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Home My WebLink About04-29-25 Correspondence - MT Arts Council - ARTeries_ News from the Montana Arts Council for lateApril 2025From:Montana Arts CouncilTo:Bozeman Public CommentSubject:[EXTERNAL]ARTeries: News from the Montana Arts Council for lateApril 2025Date:Thursday, April 24, 2025 3:30:16 PM CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Do not click links or open attachments unless you recognize the sender and know the content is safe. ARTeries - The Lifeblood of Arts In Montana White Divider Painterly image of ibex scaling steep wall Ibex show us how to stay calm while treading lightly over precarious ground. I’m afraid of heights. Some folks fear speaking in public. Those famous images of the Alpine ibex romping on nearly vertical cliff formations strike the fear in many of us. Yet in this world of quaking uncertainties—politics, the economy, federal funding—running an arts nonprofit or being a professional artist can look just as dicey. What keeps those creatures from just plummeting into the abyss? Here’s what: they’re made for this. They’re nimble, able, and they know what they’re doing. If you’re hiking the precipice right now, remember you’re made for this too. Be courageous, be as surefooted as an Alpine ibex. We’ll traverse this together. Krys Holmes Executive Director krys.holmes@mt.gov National Endowment for the Arts Logo NEA News Like all federal agencies, the NEA is now undergoing a DOGE efficiency review. That process is underway, and we don’t yet have any information about its outcomes. In the meantime, the NEA remains focused on its public services. The agency just released some exciting new economic data [arts.gov] showing how the creative industries create a $36.8 billion trade surplus. It's running powerful programs for veterans [creativeforcesnrc.arts.gov], celebrating this year's National Heritage Fellows [arts.gov] and looking forward to the national finals of Poetry Out Loud [arts.gov]. Congressional appropriations: Americans for the Arts (AFTA) has published a toolkit for those who want to engage with Congress members about appropriations to the NEA and the NEH for next fiscal year. The FY26 request is to continue level funding at $107 million for each agency. AFTA is holding regular office hours to update the arts and culture field on public policies affecting the arts. They’re informative, and allow Q&As from all over the country. Next Office Hours is Friday, May 2, 2:00 ET/12:00 MT. You can register here. Politics is complicated, and nowhere near the oversimplified red/blue sliding scale. No matter how you feel about current political events, engagement in democracy is one thing that makes this country great. The Montana Nonprofit Association is an informative partner in telling us what’s happening, how to advocate well, and what the situation is behind the headlines. Check out MNA’s public policy page. Artists Spotlight Bootmaker Mike Ryan describing repairs to a work boot. Save the date: MAC celebrates seven of our finest folk and traditional artists at the Montana Circle of American Masters ceremony at the State Capitol Friday, May 16, at 2:00 pm. Come meet the artists, see their work, and join us in honoring this illustrious group who keep Montana’s creative and cultural traditions alive. We will be inducting blacksmith Jeffrey Funk, weaver Joanne Hall, poet Henry Real Bird, Indigenous culture bearer Tim Ryan, beader Ramey Growing Thunder, bootmaker Mike Ryan, and jewelry maker Olivia Rose Williamson into the circle of masters, which is nothing less than Montana's hall of fame for the folk and traditional arts. Please join us. Resources For Artists Blacksmith and mentor Glenn Gilmore in his Corvallis studio Just announced today: The National Endowment for the Humanities has opened up grant funding to support the design and creation for sculptures for the National Garden of American Heroes. This sculpture garden will feature life-size statues of 250 great individuals from America’s past who have contributed to our cultural, scientific, economic, and political heritage. More information here: National Garden of American Heroes: Statues Statue of Thomas Francis Meagher on the grounds of the Montana State Capitol. Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program: If you're a traditional artist hoping to take on an apprentice, you might be interested in MAC's Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program. This program provides $3000 in funding to exceptional mentor traditional artists to help offset some of the costs of passing down skills, techniques, and cultural knowledge to an apprentice. We're accepting applications from mentor artists until June 16, 2025. For more information about applying for the program, go to https://art.mt.gov/taap Native artists in need: The Yéigo Action Grant from First Peoples Fund supports Indigenous artists and culture bearers who need financial assistance with a specific professional opportunity or towards a hardship that is hindering their creative practice. Grants range from $100 to $1,000, with rolling deadlines on the 10th of every month. Find out more here: Yéigo Action Grants White Divider Nonprofit News The power of events calendars: How many arts presenters list your events on Lively Times, or on the VisitMT.com events page? Online calendars are free, easy, and help connect you with tourists and your home peeps. Everyone uses Lively Times, and if you don’t, give it a delightful try. VisitMT is a bit more complicated: You'll need to set up an OKTA account (the state’s portal for interactive web engagement) but once you do it’s easy to upload events. Let us know if you have any problems getting started. Lively Times: The gold standard of arts & culture calendars. Love your local ED: The other day we ran an informal survey of salaries among Montana’s arts nonprofits, based on grant data and public 990s. We counted only those with a full-time executive director, and of the 49 organizations of all sizes the mean salary was $70,7512. Among larger arts organizations in big or well-resourced towns, the mean salary was $80,286. Among full-time EDs in small towns the mean salary was $47,364. (One note: Some part-time EDs in small towns do make above that figure for fewer than 40 hours/week.) Good To Know What’s exceptionally American? Rural libraries and museums, according to this article published by the Rural Assembly. Check out this good read, then go downtown and donate to whatever library or museum supports your own community. Lewistown Public Library: One of 17 Carnegie libraries in Montana Need some good news? Check this out. Emmy-Award winning actor Michael Chiklis and Robin Bronk of the Creative Coalition joined MSNBC’s Morning Joe today to discus America’s Right to Bear Arts. Just two of the many people doing good work on behalf of the arts in America. https://www.msnbc.com/morning-joe/watch/calling-on- congress-to-protect-the-national-endowment-for-the-arts-238257733772 Montana is a creative state: Of the seven Northern Rockies states, Montana has one of the higher rates of residents employed in arts and culture occupations—5.23% of the workforce, as compared to 3.19% in Nebraska and 5.28% in Colorado. This info comes from a 2024 study by the University of Wyoming tracing the economic impact of Wyoming’s arts and culture economy. Arts and culture industries contribute 3.3% of Montana’s gross domestic product. ARTeries is produced by the Montana Arts Council. If this email was forwarded to you and you'd like to subscribe, visit us at https://art.mt.gov/enews MAC Logo Teal Manage Subscriptions | Unsubscribe All | Help | Montana Arts Council | 830 N. Warren Street | Helena, MT 59601 | art.mt.gov This email was sent to comments@bozeman.net using GovDelivery Communications Cloud on behalf of: MontanaArts Council