What: “Trojan Women” by Euripides

A crane, wings sweeping and thin legs swiftly stroked. A landscape, darkly brooding with watery clouds of gray. A poem, dancing over rice paper in joyful characters. At the Handforth Gallery at Tacoma Public Library this month, charcoal ink and brush strokes breathe with life in more than 60 works of calligraphy and sumi-e, the Asian art of ink painting. It’s the tri-annual exhibition by the Puget Sound Sumi Artist association, along with two guest Japanese artists, and it shows how this centuries-old art has developed into something intensely individual and full of possibilities.

Olympia Little Theatre has updated Oscar Wilde’s classic comedy of manners “The Importance of Being Earnest” to the swinging England of 1968, the era of such popular British films as “Georgy Girl” and “Alfie.” This play, performed in the round, has much of the flavor of those films. Other than a florid manner of speaking, which may have been the height of fashion among pretentious Brits in 1895 but which seems stilted today, the update seems perfectly fitted to the affectations and love of fashion in Wilde’s comedy.

Tacoma isn’t exactly the keyboard capitol of the U.S. But that’s going to change this weekend – and perhaps permanently – when Tacoma hosts an array of those instruments, thanks to a growing community of musicians here.

An Islamic-inspired graffiti art mural could soon appear on the back of Tacoma’s Rialto Theater. But the design is not without controversy.

Like a French Impressionist painting come to life, 16 dancers promenaded, twirled and leapt with unfurled umbrellas along the shore of Capitol Lake. Performing “Umbrella Delight” two weekends ago, the Random Acts of Dance Collective was part of “Here Today,” a project of temporary public outdoor art that’s becoming an annual tradition in Olympia.

You’re zooming along state Route 706 on the way to some unbeatable hiking, climbing or sledding on Pierce County’s most famous peak. You round the corner past Elbe, and then the sign pops up: “Chainsaw Art.” Whoops, missed it. Then comes another: “Ex-Nihilo Sculpture Park.” Well, looks good, but shouldn’t you really be hitting the slopes?

Wearing a simple tunic and a tapered gold crown, the teenage boy looks ahead with huge dark eyes and almost smiles. The 3,300-year-old painted wood sculpture of Egypt’s King Tut is so lifelike it’s eerie.

The year is 1561. You’re in a 16th century Scottish village called Holy Glen Shire, and Mary Queen of Scots, has just returned with her court from France.

Some people use art to make a statement or burn off creative energy.

If Northwest American Indian artistic tradition is to be carried on by people like Preston Singletary, then it is in excellent hands. The Seattle-based glass artist embodies symbol, design and spirit in this nontraditional medium with strength of purpose and eye – and nowhere is this shown more clearly than in the recently opened exhibition “Preston Singletary: Echoes, Fire and Shadows” at the Museum of Glass.

Allow yourself plenty of time to look at “Ornament as Art.” The exhibition of the art jewelry collection of Helen Williams Drutt, which opened at Tacoma Art Museum last month, is near-exhausting, with 307 works ranging over 50 years and three continents. But this show is not just the chance to see one of the biggest art jewelry collections in the world: It’s also a highly-organized visual delight.

The style: Craftsman is a residential style of architecture that was extremely popular between 1900 and 1940. It grew from the Arts and Crafts decoration movement as a reaction to the mass-production of the industrial age and the ornateness of late Victorian styles such as Queen Anne.

Next Thursday, catch Preston Singletary at the Museum of Glass, art jewelry at the Tacoma Art Museum, and MetalUrge everywhere else. 5-8 p.m. July 16. All museums and galleries free. www.artwalktacoma.com

T acoma’s gone metal-mad, and if you haven’t already seen too much metal art, get down to American Art Company, where artists Richard Heller, Timothy Leonard, Bill Wentworth, Patti Shaw, Susan O’Brien, Colleen Sargen, Ned Block and Steve Barnard are on show. 10 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday through Sept. 20. Free. 1126 Broadway, Tacoma. 253-272-4327, www.americanartco.com