Artifacts: Black History Month blow-out, Mary DeGroat's new novel.

Through March 3, Avery Gallery, inside Edward Durrell Stone’s Greek facade of Seaside’s City Hall, focuses on African-American culture in an multi-pronged art exhibit called A Salute to Black History. It’s made of photographs of the former Monterey Bay ReggaeFest and Monterey Bay Blues Festival by William Zeigler and Sandra Gray, drawings and paintings by Patricia Ware (a tribute to her historical heroes), mixed media by Dwight Chism (interpretive designs), and a display case homage to black authors by Ruthie Watts. The show is viewable 8am-5pm Mon-Fri. 899-6811.

Among other things, Mary DeGroat has worked as the director of marketing and communications at the Monterey Museum of Art. Now, she’s publicizing her own work. Her new novel Beyond the Last Horizon is about five friends ensconced in corporate boardrooms and glamorous locales who spin out of control and try to imagine new lives for themselves. The book has won gold and silver awards from the Feathered Quill Book Award, and is available at The Mind Shop in Pacific Grove, and online.

The Pacific Grove Art Center is accepting art submissions (in all media) for their 2017 exhibitions. Go to the website to register and submit ($40). And hurry. They’re accepting proposals til Friday, Feb. 26. www.pgartcenter.org.

This Saturday, the Cannery Row Foundation is holding another round of tours of the otherwise off-limits Pacific Biological Laboratories, aka Doc Ricketts’ Lab. Michael Hemp, Cannery Row historian and author, promises a preview of the Cannery Row Symposium coming to Hopkins Marine Station on April 16, and an announcement that the Western Flyer, the boat John Steinbeck and Ed Ricketts embarked on in The Log from the Sea of Cortez, is being rescued from its “death sentence as a restaurant motif in Salinas.” That last item is a little dated – the Weekly covered that news a year ago – but Hemp is a historian. 659-2112.

Well, it’s Sunday and it’s here. Oscar night. Depending on your perspective, either a glamorous night of Hollywood royalty and talent, or a corrupt night of Anglo self-congratulation. It seems there are two ways to follow: 1) a drinking game in which players take a swig every time the camera locates and cuts to a unique black person in the audience; 2) the Carmel Valley Chamber of Commerce is doing a red carpet viewing gala with music, silent auction and three-course dinner at Quail Lodge and Golf Club ($95) from 4:30-10pm on Sunday. 659-4000, www.CarmelValleyChamber.com.