Congratulations To Our 2025 Grant Award Winners!
Craig Menteer
Craig holds an MFA from UM in Acting, and has been involved in local theater in Missoula for over 40 years. Craig has taken part in 20+ performing and directing roles, as well as commissioned several original pieces. Craig says, “My art and pedagogy move toward civic engagement. I seek to grasp issues with wit, beauty, magnanimity & charm. I remain open to the gifts the artistic process yields.”
How Craig plans to utilize the Arts Missoula Grant:
Craig plans to use the grant money to produce and direct The Thanksgiving Play by Larissa Fasthorse in Missoula, MT, in fall 2025. He will stage the play at Missoula Free Cycles, a grassroots community space, to reach new audiences and support local organizations. The funds will help employ four main actors, a chorus of high school students, a stage manager, a designer/technician, and himself as producer/director. The production aims to be both educational and entertaining, bringing theater to a non-traditional venue while involving youth and promoting community engagement. The goal of the play is to spark dialogue about cultural representation and challenge assumptions through humor and satire.
Learn more about Craig HERE
Kaitlynn Radloff
Kaitlynn Radloff (she/they) owns Sabertooth Studios here in Missoula. Kaitlynn is a queer artist, educator, and musician. Sabertooth Studio started in 2020 as a community-focused print shop fundraising for local organizations that support Queer and BIPOC youth in Milwaukee Wisconsin. Over the years, it has grown into a studio focused on activating people and spaces, educating communities about social and environmental issues, and creating work that celebrates the natural world.
How Kaitlynn plans to utilize the Arts Missoula Grant:
Kaitlynn will use the grant money to purchase key art-making equipment for her business, Sabertooth Studio, which focuses on community engagement and education through printmaking. The funds will support the development of a mobile art studio by helping her acquire a lightweight etching press, a mobile screen printing press, and a high-quality printer and scanner for stencil creation. She will also buy essential accessories like a heat gun and components for the etching press. This mobile setup will allow her to bring accessible, educational art experiences to rural schools, libraries, and community events. Kaitlynn’s goal is to create inclusive, creative spaces that celebrate the natural world while continuing to support organizations serving Queer and BIPOC youth.
Learn more about Kaitlynn HERE
Taylor Stein
Taylor Stein is a Freelance Editor and Creative Coach who earned her MFA from UM. For the past 8 years, she’s taught creative writing workshops through local organizations such as the Free Verse Writing Project, Open AIR (where she was also an Artist-in-Residence at the Moon-Randolph Homestead), MOLLI, and Word Dog. To dive into Taylor’s published fiction and poetry, self-published zines and art books, or sign up for her monthly mailing, The Wonder-Gizmos: A Snail Mail Creative Writing Club and Whimsy Machine, please visit steintaylor.com
How Taylor plans to utilize the Arts Missoula Grant:
Taylor will use the grant money to invest in essential equipment and tools that support her art-making and professional growth. A 3D printer and filament will allow her to meet the growing demand for her unique “shoe-book” designs, which she currently struggles to keep up with using only the public library’s resources. By owning her own equipment, Taylor can better manage production, maintain quality, and retain creative ownership of her 3D designs. A scanner will ensure accurate digital reproductions of her watercolor artwork, and Canva Pro will continue to support her zine-making and community-based collaborations. Overall, the grant will significantly increase her efficiency, reduce costs, and give her more time to focus on creating.
Learn more about Taylor HERE
Dre Castillo
Dre’s paintings, drawings and photography are a collage/collections of their dreams and memories of tribal and ceremonial experiences in the Navajo traditions combined with their contemporary life’s experience. The mediums they use in their paintings are acrylic, watercolor and charcoal. Aside from painting they also do customized pencil, pen &ink, portrait sketches. In addition to their painting and sketches, they have been experimenting with wood burn and Dremel tool carving mixed with watercolor and ink. The products they have available to sell are original miniature paintings with easel to large paintings of various sizes, greeting cards, stickers and professional (paper & canvas) prints of various sizes, wood ornaments coasters and wall plates available.
