News and Events
December 28, 2015
Happy New Year
In This Issue
In Missoula...
Elsewhere in Montana and the Region...
Nationally...
Internationally...
SPARK!
Any Given Child Missoula
First Friday Gallery Walk
Missoula Events
Visit our New Website
MCC Arts & Cultural Directory
Art & Economy
Join Our List
MCC Members
MCC's
Facebook page
MCC 2015 Calendar
Missoula's Sister Cities
The Missoula
Cultural Council

 In Missoula...


 
 First Night Missoula, the New Year's Eve community celebration of the arts, begins at noon this Thursday.  12 hours, 80 events,  25 venues.  Admission buttons are $15 ($18 on December 31). Visit  here  or call 541-0860 for more information. 









First Night Spotlight, the annual High School singing competition, will be held at the Dennison Theatre on the UM campus this year during First Night Missoula on New Year's Eve.  Admission is a First Night Button plus a $2 ticket ($3 on December 31) to assure your seat for the show. Visit here for tickets and information.  






Hands-on Art, Historical Presentations, Live Performances,
and a Count-Down to New Year's Eve.  Volunteers are still needed.  Visit here for all the information.
























The Rocky Mountain Ballet Theatre presents the Vienna International Ballet Experience (VIBE) January 12-16 at venues throughout Missoula.  A special preview of this week long festival occurs during First Night at 5:00 p.m. a the UM Dennison Theatre.  Visit here for more.









A last minute addition to First Night is a series of Poetry Readings at Shakespeare and Co.  Iridesce includes readings by Sheryl Noethe, Henrietta Goodman, Bridget Carson, Jack Shifflett, Alicia Mountain, Melissa Mylchreest, Jared Burkhart, and others. 5:00 p.m., 103 South 3rd Street West.





The Missoula Art Museum p resents two events at First Night:  Wilbur Rehman (pictured here) at 1:00 p.m. and Michael and Keleren Millham at 2:30 p.m. Continuing exhibitions include Terrain: Plateau Native Art & Poetry through February 27, 2016; John Buck: Free for All through March 12; Good Wood: Carved And Cut From MAM's Permanent Collection through March 12; MaryAnn Bonjorni: Legends Are History, through January 2. The 44th Benefit Art Auction Exhibition opens January 8 with an Artist Reception from 5:00-8:00 p.m. Mam's 44th Benefit Art Auction is Saturday, February 6, beginning at 5:00 p.m. 







The Montana Museum of Art & Culture presents Glorious Vista: Art of the American West from the MMAC Permanent Collection, from January 7 - February 20, 2016 in the Paxson and Meloy Galleries. From the Pueblos of New Mexico to Glacier National Park, this exhibition explores the landscapes and people of the Rocky Mountain West during the 19th and 20th centuries, including works by Edgar Paxson, Joseph Henry Sharp, Charles M. Russell,  Ace Powell, Julius Seyler, Nancy McLaughlin, and George Catlin





The Montana World Affairs Council has an immediate opening and is accepting resumes for the position of Executive Director. This is a full-time, salaried position, reporting to the Board of Directors.  The Montana World Affairs Council, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization founded in 2000, enables Montanans to appreciate the relationship of foreign policy and international issues to their lives in the Rockies. The Council offers opportunities to better understand world events through people-to-people diplomacy, distinguished speakers, overseas visits, and educational outreach programs. As globalization reaches into all corners of the Big Sky, the Council seeks to help educate citizens about their increased political, economic, and cultural integration into the world community. Interested applicants should email resume, cover letter, and three professional references to snyberg@sglong.com.  Visit here for more.

     



Radius Gallery ushers in the new year with a 20% off sale of works by Courtney Blazon at both Radius and Clyde Coffee.  If there was a piece you were previously drooling over, now is the perfect opportunity.  Call 541-7070.
 
