Margaret K. Williams Arts Award recipients to be honored Nov. 3
Pierce County’s 18th annual Margaret K. Williams Arts Awards program will be held Nov. 3 at the Tacoma Art Museum. A reception will begin at 5:30 p.m., followed by the awards ceremony at 6:30 p.m.
Awards will be presented in three categories. This year’s recipients are Debbie Munson for Arts Education, Tacoma Musical Playhouse for Excellence in the Arts, and Puget Sound Sumi Artists for Support of the Arts.
Debbie Munson has been an arts educator at Rogers High School in Puyallup for 34 years and served as district art coordinator for 22 years. To provide students an opportunity to show their work, she orchestrated the Junior/Senior Art Show at the Western Washington Fair and helped start a K-12 art show at the fair for 15 school districts around the state. She is a volunteer for Valley Arts United and its public gallery and Arts Downtown and has served as chair of both.
Munson is a working artist in several mediums, including painting and glass mosaic.
Tacoma Musical Playhouse, now in its 12th season, presents a full year of mainstage musicals, showcases original musical murder mystery dinner theatre twice a year, presents musical revues at the Washington State History Museum, and produces two young people’s workshops. This summer Tacoma Musical Playhouse was chosen to represent the United States at the 13th Annual World Festival of Amateur Theatre in Monaco, the first time a West Coast theatre company has been selected to represent the United States. Jon Douglas Rake is the company’s founder and managing artistic director, and Jeffrey Stvrtecky has served as music director for nearly all of TMP’s productions.
Puget Sound Sumi Artists is a non-profit organization formed in 1986 to promote the understanding and appreciation of sumi painting and Asian brush calligraphy. PSSA has more than 100 members and provides several juried exhibits each year in galleries and other public venues, including an exchange exhibit with Japanese artists. PSSA members volunteer to teach painting and calligraphy and have conducted classes in schools, senior centers and retirement homes, and they offer a scholarship each year to college students in the Puget Sound area.
Through auctions of their artwork, PSSA donates cash and supplies to aid homeless and battered children through the Eugene Tone School.
The event is sponsored by the Pierce County Arts Commission and the Pierce County Arts & Cultural Services Division.
