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Home My WebLink About09-30-25 Correspondence - MT Arts Council - ARTeries_ News from the Montana Arts Council for Late September 2025From:Montana Arts CouncilTo:Bozeman Public CommentSubject:[EXTERNAL]ARTeries: News from the Montana Arts Council for Late September 2025Date:Thursday, September 25, 2025 4:01:28 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 We look for fall colors in nature, but also in art, as in this Amy Brakeman Livezey painting, “Lark Sparrows” (40x36 acrylic mixed media on panel). http://www.amybrakeman.com/ “When I think about the future, what excites me most is the possibility of a generation equipped not only with technical skills, but with creativity, resilience, and imagination—tools the arts uniquely provide.” –Erin Harkey, CEO of Americans for the Arts Extravagant Gestures There is a moment in September when a shaft of morning light ignites a row of golden ash trees and takes my breath away. We all know the magic of fall in Montana: angled light on rushing stream water, the long shadows on the purple hillsides as the sun sets. “If the landscape reveals one certainty, it is that the extravagant gesture is the very stuff of creation,” writes Annie Dillard, one of the best chroniclers of living a biological life afire with astonishment. “After the one extravagant gesture of creation in the first place, the universe has continued to deal exclusively in extravagances,” Dillard says. “The whole show has been on fire from the word go.” Our planet didn’t have to have this beauty, the extravagant gestures of fall colors, sunsets, the smell of strawberries. Love. Looking at other planets, it’s clear Earth didn’t have to have squirrels that make us laugh, or music that makes us weep. What an extravagance, this creation. This imaginative energy that fires us from within. I’ve been asked from time to time where creativity comes from. Comes from? We and the world are made of it. It’s not our ability to destroy that sets us apart—apparently tyrannosauri could do that too. It’s our ability to imagine, to create, and to find joy in beauty—in these most extravagant gestures unfolding before us every day. Fire up. Be your extravagantly creative selves. Krys Holmes Executive Director krys.holmes@mt.gov Spotlight MAC is atwitter to announce that Allen Morris Jones was named Montana Poet Laureate for 2025–27 by Governor Gianforte. Jones is the author of the novels Last Year's River, A Bloom of Bones, and Sweeney on the Rocks, as well as a highly influential consideration of the ethics of hunting, A Quiet Place of Violence. He co-edited, with William Kittredge, The Best of Montana's Short Fiction. With a 30-year career in writing and publishing, Jones has published more than 100 poems, essays, profiles, short stories and incidental pieces. His most recent book of poetry, Mumblecusser (Drumlummon Institute, 2023), won the High Plains Book Award, and was his second book to be named a Montana Book Award Honor Book. Learn more about Allen Morris Jones here, and check out his Substack, “Storytelling For Human Beings.” “I’m gobsmacked,” said Allen Morris Jones after being named Montana Poet Laureate for 2025-27. We’re excited to be working with him. Keeping up with former poet laureate Chris La Tray is tricky, unless you have a very fast horse. La Tray handed the laureate baton to Jones, then sped off to North Dakota, Minnesota, South Dakota, Jackson Hole, and St. Louis, proving the work of a poet is never done. You can keep up with Chris’s speaking schedule here. And if you’re one of the 12 people in Montana who don’t subscribe to his “Irritable Métis” Substack, do so now and read it here. Former Montana Poet Laureate Chris La Tray on his way to a speaking engagement in the Florida Everglades after passing the laureate baton to Allen Morris Jones. Hands on the wheel there, Chris. And here’s something to celebrate: Did you know that since Muscogee poet Joy Harjo was named US Poet Laureate in 2019, there have been four other Indigenous poets laureate? La Tray is a member of the Little Shell band of Chippewa; Denise Lajimodiere (ND) is Turtle Mountain Ojibwe; Mark Turcott (IL) is Turtle Mountain Ojibwe; Heid Erdrich (MN) is Ojibwe and Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa. Now, as Mark Turcott said in this article about IndigiPalooza in Missoula: “Writers don’t have to spend as much of their artistic energy explaining who they are, but just instead expressing who they are.” Grantee Spotlight Ironhorse Consortium's promotional items help spread the word one backpack, water bottle, and lapel at a time. If the Strategic Investment Grants (SIG) program had a motto, it might be “A Little Can Go a Long Way!” Exemplifying that sentiment, recent SIG grantee Ironhorse Consortium for Young Musicians (Helena) turned a $1000 grant into tangible results. Like most arts nonprofits, Ironhorse has a limited marketing budget, but wanted to increase their visibility and their reach. With a few big tabling events on their schedule, Ironhorse saw a need to invest in professionally printed outreach materials like t-shirts, button, and stickers. With a growing reputation for quality music instruction and a strong cohort of returning students, consistent marketing tools were a clear step forward for the Ironhorse Consortium for Young Musicians as it strives to grow. At the events, they noted far more engagement from students and parents at their table and an immediate increase in enrollment in their music programs for this semester. More about Ironhorse Consortium for Young Musicians here. More about Strategic Investment Grants here. White Divider Resources For Artists Handmade leather tool wrap with scissors, pencils, and brushes, made by Gretel Stoudt A handmade tool wrap, created by MADE Fair artist Gretel Stoudt. Applications due Oct 1 for Holiday MADE fairs: Helena’s on Dec 5–6, and Missoula’s Dec 