Art helps us see the world, for better or worse, more clearly.

• The letter opens: “The [ORGANIZATION NAME] respectfully urges the Senate and Assembly Budget Committees to increase funding to the California Arts Council, which has served as California’s arm for investing in the arts since 1975.” It’s a form letter from Californians for the Arts to increase funding for the arts. It’s at www.CaliforniansForTheArts.org.

• And what can such a thing affect? The Arts Council for Monterey County has just announced that because it’s one of seven recipients of a California Arts Council grant, it will now be able to, for the first time, extend its arts programming at the Monterey County Probation Department’s Youth Center to all of the kids instead of half of them.

• The newly formed Pacific Grove Public Library Foundation, seeded by a bequest from the estate of Ema Morris, has gifted new signage to the library that reads “A Carnegie Library.” It hearkens back to the time when the P.G. library was one of 1,679 Carnegie Libraries in the U.S., built about a century ago. www.PGLibraryFoundation.org for more.

• The Veterans Transition Center (Martinez Hall, 220 12th St., Marina) is the venue and also the recipient of the 1st Annual Veterans Transition Center Car Show, stocked with barbecue, raffle, bounce house, poker walk, DJ and cars, in time for Memorial Day. Saturday 10am-3pm, 262-9408 or 663-3782.

• On Sunday, at 1:30pm, The Listening Place, Readers Theatre puts on a play at Monterey Museum of Art-La Mirada (720 Via Mirada, Monterey, $10/general). ¿Habla Ingles? Do You Speak Spanish? byTerry Kingsley-Smith features MaryLee Sunseri as the wife of a Naval Postgraduate School professor who tutors a “handsome Latino gardener” (Garland Thompson) in English, but shares more than just linguistics.

• The Museum of Monterey (5 Custom House Plaza, Monterey) and Arts Habitat partner in the monthly Arts in Progress, which brings artists from all over the county (and beyond) to expound on their work and lives. This Tuesday, 7-9pm, designer and artist Lance Brown from Santa Cruz talks about metal work, sculpture, landscaping, interior design, photography, labyrinths and more. 624-6111, $5, www.ArtsHabitat.org.

• Congressman Sam Farr gives a shout-out to Stevenson School sophomore Jung Hoon Ki, the winner of this year’s Congressional Art Competition. His winning artwork, “Differing Perception of Covered Eyes,” will be displayed in the U.S. Capitol Building along with winners from other states. Nice work, Jung.