Happy New Year! More than ever, 2010 seems like a number for the future: a new decade, a clean start. And to celebrate on this blog, I’ve compiled a list of all the things Tacoma’s arts community will be creating this new year. Some are technically from 2009 but have only just begun, so I’ve let them into the list. Feel free to add your own!

Art

Tacoma Art Museum is bringing some good stuff in later in the year: luminous sky-painter Victoria Adams, a city-wide photographic portrait and some pull-outs from the collection…Gallery-wise, there’ll be a few new kids …

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It isn’t every day you get to hear a baroque bassoon in Tacoma, but next Monday there’ll be one – and played by a native Tacoman, no less. Seattle-based early music chamber group Concert Spirituel will give a concert of French baroque music in South Tacoma’s Grace Lutheran Church, along with bassoonist Anna Marsh.

If you’re asking ‘what’s a baroque bassoon?’ then you’re probably not alone. The 17th-and 18th-century ancestor of the bassoon you see in the back woodwind row of today’s orchestras has the same skinny pipe shape, played through a double reed attached to a curvy …

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Janet Marcavage’s print portraits at TUUC

In “Likenesses,” Tacoma print artist Janet Marcavage shows her skill in integrating lithography, intaglio embossment, photography and relief to create portraits of family and friends. 9 a.m.-1 p.m. Sunday-Friday through Dec. 29. Free. Mary Boze Gallery, Tahoma Unitarian Universalist Church, 1115 S. 56^th St., Tacoma (ring the bell). www.janetmarcavage.com

Last weekend for Woolworth Windows

If you haven’t seen the fall installations in the Woolworth Windows downtown, you’ve only got two more days. Joseph Penrod’s blue-tape chair shadows, Beautiful Angle’s stacked chair sculptures, Zachary Marvick’s weirdly human giant drawings and Robert Evans paintings warm up …

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Stuck inside with nothing to do, with kids on winter break and sick of presents already? If you can see yourself in this place next week, you’re in luck – the Museum of Glass is extending its hours from December 26-31, open every day next week. (It’s usually closed Mondays and Tuesdays.)

Here are the holiday hours:

December 24: 10 a.m.-3 p.m., December 25: CLOSED, December 26: 10 a.m.-5 p.m., December 27: noon-5 p.m., December 28-31: 10 a.m.-5 p.m. The Museum will be closed New Year’s Day.

So, what can you see there right now? “Kids Design Glass” is full of incredibly cute creatures designed …

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Want something really splashy for your New Year’s Eve party? Try an octopus necklace. (Ho ho ho.) No, really – all puns aside, if you go looking at the wryly funny necklaces and brooches in “Unusual Adornment” as just wall-art you’re missing half the fun. The show, loosely organized by Lynn Di Nino and other Tacoma friends at Old Town’s Sandpiper Gallery, is of wearable art, and art that deserves plenty of wearing.

Take Di Morgan-Graves’ paper-mache-sculpted necklace pendants. Morgan-Graves is the diva of the 6th Avenue Dia de los Muertos procession, with gorgeous skeletons like the fisherman, …

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Remember MetalUrge? The city-wide celebration of all things metal lasted through summer and ranged from gallery shows to live aluminum pouring in Tollefson Plaza. Well, one unexpected offshoot of MetalUrge is that a local metal artist has set up permanent shop on St. Helens Avenue, offering sales, shows and classes.

Amy Reeves, who teaches metalwork at Pratt Fine Arts Center in Seattle and MetroParks in Tacoma, as well as up and down the West Coast, was inspired by the interest in MetalUrge to have a permanent home in Tacoma. 

Says Reeves: “I have been thinking about starting my own jewelry …

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Tacoma Symphony plays Handel’s “Messiah”

Handel’s beloved oratorio is sung again by the Tacoma Symphony and Chorus with all-star local soloists in favorites like “I know that my Redeemer liveth” and the “Hallelujah” chorus. 7:30 p.m. Dec. 18. $25. St. Charles Borromeo, 7112 S. 12^th St., Tacoma. 253-591-5894, www.tacomasymphony.org

 Northwest Repertory Singers’ “A North American Christmas”

Huron, Hispanic, Appalachian and Northwest meet in this celebration of North American Christmas choral music, sung by the Northwest Repertory Singers. 7:30 p.m. Dec. 19, 3 p.m. Dec. 20. $18/$15/free for under-12. Mason United Methodist Church, 2710 N. Madison St., Tacoma. 253-572-4831, www.nwrs.org

 “The …

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Even among singers, this one’s pretty swift: Fox Island baritone Charles Robert Stephens, who was scheduled to be one of the four soloists for Tacoma Symphony’s annual performance of the “Messiah” Friday night, has bumped them at the last minute to fill in for an ailing Sanford Sylvan with Seattle Symphony. Tacoma baritone Barry Johnson has agreed to stand in for Stephens in Tacoma.

The soloist roles for the “Messiah,” Handel’s beloved oratorio telling the Christmas and Easter stories through aria and chorus, are vital to the success of a performance. Baritone arias include the famous earthquake recitative, the …

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