 
 
 

  

Zootown Arts Community Center has two Calls for Artists. Art Activism, co-sponsored with the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival, has a deadline of January 10, 2016. All Works must depict a social, environmental, or political issue. This juried group show is kicking off 2016's Big Sky Film Festival in February. The 4th Annual Mini Benefit Show deadline is February 1, 2016. All Works must be 12"x12"x12". This art auction celebrating everything miniature will take place on March 26, 2016 at the Wilma.  Visit here for more. 







The Sweat Shop, at 225 North Higgins, has a grand opening on New Year's Day from 5:00-8:00 p.m.  Enjoy live music by local musician Sam Waldorf, NOTORIOUS P.I.G. samplers, drinks, door prizes and a raffle for a month of unlimited fitness and yoga classes at The Sweat Shop. The free event will include an art showcase entitled Placeless Landscapes by local artist Sarah Hultin.



 
New Year Aikido Intro for Beginning Adults: Try the martial art of harmony with an orientation on Saturday afternoon January 9 followed by four guided basics classes. For more information visit here, call 549-8387 or come by the dojo, 208 E. Main, 2nd floor of the historic Union Hall Building. Preregistration required by January 7.

 


The Missoula Public Library shows a free international film monthly on the 2nd Friday of the month. All films are shown in original language with subtitles. We hope this program is of interest to you, and we offer an attached copy of this month's film for printing and posting.  Please forward to any who may be interested in MPL's free foreign film series. January's film is The Lesson:  From Bulgaria, the film is in Bulgarian with English subtitles and runs 111 minutes. Loosely based on a real-life incident, this gripping drama has won awards at several international film festivals for best new directors, best screenplay, and best film debut. Join us for a screening and brief discussion (optional) on Friday, January 8 at 7:00 p.m. in the Large Meeting Room. Lower level doors will be open from 6:45-7:15. Call 258-3848,




The Art Associates of Missoula monthly meeting will be held on Wednesday, January 20, at 10:00 a.m. in the Education Center of the Missoula Art Museum, 335 N. Pattee St, Missoula. Kiln-fired Fused Glass Artist Katie Patten will be sharing her artistry and inspiration. All Art Associates meetings are free and open to the public. For more information please call Susie at 544-0891.




The Missoulian is accepting submissions for the 2016 MLK Youth Art & Essay Contest. Submit a piece of 2-D art work or an essay, poem or letter of no more than 250 words in response to the quote "Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter."  Handwritten or typed essays will be accepted. Artwork may be any medium but no larger than 8.5 X 11 inches.  On the back of each entry please include the student's full name, grade, school, home address and home telephone number. Entries will not be returned unless special arrangements are made.  To enter you must be a student in preschool-12th grade in Western Montana. Entries must be received at the Missoulian by December 18. Winners will receive a cash prize, be featured in the Missoulian, and recognized at the MLK Community Celebration on Monday, January 18, 2016.  For questions, contact Ben Mincks. here




The Missoula Children's Theatre celebrates 2016 with its original, world-premiere of The Snow Queen.  This winter performing arts class runs January 18-February 21 and is open to Grades K-12.  Give the gift of wonder this Holiday season with a registration to The Snow Queen!  Register here.





The Missoula Community Theatre ushers in 2016 with The Drowsy Chaperone, a Tony Award-winning spoof of musical comedies (January 21-31). Next up is The Complete Works of Shakespeare (Abridged), a zany, non-musical production that will appeal to anyone who loves a good laugh (March 10-20). Rounding out the season is Mary Poppins, the Broadway musical (April 28-May 15).  Visit here for more.





For more information about arts events in the Missoula area, visit our website  
 Elsewhere in Montana and the Region...








First Night Flathead celebrates its 17th annual festival New Year's Eve festival of the arts in Kalispell from 1:00 p.m. until midnight.  Admission buttons are $12.  Visit the website for all the information.





