Norton Museum of Art

Visiting the 122,500-square-foot Norton is like shopping at an enormous department store: The most pressing question is where to stop off first. The permanent collection alone, which comes to more than 7,000 works of art, includes five sections – American, Chinese, contemporary, and European art, along with photography – any one of which could occupy you for an hour or two. Then there are the special exhibitions, which are like big “for a limited time only” sales. A recent lineup featured seven running simultaneously: two photography exhibits, two showcasing glass art, one drawn from the Chinese collection, another with two big-name painters (Clyfford Still and Joan Mitchell), and one held-over extravaganza documenting America’s cocktail culture. It was a typical roster. This past year, the museum’s 70th, saw a string of winners, from the four artists who made up the trippy “Altered States” to the massive oil paintings of Jenny Saville to the gimmicky but gratifying “A to Z: 26 Great Photographs From the Norton Collection.” And if the aesthetic equivalent of power shopping wears you down, you can always stop off for lunch at the caf