The Fine Arts Gallery at Pierce College Fort Steilacoom will celebrate the work of Pierce County artists in the Pierce Arts at Pierce College exhibition through Nov. 26.

A reception will be held from 4 to 6 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 12. Refreshments will be served. All are welcome to attend.

The Pierce Arts show is an annual event that highlights the work of exceptional Pierce County artists. This year’s show features paintings, photographs, sculpture, weaving, and prints. Featured artists are Alain Clere, Rick Hall and Ron Schmitt, Mirka Hokkanen, Gail E. Kelly, Dayton K. Knipher, Joanne Lisosky, Margo Macdonald, Dorothy McCuistion, Dave Semon, C.J. Swanson, and Karin Williams.

The Fine Arts Gallery is located at Pierce College Fort Steilacoom, 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 or visit the Web site at www.pierce.ctc.edu/art.

Eight athletes and coaches, and two teams will be honored as members of the inaugural class of the Pierce College Athletics Hall of Fame at a special ceremony Saturday, Nov. 14, at the Health Education Center at Pierce Fort Steilacoom in Lakewood.

A reception will begin at 6 p.m. Dinner will follow at 7 p.m. Tickets are $35 per person and include a drink ticket (beer, wine, or soft drink for those under 21). For tickets, call (253) 964-6613 or visit the event Web site at www.pierce.ctc.edu/athletics/hof.

The 2009 Hall of Fame inductees will include the 1982 women’s softball and the 1992 men’s soccer teams. Both teams won their conference championships. Individual athletes to be inducted include Tim Ayris (tennis), Ann Bowen (basketball), Tami Kampbell (softball, basketball, and volleyball), and Aretha Williams (basketball and volleyball). Also inducted with this year’s class will be Joel Balmer (soccer coach), Karl Benson (baseball coach and athletic director), Michele Johnson (softball and basketball coach), and Jack Scott (tennis and basketball coach, and athletic director).

Keynote speaker for the event will be Bill Krueger, a Fox Sports Northwest broadcast analyst and former Major League Baseball pitcher. Krueger played professional baseball for 16 years. Thirteen of those were in the major leagues with eight different teams. He was a member of the 1988 World Series Champion Los Angeles Dodgers and played for the 1991 Seattle Mariners, with whom he went 11-8 and led the starting staff with a 3.60 ERA. He retired from baseball in 1996 and has since worked in broadcasting.

The Athletics Hall of Fame is made possible by the Pierce College Foundation and the college Athletics Department.

The Pierce College veterans program is hosting a performance of Into the Fire, a moving play that chronicles the real-life experiences of veterans returning from Iraq, Afghanistan, and Vietnam with disabilities and combat-related trauma.

The free performance begins at noon Thursday, Nov. 5, at the Health Education Center, Pierce College Fort Steilacoom, 9401 Farwest Dr. SW, Lakewood. Following the performance, the actors and playwrights will facilitate an interactive discussion of war’s effects on families and communities.

Into the Fire recreates the real stories of both male and female veterans with such disabilities as traumatic brain injury, hearing loss, loss of limbs, chronic pain, mobility challenges, and post-traumatic stress disorder. The stories are interspersed with humor and music to allow audiences to process the veterans’ powerful stories.

In addition to the play, Pierce is welcoming veterans, active duty military, and their families to attend a special Veterans and Military Resource Fair from 1 to 5 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 12, at the Health Education Center at Pierce Fort Steilacoom. Veterans and military personnel will connect with local resources that can help with confidential counseling, financial management, childcare, veterans’ benefits, pre-deployment readiness, vocational rehabilitation, and educational funding.

In addition, the VA Mobile Unit will be on-hand for further assistance.

For questions on the play or the resource fair, contact the Pierce College Veterans Services office via phone at (253) 964-6505 or via email at vetmil@pierce.ctc.edu.

Byron Hurt

Award-winning documentary filmmaker and anti-sexism advocate Byron Hurt will be the first featured speaker in the Pierce College Puyallup Presents lecture series.