The Carbon County Arts Guild of Red Lodge presents The Art of Mike Kosorok, continuing through December.  Mike has been a professional artist for over 40 years and is well-known in the region for his broad, sweeping landscape paintings of the Beartooth Mountains and the area around Red Lodge and Bear Creek, Montana.  Mike works in oil, watercolor, pen and ink and mixed media.  He is recently retired from his teaching career in the Red Lodge schools.  The
Rock Creek Miniature Exhibit continues through January.  See artwork in small size created by many of the Guild's artists.  A challenge for most artists, the miniature artwork will delight everyone.  All works of art in this show are 6"x8" or smaller.  Consider a gift of art for the holidays.  In the Guild's North Gallery for December and continuing through January 31, 2016.  The 6th Annual Holiday Bazaar continues through the end of December.  Browse the selection of scarves, socks, jewelry, pottery, notecards, small paintings, bags, and more as you consider everyone on your gift list. Beginning January 1, there will be an exhibit by Ev Bergeron & Karen McBride. On Sundays, January 3, 10, 17, and 24, from 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m., Watercolor for All Levels with Dolly Frerichs Stuber.  For more information, call the Guild in Red Lodge at 446-1370.

 



 
The Emerson Center in Bozeman announces the Winter 2016 Art Education Classes.  For more  information on these classes including descriptions, prices and registration forms please visit our website or call 587.9797 x.104

 





The  Yellowstone Art Museum in Billings announces the opening of a thought-provoking exhibition, Persistent Memories: Narrative Sculptures by Willem Volkersz. The exhibition will remain on view through January 3.  "A Lonely Business": Isabelle Johnson's Montana opened on Tuesday, November 3 and remains on view through January 3, 2016. Saturday, January 2, 2016 is Dollar Day at YAM.  Admission is free for members or $1 for all others the first Saturday of every month.





The 33rd annual Montana Performing Arts Consortium (MPAC) occurs in Fort Benton January 29-31, with registration due January 11.  This event focuses on promotion of booking of quality artists, and reducing expenses for artists and presenters through the state.  Visit here for more information.







For complete information about arts and entertainment throughout the region, visit www.livelytimes.com 

Nationally...

Rare Beethoven Manuscript Turns Up In Connecticut House
Greenwich Time (Greenwich, CT). Dec 23, 2015
Brendan Ryan noticed it right away. A professional appraiser, he recently visited the home of a Greenwich woman who was looking to sell some belongings, when his eyes lit on a yellowing sheet of music behind glass, stippled with notes. More than just a musical composition, the sheet was ferociously dotted with German words, directions and symbols that practically flew off the page with manic intensity.  Click here



Report: Arts Education Increasing In NYC Schools
Hyperallergic, Dec 27, 2015  
Art classes are often the first to be sacrificed from school curriculums when budgets get cut - which makes the 2014-15 New York City Department of Education "Annual Arts in Schools Report" a welcome bit of good news for young artists in the five boroughs. According to the report, arts education in New York City public schools expanded in 2015, with 175 new positions added after four years of maintaining 2,400 certified art teachers in the system.  This growth is partly thanks to a new $5.3 million staffing program called Arts Matter, which allows middle and high schools to share dance, music, art, and theater teachers. The program brought art instruction to some 22,000 new students this year.  Click here



Crisis In The Humanities? What Crisis?
Aeon, Dec 24, 2015
The humanities are in crisis. It's become orthodoxy. In fact, so much attention has been paid to the 'crisis of the humanities' that few have stopped to ask if there actually is such a crisis. Over just the past few generations, enormous changes have transformed higher education. These changes have brought a greater proportion of 18-year-olds to university. In the case of most countries apart from the United States, this brings a huge increase, from a low base - and thus tremendous changes in the composition of that student body in terms of class, gender, ethnicity and other key markers. In each generation, commentators have predicted (and policymakers have demanded) that the humanities would suffer from a more utilitarian, career-oriented, tech-savvy influx. But it hasn't happened.  Click here




What Does The Decline Of America's Middle Class Mean For The Arts?
Barry's Blog, Dec 16, 2015
According to a report by the Pew Research Center, the American middle class continues to shrink in proportion to the wealthy and the poor. The question I have is what, if any, relationship this fact / trend has to the shrinking audiences for the arts?   And if there is any correlation, is there any identifiable causation?  We have research that shows a decline in our audiences; not for everyone, and not to the same degree for every discipline / every organization, but overall, generally.  Perhaps there is research about the middle class decline relative to the arts.  Or if no research, then theories about the relationship.  Click here



Internationally...

