 12 months of art and theater in a city that counts those forms of expression as two enormous points of pride:

A serious collection of exhibitions at the year-old Burchfield Penney Art Center. First, the epic retrospective “Duayne Hatchett:Form, Pattern and Invention,” which paid serious and deserved respect to one of our most prolific and talented sculptors. Also of note were several shows focused on museum namesake Charles Burchfield, including “Entering Burchfield’s World” and “The Architecture of Painting.”

Though it only lasted an evening, the 35th Anniversary Hallwalls Auction saw a fascinating convergence of artists, art lovers and a growing community of collectors. The atmosphere was electric and the event seemed to mark a turning point in the way people viewed work by “local” artists. Buffalo’s arts scene has never seemed sexier.

Without a doubt the biggest exhibition to grace the 716 this year was the Albright-Knox Art Gallery’s “Action/ Abstraction:Pollock, de Kooning, and American Art 1940-1976.” The show was an epic exploration of the Abstract Expressionist movement that, thanks to Susana Tejada’s “Brave Buffalo” addendum, trumpeted Buffalo’s indispensable role in the story of American art.

“Ecologies of Decay,” an exhibition of work by Julian Montague, J-M Reed and Dennis Maher in the Artspace Gallery, accomplished what art does at its best. That is, it opened viewers’ eyes to a pervasive issue in our own community –the ongoing erosion of architecture and infrastructure –and pointed our brains in some seriously intriguing directions.

“The 39 Steps” at Kavinoky Theatre

was a feast for the imagination. Filled with ingenious stagecraft and breathless performances from Robert Rutland, Jenn Stafford, Chris Corporandy and David Lundy, the entire Kavinoky production team was perfectly attuned to the mad-cap script. It was a delight from start to finish.

January’s production “Ah, Wilderness!” at Irish Classical Theatre Company was a rare bit of humor from the dark genius of Eugene O’Neill. Director Greg Natale and a hilarious cast gave us yet another illustration of what Buffalo’s world-class theater community can achieve when all its pistons are firing.

2009 was the year for new digs. Buffalo United Artists moved into a new theater on Chippewa. O’Connell and Company settled into a new space at Erie Community College’s North Campus. And Kaleidoscope Theatre Productions, after a kerfuffle with the Luddite administration at Canisius College, moved down the street to Medaille College. Just Buffalo Literary Center set up shop at the new Western New York Arts Center. Positive developments, all.

“Twilight,” Anna Deavere Smith’s jarring look into the Los Angeles riots of 1992, got a production worthy of its import from Subversive Theatre Collective in September. In a show directed by Virginia Brannon, Victoria Perez turned in a touching tour de force performance.

Shea’s Performing Arts Center served as the launching pad for some wonderful theatrical journeys this year. Among the best were pitch-perfect productions of “A Chorus Line” and “Chicago,” and an unforgettable visit from Broadway legends Patti LuPone and Mandy Patinkin in May.

If America’s greatest living playwright shows up to the premiere of your play, chances are you have something good going on. That was the case when Edward Albee dropped by for the September opening of Neil Wechsler’s “Grenadine,” a modernist play of epic and endearing strangeness, at Road Less Traveled Productions. And speaking of Road Less, that visit and performance from AlecBaldwin in April wasn’t bad, either.

A big hand should go to new alternative spaces Sugar City, 464 Gallery, The Vault and Nobody’s Art Center, each of which signals an upsurge in the desire of young artists to remain in Western New York, contribute to the cultural life of the city and to make art on their own terms.

The birth of the AllentownGalleryWalk, amonthly art-crawl through Buffalo’s arts Allentown neighbor-hood, now packed with galleries, was a heartening sign for a city increasingly pinning its identity to the arts.

Just judging from this list –which hardly scratches the surface of our region’s creative output in 2009 –it was a very good year, indeed.