Posted on January 30, 2022

It may have been three months ago now that Magda at Arts Missoula asked me to write a blog about why I support The Arts. She made it clear that the material could be anything I wanted, which made it more difficult for me. After all my opinions and beliefs about The Arts have taken a lifetime to develop. Beyond that, relationships have always been something I take seriously and my relationship with The Arts are no different. The story starts with a creative mother, nine years of music at Missoula County Public Schools and then a brief but meaningful two-and-a-half-year stint as a student of dance at The University of Montana.

Dance has been a powerful influence in my life. I’ll never forget the day I nervously set foot on the “Modern 1” studio floor on campus. The space was awe inspiring. Lofty ceilings, maybe thirty feet overhead. Big enough to hold twenty to thirty students and give them room to move about. It was a space waiting to be filled. Mirrored on one side, our accompanist Bob seated at the upright piano nearby. The students’ shoes, coats, various bits of clothing and backpacks piled beside the door. I vividly remember the smell and feel of the hardwood dance floor and the space that accompanied it. Some people say smell is the sense most strongly connected to memory. This may be why it has stuck with me for more than thirty years. The sound of the students breathing, the creek of the piano bench married to the resonant sounds coming from the upright, and the feel of my bare feet on the floor when they started to sweat from effort. There was no more enjoyable work in the world than learning how to move and no greater discovery than learning that my body might have a story to tell. The creative dish you make when you combine this space with live music, an inspirational teacher, and a group of young people in discovery mode is special.

One of the things I liked most about “Modern 1” was that every day when I stepped through the double door of the studio, I was insulated from anything that was going on in the outside world. It was a safe place without judgment. Without a care and without stress I could fill my mind with the wisdom of my body and have a moment or two of clarity and focus. For this reason, the dance program at the University of Montana had some of the most meaningful impact on my formative young adult years. It turned out that if you gave me some space and some encouragement, I could turn into a pretty good person on my own. That person became one with a balance of resolve and openness in the way he thought. The lessons that I learned in that space are best described as intangible but of high value.

In my experience, the realm that The Arts live in is one where there aren’t experts and pundits telling you how to feel or act when you are experiencing what is laid out in front of you. Over and over, I have witnessed The Arts as a secure place. An open space where ideas have room to grow. A place where we can all feel without explanation. It is meditative and expansive, not drawn in and guarded. There is room to think without all the dissonant messaging the outside world forces on us. Simply put there aren’t many right and wrong answers.

Today, my fifty plus year old self can look back at that time and recognize that those moments laid a foundation for the rest of my life. I have recognized for a long time now that if I could contribute to another person feeling the way I did back then, I should. In my opinion, we would be better served as a society if we had more quiet contemplative space instead of the crushing overabundance of information and artificial constructs, we subject ourselves to. To a large degree our behavior is learned through our culture. We are constantly told what we are and what we are not by a system that is built to profit off our insecurities. We are constantly reminded what we don’t have and what we deserve by that same system. Imagine how much better the world might end up if we had a place to develop the confidence and serenity to become the best versions of ourselves without that influence. There is no question that I would want more opportunities like that in my community. Making and becoming better humans is what we should all strive for every day. The Arts offer us that.

My support for The Arts ties into business as well. There is evidence to support the idea that communities with a strong representation of The Arts are more vibrant and this translates to a thriving economy. Beyond that, I have always believed that I did not get to the place I am today without help. My business has enjoyed the support of my community for over forty-five years. It would be selfish and out of balance to withhold my support. These are the primary reasons I find supporting The Arts such an easy choice. It is personal. I understand that. What is right for me isn’t always right for someone else, but for me the value of any donation I have made and will continue to make is returned many times over.

There are so many ways to support The Arts. If you have money to give, by all means, give it. There is no end to the number of worthy organizations, and therefore projects, that are a dollar or more away from greatness. If you have skill, share it. Please, come out of your shell. Do your best and have the courage to display your work. There is no reward without risk and there is no growth without challenge. Become your part of the discussion. Parents, there are numerous opportunities to safely expose your children to The Arts. Maybe you’ll find out your child is a kinesthetic learner. Maybe they remember their history lesson through a song, or painting and coloring. Sewing those creative pathways to their education is powerful. Memories linked to creative experience and process are usually more permanent than those that aren’t. In my heart I feel that a child with exposure to The Arts might be more confident, curious, and creative than the same child without those experiences. Finally, be a witness. Without audience The Arts are meaningless. Creation is only half of the relationship. Every artist I know would rather have your opinion than your indifference. Without the reflection of audience all art is an unfulfilled promise left unwrapped in the box it came in.

