The 21st annual Margaret K. Williams Arts Awards, sponsored by the Pierce County Arts Commission and the Pierce County Arts & Cultural Services Division, have been announced. The awards are presented in three categories, and will be presented 6:30 p.m. November 6 at Tacoma Art Museum.

Winner of the Arts Education award is Amelia Haller, a poet, writer and teacher. Haller has published eight books, taught at many local institutions, and published in various anthologies.

Winner of the Excellence in the Arts award is local dancer and choreographer Carla Barragan. Currently directing BQDance

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Who’s afraid of "Dracula"?

Not Tacoma City Ballet. The company is performing this original ballet tonight and tomorrow, to live orchestral music of Elgar and Smetana. Bring the family and wear costume. 7:30 p.m. tonight, 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Nov. 1. $25. Theatre on the Square, 915 Broadway, Tacoma. 253-591-5894, www.broadwaycenter.org

Party with the Dead

Dia de los Muertos is this Sunday. Make sugar skulls and papel picado, and see a tapete and ofrendas at Tacoma Art Museum, then join with life-size skeletons in the

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The annual Children’s Film Series at the Grand Cinema is on hiatus this week, says Philip Cowan, the Grand’s executive director. The series of high-quality children’s movies, shown on weekends from Oct. 3 through the end of November, is halfway through its run and will resume on Nov. 7 with the 2001 Oscar-winning anime hit, "Spirited Away." That picture and all others in the series will be shown at 11 a.m. Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

The following weekend, Nov. 14-16, will bring "The Phantom Tollbooth," a full-length animated fantasy by the late, great Chuck Jones who gave Bugs Bunny

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Taken a look at local bus backsides lately?

They’re sporting the very cool design for Art at Work month, which for the whole of November celebrates local artists doing their thing in studio tours, art slams, workshops and more. Better still, when you get on board the bus, you can see some actual art: poems by local poets printed in letterpress broadsides by local small press printers.

The broadsides are a new feature of the annual Art at Work month, and a brainchild of the City of Tacoma’s Arts Commission,

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Tim Sale, the graphic artist whose work is prominently featured on and integral to the hit NBC series “Heroes,” will visit Comic Book Ink at 2 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 22 to sign and answer questions.

I didn’t watch “Heroes” most of the first season but finally gave in when friends and coworkers wouldn’t shut up about the show. Sale’s work is startling and used very effectively in the strange action series. It’s not very often (if ever?) that an artist’s work has been featured so well on a non-animated television

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The “Contrasts” show at Museum of Glass. Photo Richard Nicol.

It’s a first for Tacoma: a museum art exhibit of fragile glass that’s actually meant to be touched.

The Museum of Glass has just launched its new “Contrasts Multi-sensory Experience,” a complementary exhibition to “Contrasts – A Glass Primer.” Up for over a year now, “Contrasts” is an informative (if simplistic) explanation of the different styles, techniques and aesthetics of glass art. The multisensory part involves an audio-descriptive tour with easily-navigated buttons, carefully-worded descriptions and gallery directions for the visually-impaired, plus

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The cast of “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee,” at the Pantages Wednesday night. Photo Scott Suchman.

Rainier Family Opera: affordable, fun, friendly

Opera’s not scary, and Rainier Family Opera want to prove it. Their first family-friendly concert this season features non-costumed, narrated scenes from Mozart, Hoffman and Dvorak. 7 p.m. Oct. 24 at Spanaway Lutheran Church, 16001 A St. S., Spanaway; 7 p.m. Oct. 25 at First Lutheran Church, 524 S. I St., Tacoma. Suggested donation $10/family $25. 253-222-5463, rainierfamilyopera.blogspot.com

Tacoma Symphony heads to Old Russia
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Jacob Colby, son of Tacoma City Ballet teacher Melinda Colby. Photo Melinda Colby.

Tacoma City Ballet is holding its second Studio Gallery event Saturday night. If you went to the first one, you’ll remember that the gilt-and-mirrored studio in the Merlino Building transforms beautifully into an art gallery, with sylph-like dancers wafting around and yummy hors d’oeuvres, cupcakes and champagne enticing you to stay. All art sales go completely to the artists (no commissions here) and profits from the $5 entry went to scholarships for students in the Tacoma City Ballet School.