Well, it’s my last day of Free Arts Month! It’s taken a lot of effort, so I’m not sad that I’m stopping my expedition to take in a free arts event every day. But while it’s tiring, it can definitely be done, and I hope that if you’ve been following me you now realize just how much free stuff is out there, and where it is.

Today being Monday it was a good day to see public art, and there’s much more of it in Tacoma than I’ve covered already. But some of the best has gone up within the …

Read more »

One great thing about free arts events (if you haven’t been following me, I’m almost at the end of blogging a whole month of one free arts event every day in Tacoma) is that if you haven’t paid for a ticket, you don’t feel compelled to stay until the bitter end. If you have antsy kids, if you have something else to do, or if you just don’t feel well, you can walk out halfway through and not regret it. Yesterday and today I’ve been sick with a nasty cold, so I chose a seat as far from other …

Read more »

I only caught the beginning of Free Ya Mind last night, but it was enough to give me a taste of this friendly, original spoken word evening, nearly a decade old now, at Tully’s on Broadway. Poets cluster down the piano end of the café, and you could probably sneak in without buying a coffee, though obviously it’s nicer if you do buy one. At around 7:15 p.m. the feature artist was introduced: Edris Reynolds (I think!), a white-haired older lady who delivered an intriguing mock-meeting address that turned out to be a creative way of exploring all the …

Read more »

Libraries are wonderful places, and one of Tacoma’s best-kept arts secrets is hidden inside your local library – the Art Access Pass. Never heard of it? You’re not alone; most people I’ve mentioned it to haven’t either. It’s a pass that’ll get you free into the Tacoma Art Museum,  Washington State History Museum or Tacoma Art Place, along with three other people, anytime you like. All you need is a library card (apply for these at any branch of Tacoma, Puyallup, Pierce County, Roy City or Joint Base Lewis McChord libraries).

The …

Read more »

I finally made it! The Gallery at TCC is another college-based art gallery that’s free and often open when others aren’t, and today it was definitely open, showing the latest exhibit “Post Pop Art.” It’s a big exhibition with a multitude of artists (including community members like you and me), and not highly organized. But in a way, that’s fine with pop-based art – the whole thing is a jumble of vivid color and in-your-face aesthetics, which only underlines the anarchic pop-art idea.

Taking their cue from the bright colors and popular-object images of Warhol, followed by the flat, cartoonish …

Read more »

Tacoma’s oldest artist-owned gallery has been in operation over 18 years now, but it’s easy to overlook it. Freighthouse Art Gallery is tucked away upstairs in the Freighthouse Square shopping center in the Dome district, down the other end from the food court. Run by a cooperative of local artists, the gallery stays strong as the other shops come and go, and has a good range of medium.

Like any commercial gallery, the work’s chosen for appeal; you’re never going to find anything radically challenging. But  it’s all pleasant stuff: Val Persoon’s fluffy watercolors, Ruth Volkman’s simple, …

Read more »

The Woolworth Windows downtown has morphed over the years as an art venue. Once run by the City of Tacoma, then by Tacoma Contemporary, and now by the City again as part of the Spaceworks temporary-art-in-empty-spaces program, the space has also been on-again-off-again in terms of the art quality. I’ve seen brilliant installations by renowned artists, but I’ve also seen completely lame student exhibits that make no use of the big, shallow space whatsoever.

But the big bonus of the Windows is that it’s always free, 24/7. Occupying the street frontage of this former department store, the art space …

Read more »

Tacoma’s blessed (no pun intended!) with plenty of free classical music on Sundays. This afternoon I had my choice of three terrific concerts – Brass Unlimited, an organ tour at Christ Episcopal, and the regular Sunday show at the Antique Sandwich Company. The Ruston coffee house was where I decided to go, and I arrived halfway through a two-hour chamber music concert featuring pianist Robert Jorgenson, oboist Karen Gorcue and French horn player Heather Morton.

Jorgenson has been playing the Antique’s Sunday series since 1988, he says, and he’s a natural speaker, briefly introducing each piece to the crowd relaxing …

Read more »