The prolific Puget Sound Sumi Artists association is currently offering two free shows of sumi-e painting and mixed-media art: one at the Tacoma Nature Center at Snake Lake, the other at the Gig Harbor library, opening this weekend.

At Gig Harbor “The Spirit of Sumi-e” summarizes the ethos of this Asian-based brush painting style which dates to 8^th-century China. With strokes and dots of water-based black ink the artist aims to capture the spirit of the subject, both visible and invisible, with as much simplicity as possible. Other paintings include watercolors and mixed-media. The opening reception on Saturday includes a demonstration of the art by Fumiko Kimura, a Japanese-born Tacoma sumi-e artist.

Reception 2-4 p.m., demonstration 2-3 p.m. March 3, then open 10 a.m.-9 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Friday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday and 1-5 p.m. Sunday through March at the Gig Harbor Library, 4424 Point Fosdick Dr. NW, Gig Harbor. 253-548-3305, www.piercecountylibrary.org

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Spaceworks Tacoma has been filling vacant downtown commercial space with art for a few years now, and the benefits to artists have been obvious: more exposure, cheap venues, different audiences. The benefits to the community are harder to quantify, but include more street traffic and the uplift that comes from art anyway, and more and more properties have been drawn into this collaboration between the City of Tacoma, the Chamber of Commerce and arts non-profit Shunpike. In 2011 alone Spaceworks supported 18 creative enterprises, exhibited 28 art installations, occupied 20 retail spaces, supported over 70 events and attracted over 16,500 visitors. That’s a lot of downtown activity.

Now the project has spawned commercial success, at least in the Hilltop. Two Spaceworks project sites at 1310-1316 Martin Luther King Jr. Way – the Fab-5 hip hop youth arts group and the Nate Dybevik Piano Company – have taken on regular leases with the property owner after six months low-cost leasing through Spaceworks. Read more »

The Tacoma Symphony has decided to do a couple of its season concerts in the Rialto Theater every year – and it’s an excellent decision. Yesterday’s concert of Chopin, Barber and Mendelssohn, with an appetizer of Michael Torke’s “Ash,” showed beyond doubt that this chocolate-box Tacoma theater highlights every minute of effort an orchestra puts in, unlike the acoustically dead Pantages, and the TSO made the most of the space with a richness of sound that made most of the program shine.

Most, that is. Unfortunately, the Torke sounded more like an under-rehearsed piece that nobody was terribly convinced …

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Metamorphoses at UPS

You don’t have to have studied Latin to appreciate “Metamorphoses.” The play by Mary Zimmerman, based on Ovid’s writings of ancient Roman myths, hinges on an eternal truth – that nothing is permanent, including love, lust, riches and power. Some tales are familiar, like King Midas or Orpheus and Euridyce, now given a modern spin. Theater arts students at the University of Puget Sound open their production of the play tonight, directed by John Rindo. 7:30 p.m. tonight, then Feb. 25, March 2 and 3. 4 p.m. March 1, 2 p.m. March 3. $11/$7. Norton Clapp Theater, Jones Hall, UPS, 1500 N. Warner St., Tacoma. 253-879-3419, tickets.pugetsound.edu

Celebrate Asia with the Seattle Symphony

The Seattle Symphony presents its fourth annual Celebrate Asia concert tonight at Benaroya Hall, including gender-bending violin virtuoso Hahn-Bin playing Tchaikovsky, Chinese pipa player Jie Ma and the Cuong Vu Group playing the jazz-inspired new work “One,” as well as the winner of this year’s Celebrate Asia Composition Competition, Kay He’s “Legends of Old Peking.” Taiko drumming, Indian and Balinese music and a Lion Dance will begin at 6:30 p.m.; concert 7:30 p.m. Feb. 24. $17-$74. Benaroya Hall, 200 University St., Seattle. 206-215-4747, www.seattlesymphony.org Read more »

Seattle pianist and former Pacific Lutheran University faculty member Regina Yeh will perform Chopin’s Piano Concerto no. 2 this Sunday with the Tacoma Symphony at the Rialto Theater – her first concerto appearance with the symphony and her first public performance in several months.

Yeh, a young Taiwanese-born American prize-winning pianist who has been on the faculty of both the University of Washington and PLU and is a champion of new and East-West collaborative music, last performed in Tacoma at a Second City Chamber Series concert in November 2010. Noted for her “fiery musicality,” Yeh teaches privately in …

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Not the new kid on the block anymore, Gallery Three in Puyallup is solidifying as a community arts presence in the downtown of the city, representing 18 artists and creating informal art events in Puyallup.

“Gallery Three is evolving into a center for art events,” says co-founder Tanya Lemma, of the cooperative sponsored by Valley Arts United and housed on the ground floor of the new Puyallup City Hall building. Upcoming events include post-concert wine after the Northwest Sinfonietta concerts in Pioneer Park Pavilion on March 18, April 29 and June 3, expanding hours to coincide with the Farmers’ Market when it opens in April, and “Random Acts of Art,” projects set up in front of the gallery with artists helping visitors to make an art piece to take home. Read more »

John Munn, a local actor, director and entrepreneur, has just been named Lakewood Playhouse’s new permanent artistic director. The 73-year-old community theater, located in the Lakewood Towne Center mall, lost its director of nearly 10 years, Marcus Walker, when Walker died of cancer early last year. Munn had been temporary managing artistic director since last February.

“I feel like I’m home,” said Munn. “I was blessed to get to know the family at the Playhouse over the last year; it’s been a rare chance that you don’t often get.” Read more »

Tango at Madera

Madera Architectural Elements artisan gallery is hosting Latin Grammy-nominated vocalist Maria Volonté, singing blues-infused tango as part of her Blue Tango Tour. The Argentine singer, guitarist and composer is a Gardel Prize winner and member of the Tango Hall of Fame. 3 p.m. Feb. 19. $17.50. Madera Architectural Elements, 2210 Court A, Tacoma. 253-572-1218, www.maderawoodworking.com, www.brownpapertickets.com/event/220019

“Enron” at the Minnaert Center

At South Puget Sound Community College’s Minnaert Center the play “Enron” continues this weekend, written by British playwright Lucy Prebble to explore the inner workings of America’s famous corporate collapse. 8 p.m. Feb. 17, …

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