Arts reporter and critic Rosemary Ponnekanti keeps you in touch with the arts and culture scene with the help of other News Tribune writers, critics and editors.
Rosemary Ponnekanti is the arts reporter at The News Tribune, and has been a classical music nerd nearly all her life. Besides spending way too much time in galleries, museums and concert halls, she occasionally brings a whistle or double bass to Celtic jam sessions, and insists on singing "Happy Birthday" in four-part harmony.
Other contributors include:
> Arts & entertainment editor Craig Sailor
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Above: Untitled print by Wayne Thiebaud. Below: “Balancing Act” by Antie Brink (oil pastel)

You have a few more days to check out “Selections from the Permanent Collection,” at The Fine Arts Gallery at Pierce College Fort Steilacoom.
This varied media exhibition is up through Wednesday, Sept. 10.
According to the college the featured artists include Linda Artage, Leonard Baskin, Antie Brink, Clint Brown, Paul Clinton, H. Creuzevault, Kathy Fridstein, Addie Gram, Rachael Parr, Midore Onon Theiel, Philip Pearlstein, Andrew Richards, Betre Schneider, and Wayne Thiebaud.
The gallery is located on campus at 9401 Farwest Drive SW, Lakewood. Hours are 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Thursday, and 8 a.m. to noon Friday.
For more information, call Gallery Director Jennifer Olson-Rudenko at 253-964-6535.
Murals by Alexis St. John (left) and Maura Desimone await installation on the exterior of the Tapestry Covenant Church building Wednesday evening. (Craig Sailor/The News Tribune)
Can you have too many murals? Folks on the Hilltop don't think so.
The Martin Luther King Housing Development Association is presenting the second Music and Murals festival Saturday, from 11 a.m.-6 p.m. at People's Park, on S. 9th St. and MLK Jr. Way. The event celebrates the power of collective art to unite, beautify and invigorate a community: live music will play all day in the park, while local artists paint murals to be mounted on Hilltop buildings.
Last year the Festival not only saw the unveiling of the Tacoma Works Storefront Mural Project, four plywood murals on boarded-up storefronts along MLK Jr. Way between 11th and 13th, but generated three new murals for the side of the Tapestry Covenant Church building, at 824 MLK Jr. Way (just north of the Park.) These were only just mounted this week, but the Storefront murals have been up for a year and the response, say organizers, is positive.

"We believe the proof is in the pudding because none have been tagged!" says co-organizer and artist Maura Desimone (left, installing a mural Wednesday evening.)
For Saturday's festival, muralists Bob Henry (who painted the Martin Luther King mural opposite People's Park), Dionne Bonner (painter of the street octopus at 6th Avenue and Pine Street) and Alexis St. John (who did the salmon on Radio Shack at Proctor) will be painting new murals, this time intended for the walls of the Allen Renaissance Building at 1301 MLK Jr. Way. MLK HDA is funding the murals.
Meanwhile, Henry is donating two canvases, which two of the Storefront Mural artists, including Desimone, will be donating their time to paint for more of the Tapestry church walls.
Mexican and BBQ food will be available, as well as a kids' zone with a jumping castle, puppet show and face painting. The ten-band line-up includes Michael Powers and Just Dirt, and there will be performances by Northwest Tap Collective and a hip-hop dance team.
Music and Murals is a free event from 11 a.m.-6 p.m. at People's Park, S. 9th St. and MLK Jr. Way, Tacoma.