To sum things up, Missoula is my home. My sense of place is strong. In my case you can’t have me without Missoula. Sort of like Luke Skywalker and The Force. It is well established that we live in a town filled with artists and their contribution to our place. I am deeply in debt to all of them and I would suggest that you are too, whether you realize it or not. So, I humbly invite you to join me in creating our community through The Arts.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Shannon Flanagan is an Arts Missoula board member, owner of Flanagan Motors Mazda and supporter of arts in the Missoula community. Shannon is also on the board of Bare Bait Dance Company and is a member of the Fine Arts Advisory Council at the University of Montana.

Posted on December 22, 2021

First Night is returning to Missoula after the COVID year of 2020. A year ago, we were all sequestered in our homes on New Year’s Eve, and while we were able to watch the annual Spotlight High School singing competition virtually, we were not able to ring in the new year as a community, as we had done for 25 years. We are excited to see this annual festival make a comeback.

The tradition of First Night – the New Year’s Eve community-building celebration of the arts – began in Boston in 1975, as a way of bringing the local community together to celebrate itself, the arts, and the passage of time. The success of First Night Boston led to similar community celebrations throughout the nation, as well as in Canada, Europe and as far away as New Zealand. By the time of Y2K (remember that?), there were over 200 First Night celebrations around the world. After the attacks on September 11, 2001, followed by the Great Recession of 2008-09, several First Night communities stopped producing these festivals. Today fewer than 30 First Nights are still in operation. Happily, Missoula’s is one of those still standing.

We began planning First Night 2022 in the spring, not knowing what December would bring. Thus, the event is smaller in scale than in the past, occurring mostly in the Downtown, with First Night Headquarters at the Missoula Public Library. Throughout the day there will be ice carving outside the AC Hotel. Beginning at noon there will be First Night events at Glacier Ice Rink, Currents Aquatic Center, and the Roxy Theater. At 3:00 pm, the Library will be hosting family events at SpectrUM, Families First, and MCAT. Throughout the afternoon and evening, there will be music, dance, comedy, the First Night Spotlight high school vocal competition, a watercolor painting class, the annual Peace Luminaria, an Iron Foundry performance entitled “Blossoms on Blossoms”, all occurring at venues throughout the Downtown. We’re asking everyone to wear masks and respect each other as well as the venue hosts. We are a community, after all, and I’m sure we can once again ring in the new year collectively in a safe and sane manner.

The past two years have been difficult ones for all of us. Many of our friends and loved ones have been lost to COVID. Others of us have needed to find new employment, or radically change how and where we work. First Night Missoula gives us all hope for the new year.

From all of us at Arts Missoula, have a happy and healthy 2022!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Tom Bensen has been the executive director of Arts Missoula since June 2004. Before then he spent seven and a half years as director of First Night Missoula.  You can read more about him here.

Posted on December 17, 2021

Earlier this year, Arts Missoula and Montana Book Festival teamed up to request people’s cheesiest, most-Hallmark-wannabe holiday movie pitches. After careful review of the hilarious, bad-in-a-good-way submissions, we have our winner!

Rebecca Ashcraft of Polson, MT submitted the winning pitch: “Walking in a Vintner Wonderland.” Congratulations, Rebecca, and thank you for bringing us some joy this holiday season!

Part of the prize for the winner was a movie poster based on the pitch. We were also lucky enough to tape Rebecca reading the pitch! The poster, the video, and the pitch are below.

WALKING IN A VINTNER WONDERLAND

“When her Olympic skier boyfriend calls off their engagement before a Christmas trip to Vail, Julie Swansong swears off winter sports forever and books a solo holiday trip to sunny Napa Valley, California. But Mother Nature has matchmaking plans, awakening Julie’s midwestern instincts by dumping five feet of snow on the vineyard resort where she’s staying.

Julie helps Rocco, the winery’s impossibly handsome owner, shovel snowdrifts from his tractionless sportscar and precious grapevines, then shows him how to prevent frozen water pipes. But she faces a much slipperier slope while falling in love as they frolic in the snow for the rest of her stay. Should she teach him how to build a snowman that doesn’t look like it was thrown together by an angry toddler? She aches to introduce him to ice skating, but isn’t that a gateway activity to ski lessons?

Her frozen heart is definitely beginning to melt, but Julie is older than she was at Thanksgiving, and understands that relationships face extinction approximately every four years. While she’s grateful to global warming for bringing them together, Julie fears her newfound hottie may prove coördinated enough to someday qualify for an Olympic event. Can she find the strength to start this journey by leaving Rocco’s defective snowmen alone?”