How Dre plans to utilize the Arts Missoula Grant:
Dre will use the grant money to enhance their art-making practice and support their professional development by purchasing specialized equipment and covering part of their studio space costs. They plan to invest in the Best European Easel, a large, adjustable easel that supports oversized canvases and is ideal for creating impactful, large-scale community art projects focused on Indigenous issues. The easel’s flexibility and stability make it perfect for limited spaces like their apartment studio, while also allowing them to take on more ambitious and visible public works. They will also purchase the Mabel Revolving Painting Accessory to improve accessibility and reduce physical strain during detailed painting sessions, benefiting both them and community participants with limited mobility. In addition, Dre is requesting funds to cover 3.5 months of rent for their designated in-home studio space, which is essential for storing supplies, creating work, and managing their art business. This support will provide the time and resources needed to focus on meaningful community-based projects and expand their creative reach.
Learn more about Dre HERE
Das Canales – Brownkidleather
Das is a transmasculine, multidisciplinary artist specializing in leatherwork, garment construction, creative direction, and event planning. He integrates these disciplines through leather costume design, performance, and photography, creating work that is both deeply personal and culturally relevant. Over the past five years, Das has developed his creative practice with a focus on community building through the arts, cultivating spaces for collaboration, imagination, and collective expression.
His work is rooted in LGBTQ+ and BIPOC communities, whose stories and perspectives inspire much of what he creates. Whether through empowering leather garments or inclusive performance spaces, Das aims to uplift marginalized voices and challenge societal norms, promoting authenticity, empathy, and cultural pride.
How Das plans to utilize the Arts Missoula Grant:
Das intends to utilize the grant money to bring to life an immersive leather fashion show called Fallen Angels: DiETY EMERGES that blends performance, fashion, and storytelling. The show will feature 10–15 performers wearing leather garments designed by Das, each piece reflecting the central theme of “emergence.” Set up so that the audience forms the stage, the performance will take viewers on a journey of self-becoming through the lens of a trans individual shedding societal expectations and embracing authenticity. The funds will support costume creation, performer compensation, and production needs for the event, which is expected to draw 150–300 attendees. Das envisions the show as a space for connection, empathy, and solidarity, where the Missoula community can gather to celebrate identity and transformation. Through movement, fashion, and narrative, the event aims to give voice to the trans experience while resonating with the universal human desire for self-expression and belonging.
Learn more about Brownkidleather HERE
Abby French
Abby French is an artist and an Early Childhood Educator located in Missoula, Montana. Abbystract is her first published book. She holds a Bachelor’s Degree of Fine Arts from the University of Montana. Through the years she has discovered a passion for early childhood education, a sense of community, and has formed heartfelt relationships with Missoula families. Her wish is to expand on her artistic contributions to the community.
How Abby plans to utilize the Arts Missoula Grant:
Abby intends to use the grant money to create, publish, and market a children’s book about Iris the Osprey, a beloved local bird. The funds will support the cost of illustration materials, such as watercolor, marker, oil pastel, and paper collage, as well as the publishing and marketing process. Abby will conduct research on Iris through online resources and local organizations like the University of Montana’s Montana Osprey Project. The grant will allow Abby to pursue her dream of becoming a professional children’s book author and illustrator, building on her experience with her first book, Abbystract, which she self-funded. As a preschool teacher, Abby understands the importance of children’s literature and is passionate about using Iris’ story to teach young readers about nature and wildlife. The book will serve as a tool for community engagement, with events like public readings and story times to help inspire respect for animals and the environment.
Learn more about Abby HERE
Leonardo Calle
Leonardo Calle is a Missoula-based artist whose work explores perception, memory, and shared human experience through immersive visual narratives. Working under the name CalleArte, he creates ballpoint pen drawings, murals, dioramas, and interactive installations that challenge how we see and interpret the world. Using everyday materials—like a blue Bic pen, which fades over time—Leonardo Calle embraces imperfection and the transient nature of experience. His art, designed to be accessible and engaging, invites viewers to step outside the familiar, question assumptions, and discover new ways of seeing.
How Leonardo plans to utilize the Arts Missoula Grant:
This grant funding will directly support the production, presentation, and accessibility of CalleArte’s ballpoint pen drawing reproductions. Funds will be allocated toward printing high-quality display reproductions, purchasing exhibition materials, and setting up sales channels to reach a wider audience.