14th. The MADE fairs are curated and organized by Handmade Montana, and attract huge audiences of eager buyers and supporters. Artists Angie Oakins and Carol Lynn Lapotka created the MADE Fair in 2007, and it’s since exploded into six ultra-popular events across the state. Handmade Montana hosts an online retail store featuring a roster of artists selling their made-in-Montana works, so visit the site and see if you can expand your market this year. They also offer workshops for artists. Question? Email info@handmademontana.com. The Holiday MADE Fairs are two of the largest, most popular art fairs in Montana, and applications are competitive. Better look into it today. Performing artists facing challenges in career development, housing, well-being and other issues might want to know about the Entertainment Community Fund. It’s a national human services organization that fosters stability and resiliency, and provides a safety net for performing arts and entertainment professionals over their lifespan. They provide social services, counseling, tax help, and emergency grants to artists in the performing arts. For Arts Organizations Higher costs, tighter budgets, and scrappy financial planning are three trends among arts organizations nationwide. SMU DataArts just released its report, National Trends 2025: Analysis of the Nonprofit Arts and Culture Sector. Check out their deep-dive into helpful data, as well as an informative video providing analysis of the trends. Knowing how your org shapes up against national trends is a strong part of telling your financial story. If you’re a small arts org looking for guidance, Blue Avocado can be a great resource. Here’s a recorded webinar on Nonprofit Governance Training from earlier this year, including good info on operations, governance, policies, practices, and other tips. Scroll down on that page for additional topics, like Copyright Concerns for Nonprofits, and info on fiscal sponsorships. They also have tabs full of info on nonprofit finances, HR questions, and more. It’s like having a consultant in your pocket. Maintaining a historic building? Montana’s arts and culture field struggles with the costs of building upkeep. It’s much easier to raise funds for an exciting new program, but nobody wants to donate to fix a leaky roof or upgrade bathrooms. Check out the Saving Places Grant Fund at the National Trust for Historic Places. Hurry up: They’re focusing on Montana in their Oct 1 grant cycle. If you have questions about historic preservation of your old building, call up one of Montana’s greatest treasures, Preserve Montana. It’s a fabulous statewide nonprofit dedicated to preserving Montana’s built heritage, and teaching Montanans the skills and techniques to tackle their own projects responsibly. Their great staff can help answer questions and guide you to resources. Preserve Montana also has a preservation podcast, called 46° North, sharing inspiring preservation stories around the state. Worth a listen. Next time you drive by a beautifully restored church, hotel, or one-room schoolhouse, like the DeBorgia School at the west end of Mineral County, send Preserve Montana a donation. For Communities Rural Assembly Everywhere is a front porch for rural people and places, working to connect people in time and in shared hope for the future. They recently streamed a live event where people from all over the country chatted with each other, sharing ways to act and participate in the betterment of their local communities. They called it A Bigger Pie: Cultivating Abundance in a Time of Scarcity and the replay is definitely worth a listen. Plug it into your earbuds as you take a fall walk around your own community. Rural life is tenacious, growing and thriving around the toughest obstacles. Then, if you love your small town, register for this year’s Reimagining Rural Road Show, up in Glasgow Oct 1-2. Through MSU Extension’s virtual and live Reimagining Rural gatherings, over 60 communities and 500 Montanans have gained access to tools, partnerships, and funding that have sparked real progress and renewed hope. The program is led by the fabulous Tara Mastel: Tara.mastel@montana.edu Then check out why The Knight Foundation says The Arts Are a Blueprint for Thriving Cities . The first thing cities and towns can do to build a thriving future? “Embed the arts in cross-sector planning, ensuring artists and cultural voices are part of the conversation in housing, transit, climate, and economic policy.” Cities are huge and hard to change, but what’s possible in Montana’s smaller towns, where we know everyone and can make things happen? We have faith in Montana as the Land of Creativity. Trying to get the arts moving in your town? “Consider an IRC 501 (c)(7) Social Club,” writes Geoffrey Kershner in this article on the Small Town Big Arts website. He explores alternatives to the 501(c)(3) nonprofit model for arts organizations, and provides a roadmap for setting one up. Good Reads Charlie Chaplin in Butte, America? “The farther west we went the better I liked it,” Chaplin wrote later, remembering his journey across America when he was just 21. We enjoyed reading Charlie Chaplin’s Butte, America in the Sept. issue of Distinctly Montana magazine. Browse around. Subscribe, even. Do you receive the State of the Arts newpaper? The Fall 2025 issue is coming out soon! You can subscribe here – free to all Montanans! Cool Quotes “After two decades … in the public and nonprofit sectors I can say this with conviction: the cities that prioritize the arts are the cities that thrive.” -Kristina Newman-Scott, Vice President at Knight Foundation. This email was sent to comments@bozeman.net using GovDelivery Communications Cloud on behalf of: MontanaArts Council Rectangular horizontal shape in red-purple color MAC Logo Teal Manage Subscriptions | Unsubscribe All | Help | Montana Arts Council | 830 N. Warren Street | Helena, MT 59601 | art.mt.gov