About Rebecca: Rebecca Ashcraft worked as a nurse for 35 years, secretly writing on the side and stuffing her laptop’s cyber-drawers with word combinations in every imaginable genre, before retiring and moving to Polson, Montana. She should be used to the area’s breathtaking beauty by now, but is still that neighbor who runs to the window when honking geese fly overhead, slams on the brakes to take pictures of bored deer lounging on lawns, and remains baffled on a daily basis by her great good luck.

---

Left to right: winner Rebecca Ashcraft, Arts Missoula Office Manager Breanne, competition judge Marcia Holland, Arts Missoula Executive Director Tom Bensen. In front: Arts Missoula Development Director Magda Chaney

Posted on December 15, 2021

We promise that we’re smiling under our masks! 🙂

As we approach the longest night of the year, and the end of 2021, Arts Missoula, Global and Cultural Affairs, SPARK! Arts and Lacey wanted to be sure to wish everyone a warm, happy holiday season.

This holiday season, we are so thankful for the support we receive from the Missoula community and our sponsors. We feel so lucky to be a part of the arts and culture community in Missoula. Honestly, we are grateful for it every day of the year, but this feels like a particularly important moment to express gratitude for our exceptional luck.

We love Missoula, and take our role in the community seriously. With that in mind, instead of New Year’s “Resolutions”, here are a few things that we’re excited to continue doing in 2022:

1.) Providing in-depth cultural competency education for Missoula children K-12 in addition to providing opportunities for the wider Missoula community to expand their cultural knowledge — all free of cost.

2.) Awarding grants to local artists so they can continue living and working in Missoula.

3.) Working with SPARK! to ensure equitable access to the arts and facilitate arts experiences for all MCPS children grades K-8.

4.) Keep supporting local organizations like MAMA and the Montana Book Festival through our Incubator Program.

5.) Putting on events like Germanfest, First Night, and the Arts Missoula Speaker Series.

6.) Helping to promote local arts and culture events through our weekly e-newsletter.

That’s just the broad strokes of some things we do, and things we’re excited to keep doing in 2022. We hope you’ll join us in the New Year as we carry on cultivating arts and culture in Missoula. You can become a monthly supporter and help sustain our work by clicking here.

Happy Holidays!

Posted on November 22, 2021

Arts Missoula (AM) is the designated arts agency of the Garden City and many residents in the Missoula community know that. Since spring 2018, the office is also home of the Global and Cultural Affairs (GCA) program, which promotes intercultural awareness and global competence development through four branches: Students and Teachers in K-12, Diversity and Inclusion Training for Organizations and Employees, Community Programing, and the management of Sister City Connections MSO has with Neckargemünd, in Germany (near Heidelberg, since 1993) and Palmerston North, in New Zealand (since 1982). There is reason to believe that fewer people know that about Arts Missoula!

Born and raised in a suburb of Wiesbaden, Germany, where arts education has a long tradition, dating back to the times of reformation, art instruction is firmly anchored in the curriculum since 1880. I came to Missoula in 1989 to do my undergraduate and graduate work at UM, before accepting a leadership position in 2003 to develop the largest intercultural and global training offices at UM. In this capacity, I designed and taught semester-long courses and individual seminars for students, faculty and staff in various academic colleges, schools and academic departments on campus. When I accepted the AM position to oversee GCA, the obvious question was, “What does “culture” (and intercultural/global awareness training) have to do with “art”? 

Well… throughout history, art and culture of various kinds and forms, have been part of the evolution of our societies. Moreover, art influences society by changing opinions, instilling values and translating experiences across space and time. Additionally, art allows people from different cultures, and different times, to communicate with each other. It does that through a universal language, connecting directly to people’s heart and body, sometimes more than to the mind, which enables art to communicate more effectively and efficiently than any other form of communication. Furthermore, art and culture give people a sense of community, of belonging and self-acceptance. One might even go as far as believing that “there can be no art without culture and no culture without art.” There we have it, inseparable! 

Art can also provide a supportive environment for culture, as well as promoting intercultural awareness and global competence development in a unique way. Don’t take my word(s) for it, as Arts Missoula’s K-12 global and cultural programming branch has doubled every year since 2018 and its research and development has been recognized and shared, nationally and internationally in publications, conference presentations and professional trainings. In addition to offering hundreds of seminars every year, GCA hosts a FREE, monthly international film series at the Roxy, and produces an internationally-themed podcast, to name but a few of its programing highlights. For more information, please visit the GCA webpage.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Udo Fluck, Ph.D., is the Director of Arts Missoula’s Global and Cultural Affairs program. You can read more about him here.

