There were five birds last Thursday evening at Tollefson Plaza, orange and black and bound with thick black cords. Played by dancers from BQDanza, the “birds” danced out a new piece by Tacoma choreographer Carla Barragan called “Thick”, inspired by the Gulf Coast oil spill and presented free in Tollefson as part of both ArtWalk and Spaceworks. They’ll be back next ArtWalk as well on Oct. 21 as part of the Arts Crush month of free events.

And that’s a good thing. “Thick” is well-designed, graceful and captures that particularly impotent sense of regret whenever one imagines all those land, sea and air creatures so devastated by the thick black gunk coating their world. Barragan’s dancers, clad in orange and black tunic and pants, roam the plaza, claiming it as their own. Read more »

Tacoma artist Eli Hansen has just been named as the winner of the PONCHO Special Recognition Award at Seattle Art Museum. The award, which carries a cash prize of $2,500, is one of two second-place awards in the museum’s annual prestigious Betty Bowen award, now in its 32^nd year.

Portland artist Ellen Lesperance, who works in gouache and graphite, was the winner of the main $15,000 award, and Bellingham painter Barbara Sternberger won the Kayla Skinner Special Recognition Award.

Hansen, who has worked as a glassblower at the Museum of Glass since 2006, has exhibited solo and collaboratively …

Read more »

Click Flick: “Annie”

This Saturday’s Click Family Flick is that childhood classic “Annie,” about the little girl with the big heart and the super-cute dog. Doors open 10 a.m., screening 10:30 a.m. Sept. 18. Free, first 100 people only. The Grand Cinema, 608 S. Fawcett Ave., Tacoma. 253-572-6062, www.grandcinema.com

Welcome Figure blessing ceremony

A 20-foot-high traditional carved Coast Salish figure by Shaun Peterson (Qwalsius) will finally, after many years in the making, be installed by Tacoma Art Museum, City of Tacoma and the Puyallup Tribe in Tollefson Plaza this Saturday. 10 a.m.-noon Sept. 18. Free. Tollefson Plaza, South 17^th Street …

Read more »

Cirque du Soleil has produced many shows since it began 26 years ago, and the newer they are the more technically inventive they get. But it’s nice, sometimes, to go back to beginnings, and with “Alegría” – one of the Canadian company’s oldest shows, and playing this week at the Tacoma Dome – you get all the wow with a good dose of innocence.

The stage is intimate: Instead of the vast space of the Big Top events, this adaptation for arena is sheltered under a dome, with Wonderland lights dotting a circular stage. After the standard clown introduction, which doesn’t work so well with house lights up, the band comes in with a strolling-tango vibe that sets the scene for the rest of the vibrant score. Bizarre bird-people in purple feathers bustle around, spiky nymphs make a brief appearance.

And then the fun begins. Read more »

If you think the Harry Potter films and books are a load of longwinded wizarding baloney, stop reading now.

Okay, everyone else, here’s your chance to immerse yourself in the film-ing world of Harry Potter, right here at your doorstep. Well, Seattle, anyhow. Come on, it’s better than Florida, yes? The not-so-imaginatively-named “Harry Potter: The Exhibition” is coming to the Pacific Science Center in Seattle, the only West Coast venue and the last stop on a U.S. tour that’s been wowing fans with all the props, sets and costumes you see in the Harry Potter films.

The show doesn’t open til Oct. 23, but it requires a time-entry ticket and PacSci is encouraging people to buy them well in advance. Tickets are on sale now.

So what’s in the show? Read more »

Fircrest artist Nola Tresslar has a show up at the Lieutenant Governor’s office that’s worth a peek if you’re down in Olympia. Tresslar, who works in a variety of media, has 14 pieces up, five of which are inspired by the artist’s emotions on the anniversary of 9/11.

The Lieutenant Governor, by the way, is the President of the Washington State Senate, and steps in as Governor when the real one is off-duty. Brad Owen is the current Lt. Governor, and the office is publicly accessible  on the second floor of the Legislative, a.k.a. Capitol, Building. The office sponsors …

Read more »

Romantic strings at UPS Jacobsen concert

Dvorak, Schumann and Shostakovich are on the menu for romance for the first Jacobsen Series concert at the University of Puget Sound. Featuring Maria Sampen (violin), Timothy Christie (viola), Tanya Stambuk (piano) and a guest cellist, the program includes Shostakovich’s wistful “Romance” which accompanied the film “The Gadfly.” 7:30 p.m. Sept. 10. $12.50/$8.50/free for current Puget Sound students. Schneebeck Hall, UPS, 1500 N. Warner St., Tacoma. 253-879-3419, www.pugetsound.edu

“The Barber of Seville” comes to Vashon

Vashon Opera kicks off its season with Rossini’s comic masterpiece, “The Barber of Seville.” Cast includes Tacoma Opera …

Read more »

Thanks to Spaceworks (the Tacoma Arts Commission’s summer-fall arts project for empty spaces), downtown Tacoma’s hosting a lot of cool art these days. Some of the coolest is in Tollefson Plaza, and next week for third Thursday ArtWalk we’ll get to see a new dance work by one of the South Sound’s most inventive choreographers, Carla Barragan.

Barragan, an Ecuadorian-American choreographer who’s known for inventive, thoughtful site-specific work in Tacoma, Seattle, South America and elsewhere, has turned for her 20-minute Tollefson piece to the Gulf oil spill. In “Thick,” dancers from Barragan’s group BQDanza move around the plaza …

Read more »