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Home My WebLink About12-19-25 Correspondence - Montana Arts Council - ARTeries_ News from the Montana Arts ...From:Montana Arts CouncilTo:Bozeman Public CommentSubject:[EXTERNAL]ARTeries: News from the Montana Arts Council for Late December 2025Date:Thursday, December 18, 2025 3:50:08 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. The latest from Montana's state arts agency ARTeries - The Lifeblood of Arts In Montana White Divider Helena High orchestra students, learning new techniques from the Juno Award-winning band, Locarno, last spring. Photo courtesy of The Myrna Loy Art transforms What happens to a symphony when the last note fades away? Does it still exist? Was it just an idea? A shared place the audience briefly inhabited? A piece of music isn’t whole until it’s over. It doesn’t come to full flower in the listener until it’s gone. But where did it go? A symphony, a sonata, a song, rises from the forge of the musician’s craft, from their years of experience and dedication and love of music, and flies through the air on sound waves, and lands in our earbones, in our nerve endings, in our hearts, and we are enlivened by it. In some cases (Yo Yo Ma’s Bach Cello Suites, for example) we are transformed. Art is so much more than a painting, a recording, a ticket. Art is this moment of transformation, and the open heart that is willing to receive it. Which is what this season is all about. May you be warmed, and enlivened, and transformed this season Krys Holmes Executive Director krys.holmes@mt.gov MAC grant activity map of Montana, showing dozens of location pins across the state Here at MAC, we’re pretty proud of this map of lovely blue dots, representing arts activities we supported across Montana in FY2024. ADVOCATE FOR THE NEA RIGHT NOW While Congress deliberates on funding issues between now and January 31, there are important steps you can take to urge Montana’s delegates to protect and defend a $207 million budget (each) for the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities. Ask your Board members and supporters to tell their Congressman and our two Senators why public funding of the arts is important to them and their community. Or send them to the Arts Action Center at Americans for the Arts. Arts funding has traditionally enjoyed strong bipartisan support—art is for everybody! And the NEA is not about who makes art, or what art gets made; it’s about access to arts experiences no matter where you live. Meanwhile, in FY2024, the Montana Arts Council supported arts experiences, learning opportunities, and great performances in every county across Montana. This is the magic of public funding of the arts: it makes sure people from Alzada to Yaak get to experience meaningful art, no matter their age, ability, or where they live. Spotlight YVNG VIN, or“Young Vin,” is a Flathead Reservation musician creating a distinct blend of rap and country music, and is the 2025/26 recipient of Billy Conway Artist Fund support. Just gotta end this year with a spotlight on the Billy Conway Artist Fund, which supports Montana’s gifted Native musicians who otherwise might not be heard. Billy Conway—drummer for Treat Her Right, Morphine, and Jeffrey Foucault—lived in the Shields Valley with his wife, Laurie Sargent. When Conway died in 2021, Sargeant set up this fund to lift up other artists. As Foucault said in a Rolling Stone tribute to Conway, “He incarnated ferocious love.” Check out the fund, and if you can give to support more Native Montana artists, please do. And may all our work add up to ferocious love. Another creative phenomenon in Indian Country is the work Browning teacher/clinical counselor Charlie Speicher is doing to heal cultural trauma on the Blackfeet Reservation through heavy metal music. Speicher’s programs—a Buffalo Hide Academy at school, and a multi-day Fire in the Mountains Festival over the summer—give Blackfeet teens opportunities to rage, create, share, and celebrate in community. If heavy metal isn’t your idea of suicide prevention, dig into this High Country News article--Heavy metal is healing teens on the Blackfeet Nation—and warm your heart in a new way. For Arts Educators This year MAC awarded $264,321 in arts education grants to support projects in 62 schools and communities across Montana, spreading creative skills and hand-on knowledge to people of all ages in the coming year. A few great examples: Students at Ulm Elementary School will get to visit the CM Russell Museum see works by Montana’s master painter up close. Elementary students in Billings will attend on-stage master classes at the Alberta Bair Theater in their Project Hip Hop program—including a pre-performance workshop with Cirque Kalabante. MAC’s art education grants support an array of arts learning needs, from traditional long-term artist-in-residence projects to shorter targeted arts learning experiences. Learn more about the program and upcoming deadlines here, or contact Monica Grable with questions: Monica.Grable@mt.gov (406) 444-6522. Image: David Spear works with a student at Two Eagle River School in Pablo to make images with a 4x5" view camera. Photo courtesy of David J. Spear For Artists Last call to apply for a 2026 artist residency at one of Open AIR’s 13 sites across Montana. Open to artists of any medium or career stage. Deadline is tomorrow, Dec 19th. Learn more here. The Artists at Risk Connection – supported by the Andy Warhol Fdtn. and an alphabet of partner organizations, wants to know what challenges artists are up against right now. They are asking how artists are facing censorship, harassment, financial strain, shrinking spaces, and other pressures in their work. They invite you to take this 10-minute, confidential survey to help them gather