THE BEST OF THE BEST: The Dallas Observer has released its annual “Best Of” awards. The awards are given for a lot of topics, but this being an arts blog, we’ll stick with the arts and entertainment category. Among the highlights: Our buddies over at KXT received three awards, including Best Radio Comeback, Best Summer Concert Series for Barefoot at the Belmont and Best Inaugural Ceremony for the Summer Cut concert. The Texas Theatre, The Ticket and Nasher Sculpture Center were also multiple-award winners.

FW’S SINGER-POET: Fort Worth singer-songwriter Clint Niosi is receiving high praise for his new album, For Pleasure and Spite. In his Fort Worth Weekly review, Anthony Mariani writes, “Niosi’s words sometimes verge on poetry, as strong alone on the page as when performed with inflections and music added.” Would you like a little taste? Niosi is the most recent guest on Paul Slavens’ Track by Track podcast, where you can hear a little bit of each song along with Niosi’s thoughts on them.

VISUAL ARTS BITS:  A slew of local visual arts news came down yesterday. First, The Joule Hotel in Downtown Dallas has commissioned a major public art installation, to be created by British artist Lee Baker. It’ll be on view beginning today … The Dallas Museum of Art and Amon Carter Museum will collaborate on “Hotel Texas: An Art Exhibition for the President and Mrs. John F. Kennedy,” which will bring together the works of art installed in the president’s suite at the Hotel Texas. The show will be on display at both museums next year to mark the 50th anniversary of the Kennedy assassination. … And the DMA is partnering with another local arts group – the Dallas Opera – to present “Music and Masterpieces,” a project that, “seeks to partner the performing and visual arts by style, era, or country of origin to create a more fully rounded understanding of both.”