Hurt will speak and show his recent film, Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes, at 7 p.m. Nov. 12 at the College Center multipurpose room, Pierce College Puyallup, 1601 39^th Ave. SE. Discussion and a reception will follow. Tickets are $3 for Pierce students, $6 for everyone else. The event is sponsored by the Office of Student Life.

Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and was later broadcast nationally on the Emmy award-winning PBS series, Independent Lens, drawing an audience of more than 1.3 million viewers.  To date, Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes has been selected to appear in more than 40 film festivals worldwide.

Hurt also directed and produced I AM A MAN:  Black Masculinity in America, an award-winning documentary that captures the thoughts and feelings of African-American men and women from over fifteen cities across America. Hurt challenges audiences to interrogate the damaging effects of patriarchy, racism, and sexism in American culture.

 More than a filmmaker, Hurt is a former Northeastern University football quarterback and a long-time gender violence prevention educator. He is a founding member of the Mentors in Violence Prevention (MVP) program, the leading college-based rape and domestic violence prevention initiative for college and professional athletics. He is also the former associate director of the first gender violence prevention program in the United States Marine Corps.

For tickets or more information, call (253) 840-8416.

Written and directed by Pierce College’s own Fred Metzger, “Seven Deadly Sins: The Musical” will debut at Pierce Fort Steilacoom’s new theater on Nov. 13-14 and 20-21.

“Seven Deadly Sins: The Musical” is a fun comedy that follows the struggles of Bob, who must conquer the seven deadly sins in order to win eternal love and happiness with Mary.  Metzger calls it a “dancing, singing, game show extravaganza” that “would be a sin to miss.”

Tickets are now available for all shows. Cost is $5 for students and seniors, and $10 for everyone else. Call (253) 964-6710 to make reservations. The theater is located at Pierce College Fort Steilacoom, 9401 Farwest Drive SW, Lakewood. Showtime is 7 p.m. for all shows.

Metzger has been a member of the speech/theatre faculty at Pierce College since 1976. In 1995 and 1996, he served as vice-chairman of programs for the Northwest Section of the United States Institute for Theatre Technology. He wrote and directed the original musical Class in 1993, and Market Place Blues in 2001.

In addition, he designed Bus Stop for Tacoma Actors Guild and The Nutcracker for Tacoma Performing Dance, and has designed many shows at Pierce College including Amadeus and I’m Not Rapport. In 1996 and 1997, he directed the original historical pageant A Place of Firsts, which commemorates the birth of the town of Steilacoom, one of Washington’s first settlements. The pageant was sponsored by the Pierce College Foundation and the Washington Endowment for the Arts.

Find answers and get the information you need to choose the four-year college that’s right for you at the Fall Transfer Fairs at Pierce College Fort Steilacoom in Lakewood and Pierce College Puyallup.

At Pierce Puyallup, the transfer fair will be held from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Oct. 12 in the College Center, 1601 39^th Ave. SE.

At Pierce Fort Steilacoom, the fairs will be held from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Oct. 13 and from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Oct. 14 on the fourth floor of the Cascade building (near the cafeteria), 9401 Farwest Dr. SW, Lakewood.

Representatives from both state and private universities will be on-hand to explain admission procedures and requirements, application deadlines, majors and prerequisites, transfer options, and more.

Most state colleges, including Central, Eastern, and Western Washington universities, University of Washington, and Washington State University, will be represented, as will a number of private universities, including Pacific Lutheran, Seattle Pacific, St. Martin’s, and University of Puget Sound.

The Fine Arts Gallery at Pierce College Fort Steilacoom is seeking applications from local artists for its Pierce Arts at Pierce College show Nov. 2-26.

Deadline to apply is Wednesday, Sept. 16. The show is open to Pierce County residents only. Cost to apply is $25. Artists are asked to submit their resume, artist’s statement, exhibition history, and a CD of five images of their work for evaluation by a jury.

The entry form is available online at www.pierce.ctc.edu/art/exhibitopps.php.

The Fine Arts Gallery is located at Pierce College Fort Steilacoom, 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 or visit the Web site at www.pierce.ctc.edu/art.