The City Of Rome No Longer Works. Fixing It Is A Big Problem
The Guardian (UK), Dec 22, 2015  
As the metal lift climbs up the side of Rome's Colosseum, a remarkable view unfolds: the unmistakable dome of St Peter's Basilica in the distance, interrupted by the Eternal City's Roman Forum and countless churches. Down below, in stark contrast to the historic skyline, endless choking traffic roars past the ancient amphitheatre. Scooter riders dodge potholes, while pedestrians lament the state of the metro and the lateness of the buses.  Click here



One Principal At The Bolshoi: 'We Still Don't Know The Truth'
The New York Times, Dec 20, 2015
Maria Alexandrova, a principal at the Bolshoi Ballet since 2004, rarely grants interviews. But she decided to participate in the film "Bolshoi Babylon" because after watching the filmmakers Nick Read and Mark Franchetti work, she felt she could trust them. In the documentary, she fights her way back from an injury and speaks bluntly about the state of the Bolshoi after the 2013 acid attack on its artistic director, Sergei Filin.  Click here



Time For The Arts World To Take A Long, Hard Look At Its Racism
The Guardian (UK), Dec 20, 2015
The cultural world is undergoing a slow and long overdue reckoning with racism. The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam has rightly changed the archaic, Orientalist, exoticising, offensive or unthinkingly racist titles of more than 100 artworks including the use of the word "negro" for Afro-Caribbean subjects and "Mohammedan" for Middle Eastern subjects. In the US, a Harvard University emblem featuring the insignia of a slave-owning family is the subject of a student protest. Meanwhile, in the UK, Oriel college, Oxford, is under pressure to remove a statue paying tribute to coloniser Cecil Rhodes, following a student-led protest inspired by similar demonstrations in Cape Town, South Africa. Even though they haven't yet decided what action to take, Oriel has been admirably direct in naming the problem and saying it "does not condone [Rhodes'] racist views or actions". In that case, why keep a statue aggrandising and lionising the man who held those views? To keep the statue is indeed to condone those actions; the prestigious Rhodes scholarship in his name can easily be renamed and, indeed, I wonder why it's taking so long.  Click here



Study: Paintings Engage People with Dementia
The Globe and Mail (Canada), Dec 16, 2015
In the lobby of the Yale Road Centre care facility in Surrey, a painting beckons. Installed next to a bulletin board covered with activity schedules and other notices, Infinite adds square splashes of colour to the institutional dullness - even with a bunch of empty water-cooler bottles pushed up against it. The painting, by Stewart Hall, is not mere decoration. It made its way to this transitional care facility through a study researching the impact of art on people with dementia. The art, the study's authors have found, did have an impact - but it wasn't what they had expected. The work didn't simply help orient the residents or liven up the space. It enlivened the residents.  Click here



Thanks to our sponsors...
 



  
Thanks for your comments & corrections

Tom at MCC

MCC - Connecting Art, Culture and Community through Education, Advocacy and Celebration.  As the official cultural agency for Missoula, MCC provides the community with resources for the development and promotion of arts and culture, maintains Missoula's sister-city relationships with Neckargemund, Germany and Palmerston North, New Zealand and produces the annual First Night Missoula celebration on New Year's Eve. For more information, please visit our website www.missoulacultural.org. 

 

Contact Us:
Missoula Cultural Council
327 East Broadway
P.O. Box 7662
Missoula, MT 59807

406-541-0860
406-541-0861 (fax)