Learn more about Leonardo HERE
2024 Artist Grant Winners
Elisha Harteis
Elisha Harteis, a ceramic artist, art educator, and program director at Torrents: Art on Main Street, is deeply committed to the transformative potential of art. She endeavors to democratize art, ensuring its accessibility to everyone, while actively contributing to the vibrant visual arts scene in the Missoula Community.
How Elisha plans to utilize the Arts Missoula Grant:
With the support of this grant, she is able to update and refurbish her kiln, a vital tool in her artistic practice. By making it more efficient and safer, she can continue creating art in her home studio while also firing projects from the young education community that she teaches. A revitalized kiln will not only enhance her ability to produce her own sculptural work but also enable her to continue offering classes and workshops, thereby further impacting and enriching the community.
Learn more about Elisha HERE
Amanda Bielby
As someone who worked in the building trades, Amanda experienced difficulties when she developed painful arthritis in her back and shoulders. Despite this setback, she remained passionate about her work and eventually found balance in creating art. Drawing on the techniques she had learned as an industrial painter, Amanda incorporated them into her art practice in order to both indulge her passion for building and to help her heal. During her healing journey, she also picked up some new trades that she then incorporated into her art practice, making her process more efficient and strengthening the healing process. Today, she teaches these processes to both children and adults in art workshops, while continuing to practice them herself.
How Amanda plans to utilize the Arts Missoula Grant:
Working with people through art is a passion of mine, and I have found that it allows me to come out of my shell and connect with others. Art has been a constant in my life, helping me to navigate obstacles and care for my family. I want to continue to share this gift with others.
In order to offer Plein Air classes to a broader range of individuals, Amanda will purchase equipment that can be used by people of different ages and skill levels. She believes that Plein Air painting is essential to her therapeutic approach, and she wants to share this experience with others. By covering the cost of this equipment, she can keep the costs of my classes low and volunteer my time to those in need.
Learn more about Amanda HERE
Ed Stalling
Ed Stalling is an in-demand drummer/percussionist who has lived in Missoula 20 years and was inducted into Missoula Blues and Jazz Society “Hall of Fame” in 2016 You see him on stages all over the state with Naomi Moon Siegel, Patti Nolan, Canta Brasil, John Floridis, Absent Wilson Conspiracy, the Basement Boyz and many others. Ed likes to give back to the next generation by helping with local high school jazz bands, teaching out of his home studio, and mentoring high school drummers. With a passion for Brazil rhythms, Ed’s dream is to start a community Samba School and Bateria in Missoula.
How Ed plans to utilize the Arts Missoula Grant:
My dream? To start a not-for-profit Community Samba School & Bateria. Ed hopes to have a Bateria performing at events; beginner classes providing hands-on experience to the instruments and rhythms; intermediate classes for those that want growth; linkages with local instructors for samba-dance classes.
This grant will enable Ed to purchase instruments to get this vision started. With these instruments, he can create a spark in the Missoula Arts and Cultural scene.
Learn more about Ed HERE
2023 Artist Grant Winners
Stella Nall
Stella is a multimedia artist and poet from Bozeman, and a First Descendant of the Apsáalooke (Crow) Tribe. She graduated from the University of Montana in 2020 with a BFA in Printmaking, a BA in Psychology and a minor in Art History and Criticism.
She now lives and works in Missoula, where she is represented by Radius Gallery. She currently serves as a member of the Western Montana Creative Initiative’s Indigenous Art Advisory Committee, VonCommon Art Studio’s board of directors, and the COHESION Art Collective Advisory Committee.
Publications featuring her work include Scribendi, Cutbank, Denver Quarterly, McClain’s Printmaking Catalog, Montana Quarterly, The Thalweg, Stray, and Poetry Northwest.
As a recipient of the Right Now! Artist Publication Production Grant from Women’s Studio Workshop in Rosendale, NY, Stella wrote and illustrated a book of poetry titled Steel Wool on My Stomach which will be released in 2023.
Her work may be viewed as murals across Montana, as well as in national public collections, including The Montana Museum of Art and Culture, The Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, and The IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts.
Contact her for your fine art, illustration or design needs. Stella Nall’s WEBSITE.
