Best Of 2019

Best Passport to Your Own City
Illustration by Sean Walsh

The Local Wanderer

ocls.info/local-wanderer

If you live in Orange County and you don't have a library card, you are seriously missing out. You can use your card to check out more than books (and ebooks, and audiobooks) – you can get free access to Lynda.com technology classes, stream hard-to-find art films and documentaries on Kanopy, even use the Mango language learning app, all for free. And now OCLS has outdone themselves with a new program called the Local Wanderer. It's a massive multi-partner gateway to museums, plays, concerts, even sporting events – and it's all free. You can reserve tickets to a show at Hard Rock Live or get free admission to the Morse Museum, gratis. The culture pass program is intended to eliminate financial barriers preventing people from experiencing local arts culture, providing Orange County families a means of entry to the world-class institutions that call Central Florida home. And it makes us damn proud of our library system.

Arts & Culture: Best of Orlando 2019: Orlando's best artists, writers, comedians, museums and more

Arts & Culture: Best of Orlando 2019

Photo illustration by Adam McCabe

Arts & Culture

Best Adult Art Classes

1. Crealdé School of Art, crealde.org

2. SAK Comedy Lab, sak.com

3. Sam Flax, samflaxorlando.com

Best Arts Event or Festival

1. Orlando Fringe Festival, orlandofringe.org

2. Winter Park Sidewalk Art Festival, wpsaf.org

3. Mount Dora Arts Festival, mountdoraartsfestival.org

Best Burlesque Troupe

1. Les Vixens Burlesque, facebook.com/lvburlesque

2. Corsets and Cuties, corsetsandcuties.com

3 Cherry Bomb Burlesque, cherrybombburlesque.com

Best Comedy Club or Night

1. SAK Comedy Lab, sak.com

2. Orlando Improv, theimprovorlando.com

3. Bull & Bush Shit Sandwich, bullandbushorlando.com

Best Dance Company

1. Orlando Ballet, orlandoballet.org

2. Phantasmagoria, phantasmagoriaorlando.com

3. VarieTease, thevenueorlando.com

Best Film Fest or Series

1. Florida Film Festival, floridafilmfestival.com

2. Orlando Film Festival, orlandofilmfest.com

3. FilmSlam at Enzian, facebook.com/filmslam

Best Gallery

1 CityArts, facebook.com/cityartsfactory

2 Snap! Orlando, snaporlando.com

3 Downtown Arts Collective, downtownartscollective.com

Best Literary Reading Series

1. Orlando Story Club, orlandostoryclub.com

2. Get Lit: Closed Mic, facebook.com/ncbekpoet

3. Queer Quills, facebook.com/queerquills

Best Local Actor/Actress

1. Benjamin Ptashinsky

2. Carlos Navarro, iamcarlosnavarro.com

3. Blue Star, facebook.com/babybluestar