on-the-ground experiences across the U.S. Results will be reported out in early 2026. High school musical theater songwriting challenge helps high school students develop and showcase musical compisitions that could be a part of a musical theater production. This NEA partnership with the National Alliance for Musical Theatre, invites young songwriters from every state to showcase their unique voices, imaginations, and musicial sensibilities. Deadline Feb. 2. Lean more and apply here. Bonfire Night, in rehearsal. Photo by Ric Kallaher for National Alliance for Musical Theatre Billings Parks & Rec is hosting a graphic design contest to create a cartoon mascot named Pondo, to honor Montana’s state tree, the Ponderosa pine. Pondo should be fun, original, and recognizable, and will be used to educate youth about the importance of the urbn ecosystem. Winner receives $400. Submit your ideas, in three different poses, to millern@billingsmt.gov or learn more at billingsparks.org For Arts Organizations NEA Grants for Arts Projects first cycle for 2027 is open now. These NEA grants support projects that enable Americans to experience the arts, foster America’s artistic heritage, celebrate our cultural legacy, and provide arts education at every stage of life. Learn more and view guidelines here. The National Endowment for the Arts sends about $2 million in arts and culture support to Montana annually (directly and indirectly) and every $1 spent leverages $9 in additional investment to enrich all our lives and communities. Applications are now open for the NEA Big Read Grants, powering community reading programs designed around a single NEA Big Read book. This year’s grant program is managed by Arts Midwest, and offers grants of $5,000-$20,000. Go here for info and application. A new fellowship for cultural venue operators begins very soon: The Western States Center is launching The Forum Fellowship, a paid 7-month leadership program for venue owners, operators, and cultural leaders across the Pacific Northwest and Mountain states. The fellowship supports venues that keep communities gathering and connected, with funding support—because cultural spaces are critical to a healthy democracy. Most sessions are virtual, with one in-person gathering in Minneapolis (travel covered). Deadline Jan. 5th. Learn more and apply here. Or email Chris Orrick at chriso@wscpdx.org. The Western States Center sees arts and culture spaces as core to American democracy—as much as they are critical to downtown vitality. If you raise funds from individuals, check out Montana Nonprofit Association’s new MNA Fundraising Hub, launching in Spring 2026. It will provide coaching, assistance, best practices, and resources for Montana nonprofits to up their fundraising game. It’s a good time to renew your MNA membership, or become a member. String and Shadow Puppet Theater, bringing larger-than-life joy to public parks and outdoor spaces across Montana this summer. White Divider Looking for a great outdoor giant puppet show? String and Shadow Puppet Theater of Olympia, WA will be touring Montana this summer with their “wonderfully whimsical” show, Night At the Grand Opera. The crew swoops into town, sets up in a park or green space, and delights audiences of all ages (yes, we’ve seen them!) at a rate affordable for any community. Learn more here, and email director Emily McHugh (stringandshadow@gmail.com) to book soon. Their summer is filling up. Good To Know Love your local indie movie theater! The increasingly conglomerated movie industry doesn’t seem to care whether little indies survive or not—but communities do. Small indies tackle increasing challenges and demands from distributors—most of which are invisible to patrons. So if you’re lucky enough to have an indie movie theater in your town, read this article (insert link into that bolded text) and give your theater some love. Volunteer, or donate, or best of all, form your own private movie club and bring all your friends. Fox News reported on Dec 6: “Creative Hobbies Keep the Brain Young.” The most helpful hobbies: music, dance, and video games. A large-scale international study collected brain data from 1,400 people in 13 countries to compare those with years of creative practice vs. no creative practice. "Creativity emerges as a powerful determinant of brain health, comparable to exercise or diet," one of the researchers said. People with years of creative practice showed the strongest reductions in brain age, but even beginners saw improvements, with strategy games boosting brain-age markers after roughly 30 hours of training. Read the article. Then go make something cool. Do you receive the State of the Arts newspaper? It’s free, statewide, and fun to read. You can subscribe here to get one in your mailbox. The Winter 2026 issue's them is "Art as a light in the darkness," and explores the ways in which the arts provide hope and light in times of literal and metaphorical gloom. We learn about Blackfeet winter storytelling traditions, art as a response to war and uncertainty, and, most importantly, hear from you our readers. Our feature story, "Be the Light," consists of responses you've sent us in reply to questions about how art is a beacon in difficult times. See one of those responses below! Subscribe Now! Cool Quotes "Whether it be music, photography, or textile work, art has never failed to bring me out of the dark. Art allows me to express myself and really connect with my mind to process what I’m feeling so that I can get it out and better myself. It has allowed me to really think out of the box and see the beauty and potential the world has to offer. Thank you art " MacKenna Daugherty See you in 2026! Rectangular horizontal shape in red-purple color 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