Chris Alveshere
Chris Alveshere recently completed a long-term residency at The Clay Studio of Missoula, and continues to maintain a full-time studio practice in Missoula, MT. He currently teaches art education and ceramics at the University of Montana, in addition to adult and youth community education classes.
Originally from North Dakota, Chris received undergraduate degrees in ceramics and art education from Minnesota State University in Moorhead, MN and his MFA in ceramics from Alfred University.
Chris Alveshere’s WEBSITE
Theo Ellsworth
Theo Ellsworth is obsessed with drawing. He makes illustration, fine art, and comics from a small studio in the historic Brunswick Building in downtown Missoula. His woodcut fine art has been exhibited internationally as well as locally at Radius Gallery, with solo shows at the Missoula Art Museum, The Pittsburgh Toonseum, and Giant Robot Gallery in Lost Angeles.
His most recent graphic novel, Secret Life (an adaptation of a short story by Jeff VanderMeer) was published in 2021 by Drawn and Quarterly (Montreal, CA). He’s drawn comics for numerous international publications and his work has been translated into French and Serbian. He is the house artist for the London based record label, Astral Industries and his illustration clients have included Oxford University Press, Warp Records, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, and Pulp Modern. He started the yearly Fall tradition of building a Harvest Monster in his yard every year with his family and loves to draw with his kids and collaborate with friends. He’s been quietly working on several graphic novels and collaborative book projects and feels very lucky that he gets to draw every day.
Theo Ellsworth’s INSTAGRAM
Check out the 2022 Arts Missoula Grants Award Winners
Arts Missoula, the local arts agency for the city and county of Missoula, is proud to award three individual local artist grants in the inaugural Arts Missoula Grants program. The grants are intended to assist each artist establish and grow a Missoula-based livelihood in the arts. Monica Gilles-BringsYellow, Andrew Avakian, and Callie Morris were awarded $2,500 in unrestricted funds to allow these artists to work on their craft and help them to bring their creative talents to the Missoula community. You can read about the winners below, and watch them talk about what receiving this grant means to them.
Monica Gilles-BringsYellow
Monica Gilles-BringsYellow is an Indigenous artist based out of the Flathead Indian Reservation and Missoula area. She works in mixed media, specifically acrylic paint, alcohol ink and collage. The focus of her work is to incorporate images of Native American people, and to use her art to highlight and tell their stories, histories, and impacts on this area. This grant will assist Monica in purchasing supplies and materials to explore new mediums, and refine current techniques to help effectively narrate these stories. Purchase Monica’s art here.
Andrew Avakian
Andrew Avakian is a ceramicist whose focus is on creating unique and functional ceramic vessels inspired by architecture, historic vessels, and modern painting. His pieces are a harmony of pattern, color, and geometric abstraction that work together throughout all his works. This grant will allow him to acquire the final pieces of equipment that will bring him closer to maintaining an independent studio, and grow a sustainable career as an artist. Learn more on his website.
Callie Morris
Callie Morris is a musician and performer who is actively embedded in the arts community in Missoula. She hosts a podcast featuring discussions with local musicians and recently released her first studio recording, Operating from the Subconscious. Her work is deeply personal and powerful as she addresses many societal challenges by making positive changes. This grant will help Callie purchase a new keyboard to help her compose and perform her music both in the recording studio and in live venues. Learn more on her website.
These grants are from the Arts Missoula Artist Fund, established in 2021 for the express purpose of providing substantial grants to local artists so they can positively impact our community through their talent and creativity. You can support local artists with a donation to our Patron Fund by clicking the button below.
“Arts Missoula is thrilled to be able to provide these funds for our local artists. The establishment of the Patron Fund and the annual grants distributed through it will help to ensure that artistic creativity and expression remain strong throughout Missoula.”
Heather Adams, Executive Director Arts Missoula
“We recognize the challenges artists face in sustaining a career in the arts. We also recognize the value that these artists bring to our community and culture. Arts Missoula Grants are focused on community-building through the arts, providing financial assistance for individual artists living in Missoula County, whose creative work connects with and enriches our community.”
Monte Grisé, D.M.A. – Arts Education Director, MCPS | Arts Missoula Board Member