Where the art is Our favorite holiday art haunts BY RANDI HOPKINS

The art world is so generous! Just when you’ve spent all you can spend and eaten all you can eat, it comes through with relatively inexpensive lo-cal visual treats, usually set in warm and merry environments. What follows is a subjective guide to some of the best local art spots, chosen by artists, curators, critics, and gallery directors and inspired by both the seasonal spirit of tradition and the artistic tradition of the unpredictable.

Artist Gerry Bergstein says he’s a big fan of MIT’s List Visual Arts Center, "which has wonderful shows, especially the current Christian Jankowski exhibition." Bergstein also visits and revisits small works by Manet and Sargent’s An Artist in His Studio (1904) at the Museum of Fine Arts. Tongue in cheek, he adds, "This is not art but I love it: near MIT on Mass Ave, a sign on the front of a building says ‘Metropolitan Storage Warehouse — Fire Proof.’ But when part of the sign is blocked, it reads ‘Metropolitan Rage Warehouse — Ire Proof.’ "

Art aficionados rave about the Glass Flowers at Harvard’s Museum of Natural History. William Stover, assistant curator of contemporary art at the MFA, e-mails, "I always take visitors to see the glass flowers — everyone falls in love with them." Artist and writer Micah Malone, editor of the on-line arts journal Big, Red and Shiny, concurs: "The glass flowers are among the most amazing objects I’ve seen. These naturalistic specimens show more craftsmanship, surprising beauty, and integrity than almost any other collection in town."

On a chilly day, you’ll find artist and independent writer/curator Reese Inman enjoying the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum’s garden courtyard, which offers "a great antidote to winter weather . . . just check your New England cold-weather gear in at the cloakroom and pretend you’re in Italy." DeCordova Museum curator Nick Capasso likes to get outside: "Take a walk through Forest Hills Cemetery in Jamaica Plain, it has great architecture, beautiful landscape, impressive 19th-century monuments, and contemporary outdoor sculpture. And it all looks fabulous in the snow!" Abigail Ross, director of the Judi Rotenberg Gallery, also likes to see art en plein air; her favorite art pastimes include visiting the DeCordova’s sculpture park and the ICA’s Vita Brevis projects and "driving around looking at the city’s architecture and changing urban plan." And Leonie Bradbury, gallery director at Montserrat College of Art, adds a cheer for downtown installations: "I enjoy all of the ‘window’ art projects going up all over the city. Yeah for public art!"

"Christian Jankowski: Everything Fell Together" @ MIT List Visual Arts Center, 20 Ames Street, Cambridge | through Dec. 31 | 617.253.4680 or web.mit.edu/lvac/www | Harvard Museum of Natural History, 26 Oxford Street, Cambridge | 617.495.3045 or http://www.hmnh.harvard.edu/| Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 280 the Fenway, Boston | 617.566.1401 or http://www.gardnermuseum.org/| Museum of Fine Arts, 465 Huntington Avenue, Boston | 617.267.9300 or http://www.mfa.org/ | DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park, 51 Sandy Pond Road, Lincoln | 781.259.8355 or http://www.decordova.org/| Institute of Contemporary Art, 955 Boylston Street, Boston | 617.266.5152 or http://www.icaboston.org/| Boston Art Windows, various downtown locations, Boston | http://www.cityofboston.gov/bra/baw