WEDNESDAY, APRIL 10 2013 >>>

1. While traditionally urban farming has conjured images of a wee patch of vegetables and a compost bucket, now it may include farm animals as well. With the rising influence of foodie culture and back-to-the-land enthusiasm, urban agriculture has a growing contingent of supporters not only in the more spacious 'burbs of the South Sound but in the cities proper. Organizations like Gallucci Learning Garden promote South Sound city farmers, offering workshops in urban chicken farming, such as its City Chickens 101 at 5 p.m.

2. Tacoma Art Museum Director Stephanie Stebich will lecture on the personal and private art of children's book artist Eric Carle Wednesday, April 10 at 10:30 a.m. The lecture is free with museum admission, and it should be as special as is the exhibition because she is a personal friend of the artist and knows him well. Read Weekly Volcano art critic Alec Clayton preview of her lecture here.

3. Pint Defiance hosts Firestone Walker Brewing for "Jacked-Up" beers from 5-7 p.m. The University Place specialty beer store and taproom will pour Union Jack IPA and Double Jack IPA as well as the extremely limited Sucaba Barrel Aged Barley Wine and Double DBA.

4. They buy tile trivets, ceramic figurines and odd pieces of old china at thrift stores, smashing the objects into pieces with a hammer, and reassembling the shards into two-dimensional images that are then mortared or glued onto surfaces. Shop. Smash. Adhere resulting shards to any surface on which you can put grout and thinset mortar. Making mosaics can be a sort of ritual, a purification by arts and crafts. The sweat, the dirt, the dangerously sharp pieces of tile scattered about. Oh, the payoff. The pride. The beautiful surfaces. Discover the passion and the beauty from 5:30-8 p.m. when SURFACE, a Tile Show opens at Gallery 301 in Tacoma. The tile show - in conjunction with the big International Mosaic Summit Tacoma - will feature small works byBarbara Clark, Beth Anderson, Chris Seminara, Clare Dohna, Claudia Riedener, Dan Earle (special guest), Gina Holt, Jaki Reed, Janet Gadallah, Janice Deckmann, Karen Morrice, Kimmi Kerns, Laura Brodax, Maria Root, Olga Slutkovskaya, Paul Lewing, Terri Goodwin and Tracy Gosser. Check it out, but don't break anything!

5. Father Alejandro Solalinde, who received the 2012 National Human Rights Award for his work in defense of Central and South American migrants transiting through Mexico, will speak on the current crisis these migrants face in Mexico at 7 p.m. inside the University of Puget Sound's Kilworth Memorial Chapel. 

LINK: Wednesday, April 10 arts and entertainment events in the greater Tacoma and Olympia area