Posted on November 4, 2021

Our schools should be a reflection of the community they serve. Missoula amongst other things is a vibrant artists community. I feel so strongly about arts in our schools because they are what kept me in school. I was fortunate to attend an arts immersive public school in Milwaukee. I struggled to find interest in the majority of my academic subjects. I was a trouble maker and a class clown; the vice principal was my first long term relationship. Drama class, art class and walking to the gym on the 4th floor for dance class – those were my sparks! That’s where I shined.

Every child deserves to have something they are excited to go to school for. Every child has gifts and talents to share with their classmates and community, because every child is great at something. Creating a well rounded learning environment increases the likelihood more kids find their spark and get the chance to shine. The arts also have some other amazing powers every child can benefit from. An alternative to words, each art form offers its own language of expression. Artists are creative and critical thinkers, questioners, innovators and leaders – not followers. The arts are common ground bridges across all cultures, classes and belief systems, they push us to reimagine what’s normal or status quo. The arts are so important because they celebrate standing out rather than fitting in.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Becca Nasgovitz is a SPARK! Arts Ignite Learning board member.

SPARK! Arts is a collective impact initiative administered through Arts Missoula.
Read more about SPARK! Arts here.

Posted on October 25, 2021

“Involvement in the arts is associated with gains in math, reading, cognitive ability, critical thinking, and verbal skill. Arts learning can also improve motivation, concentration, confidence, and teamwork.”
– Fran Smith, Edutopia

Collective impact helps maximize the benefits of arts education, and one group putting the “collect” in “collective” is SPARK!, bringing together superb teaching artists and arts curricula to amplify arts expression in classrooms. Now beginning its eighth year of programming, SPARK! Arts Ignite Learning, along with community partners, pursues a long-term vision and advocates for comprehensive and sustainable education. In partnership with the Kennedy Center, SPARK! Arts ensures equal access to the arts for all and has increased access through advocacy, training and strategic planning. The Arts Ecosystem currently in place in Missoula County Public Schools is a complex network of interconnected systems that educate students in and through the arts. The arts cycle through school children’s lives throughout the school year; described below, the four areas support K-8 students’ academic learning, develop creativity and self-expression, and build appreciation across a wide array of arts areas.

As with clean air, purified water and strong soil, a healthy ecosystem in the arts promotes interdependent relationships among students, teaching artists, arts and culture organizations, businesses, schools and communities through collective impact. Everyone agrees—students are best served when the arts are thriving in education.

Arts for Arts Sake: Direct study of the arts as stand-alone classes provides significant intrinsic value. Art and music (and occasionally drama) are embedded in school communities, and artistic literacy is considered crucial to student development. Students engage in arts-making and practice techniques across a variety of media and instruments. Classes address state arts content standards, and learning is scaffolded over the years.

Arts Integration: Teaching artists and classroom teachers co-create lessons for students that incorporate the arts in content areas, such as English/language arts, math, science and social studies. Learning objectives are met in both the content area and the art form, and students demonstrate their understanding through creating and sharing. Both the arts and content area standards are met. Based on Constructivist learning theory, arts integration activities draw upon students’ past knowledge, provide active hands-on learning and authentic problem solving and collaboration. Arts integration builds classroom environments where risk-taking is encouraged and cooperative learning is celebrated.

Arts Experiences: SPARK! Arts provides an annual, high-quality, professional arts experience to each K-8 grade level, including professional dances, symphonies, concerts, film festivals, theatre productions and museums. Students are exposed to and inspired by professional artists in a variety of art forms, specifically curated for their developmental age.

Arts Enhanced Curriculum: Teachers freely use the arts to reinforce and enhance their teaching. As an example, singing the alphabet helps students remember the letters and sequence of the alphabet. Though students may not be expected to learn about melody, song structure, or develop specific singing skills, the song enhances the learning. Although SPARK! does not provide training for this area, we recognize its value to enliven classroom learning.

SPARK! Arts is a collective impact initiative administered through Arts Missoula.
Read more about SPARK! Arts here.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Karen Kaufmann is a professor emeritus at the University of Montana. She serves on the SPARK! Arts Board. Karen is Co-Chair of the Programming Committee and Chair of the Professional Development Committee.

Originally published in “State of the Arts”, Montana Art Council’s quarterly publication.