New Year’s Eve: Four Picks

There’s not a lot going on in the arts world right after New Year, but there’s plenty to choose from tonight. Here are four picks for the last night of the year.

First Night Tacoma

This family-friendly, booze-free, arts-based celebration runs from 6:30 p.m. til just after midnight in Tacoma’s theater district, and ranges from live music through vaudeville and street bands to burning tiger effigies. See our story for details. 6:30 p.m. tonight. $10/$5 buttons from BCPA box office, Tacoma Art Museum and more. Various locations in downtown Tacoma, centering on Broadway …

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The holidays might be fun, but then comes the crunch – I’ve blown my budget on gifts and January’s looking pretty thrifty. You might be in the same boat, or maybe $50 opera or ballet tickets always look a bit expensive whenever they happen. Full disclosure – I usually get complimentary tickets to shows if I’m reviewing them, but I often pay for my family’s tickets, so I realize that good art often comes at a hefty price.

Well, not this month. For January I’ve vowed to show everyone that you don’t have to be rich to enjoy art, classical …

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Seattle-based graphic artist  Art Chantry is known around the world for his vibrant, pop-and-psychedelic influenced posters, album covers and magazine covers, not to mention sunglasses and skateboards. Raised in Tacoma, Chantry’s worked for Sub Pop, The Rocket, Hempfest and Seattle’s Bathhouse Theatre, and is collected by the Museum of Modern Art, the Smithsonian, the Louvre and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (how’s that for diverse?)

And he’s coming to the Tacoma Public Library next week to talk about it all. Next Wednesday Chantry will be at the main branch downtown for a free …

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The Tacoma Arts Commission has just awarded $50,000 in 2011 Arts Projects funding to 21 different Tacoma arts organizations. Funding ranges from $1,000 to $5,000, and supports public outreach in music, dance, film, theater, literary and visual arts.

“The Tacoma Arts Commission is very pleased to provide ongoing support for the Arts Projects program that blends community and creativity,” said Sarah Idstrom, 2011 chair of the Tacoma Arts Commission. “Keeping innovative and quality programming available is always a focus of the commission, but it has been particularly important during the current economic downturn. The groups funded for the 2011 …

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“Black Swan” at The Grand Cinema

For a dark depiction of the masochistic, psychologically brutal side of ballet, you can’t go past “Black Swan,” where Natalie Portman plays a ballerina who loses herself, literally, in the iconic “Swan Lake” lead role. Various times. $8.50/$7.50. The Grand Cinema, 606 S. Fawcett St., Tacoma. 253-593-4474, www.grandcinema.com

Still a “Nutcracker” or two at PNB

Christmas might be almost here but the “Nutcracker” keeps going, at least for Pacific Northwest Ballet. The extravagant Stowell and Sendak production, with its “Where the Wild Things Are”-style sets and imagination, runs through this weekend. …

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In response to the success of the exhibition “Picasso: Masterpieces form the Musée National Picasso, Paris,” the Seattle Art Museum has announced extended hours beginning next week and continuing until the show closes on Jan. 17. There’ll also be some closures this weekend and next for Christmas and New Year’s Day.

Here are the new hours:

Christmas Eve: Open reduced hours, 10 a.m.-3 p.m.

Christmas Day: Closed

New Year’s Eve: Open reduced hours, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.

New Year’s Day: Closed

Dec. 26-Jan. 17: Open 10 a.m.-9 p.m. every day, except Jan. 6 (open through midnight with discounted admission), …

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One of the fallouts from Seattle Mayor McGinn’s announcement last week of the new Seattle Chihuly Museum is the proposed Northwest Native Cultural Center. Supported by various local professionals, the center would have given a Native American presence to the new developments at the Seattle Center, where the current Fun Forest is soon to be torn down. Instead, if the mayor’s proposal makes it through council, the Center will get a playground, green space and a 50,000 square foot tribute to glass icon Dale Chihuly, including an indoor exhibition space, glasshouse, garden and outdoor glass art. …

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Tacoma’s current Poet Laureate Tammy Robacker has just been awarded a writer’s residency for 2011 at Hedgebrook on Whidbey Island, selected as one of 38 recipients out of 795 applicants across the country and beyond.

Founded in 1988 by Seattle philanthropist Nancy Nordhoff, Hedgebrook supports women writers by offering free residencies and programs in cottages on the island. Residencies last from two to six weeks.

Robacker, who published her first book of poetry “The Vicissitudes” last year, was awarded the 2010-11 Tacoma Urban Grace Poet Laureateship, and has led a number of local workshops and reading. The Hedgebrook …

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