Shiny Tacoma’s got metal – lots of it. Metal art, that is: For the next three months, the city-wide, multivenue festival MetalUrge will dominate the local art scene. Involving 23 venues, more than 100 artists and one major national exhibit, MetalUrge does more than just celebrate art made of metal. It takes a big step, organizers say, toward making Tacoma the regional hub for metal art.

“We’re recognizing the metal artists in our community, as well as strengthening the image of Tacoma as a place where metal art thrives,” says Amy McBride, city arts administrator and the force behind MetalUrge.

It’s the second such event: The first MetalUrge happened in 2000, and like this one had as its catalyst a major exhibition at Tacoma Art Museum. Then it was the contemporary jewelry show “Under the Influence”; this year it’s the dual display of Seattle jewelry artist Nancy Worden with possibly the biggest art jewelry collection in the world: the Helen Williams Drutt collection from the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

Add to that Tacoma Art Museum’s reputation as one of the largest collectors of jewelry art nationally, and you have the makings of a serious metal art locale.

“I’d like to develop that,” says McBride, a metal artist herself. “We’d like Tacoma to be the epicenter of metal art in the region.”

With the metal arts program recently closed at the University of Washington, Seattle, there’s room, McBride says, for Tacoma to carry that banner. She also hopes there’ll be another MetalUrge sometime in the future.

Meanwhile, this summer’s MetalUrge is full of good things. Aside from TAM’s jewelry shows, highlights include a multi-artist show of contemporary chastity belts at Mineral, a companion show of artists and poets interpreting the seven deadly sins next door at Gallery 301, local jewelers at Impromptu, BKB and Madera galleries, an installation in the Woolworth windows, sculpture at Two Vaults, Fulcrum and American Art Company, metal workshops at Tacoma Art Place, and a free community festival in Tollefson Plaza.

But just why do artists choose metal?

For McBride, the attraction is versatility: “You can go from fancy and refined to chunky, huge and sculptural.” Plus, she says, you also get to play with fire.

Rosemary Ponnekanti: 253-597-8568

rosemary.ponnekanti@thenews tribune.com