News and Events
November 23, 2015
Happy Thanksgiving
In This Issue
In Missoula...
Elsewhere in Montana and the Region...
Nationally...
Internationally...
SPARK!
Any Given Child Missoula
First Friday Gallery Walk
Missoula Events
Visit our New Website
MCC Arts & Cultural Directory
Art & Economy
Join Our List
MCC Members
MCC's
Facebook page
MCC 2015 Calendar
Missoula's Sister Cities
The Missoula
Cultural Council

 In Missoula...



Admission buttons for First Night Missoula go on sale in early December, beginning with the First Night Book Fair at Fact and Fiction on December 5, and a special 2 for the price of 1 button sale that day only at Fact and Fiction.   Call 541-0860 for more information.






First Night Spotlight, the annual High School singing competition, begins its preliminary rounds the first week of December, at Big Sky High School December 1, Sentinel High School December 2, and Hellgate High School December 3, all immediately after school ends for the day. The final preliminary round, for those at other area schools or home-schooled, will take place Saturday, December 5 at the Silver (formerly the World Theater.  Winners from these rounds perform on the Dennison Theatre during First Night Missoula on New Year's Eve.  Sign up here.  






The Missoula Art Museum p resents   Terrain: Plateau Native Art & Poetry through February 27, 2016; John Buck: Free for All through March 12; Good Wood: Carved And Cut From MAM's Permanent Collection through March 12; A Few of My Favorite Things, an exhibition selected by MAM's Senior Exhibition Curator Emeritus Stephen Glueckert, through December 23 (pictured here); MaryAnn Bonjorni: Legends Are History, through January 2.



 

     
 
 The Montana Museum of Art & Culture presents  The Intimate Diebenkorn: Drawings 1949 - 1992
now through December 12 in the
Paxson and Meloy Galleries. The exhibition features 52 pieces, many of which have never been publicly viewed, and includes pencil and ink drawings on paper, collages of torn paper and watercolors.  
 
 


 


Dolce Canto and St. Francis Xavier Church present a Lecture/Recital called The Spotless Rose, Thursday, December 3, at 7:00 p.m. at St. Francis Xavier (420 W. Pine St.) This preview of our holiday concert will feature a collaboration with Father Joseph Carver, SJ, who will share a talk on significance of Mary, the Spotless Rose.  Visit here for more.





Fact and Fiction presents James Lee Burke reading and signing House of the Rising Sun, at 7:00 p.m. on December 1 at F&F Downtown.

 


The International Choral Festival  and the UM School of Music will present their annual benefit performance of George Frederic Handel's "Messiah" this Sunday, November 29 at 7:30 p.m. in the Dennison Theatre on the UM campus. This free concert is a beloved community sing-a-long with a volunteer chorus, which has delighted local singers and audiences annually since 1995.  There is still time to join the chorus, sign-up online here. Proceeds will equally support Missoula's 10th International Choral Festival scheduled for July 13-16, 2016 and scholarships for UM choral and orchestral students.



The University of Montana School of Music presents the Student Chamber Recital, November 23 at 7:30 in the UM Music Recital Hall. Free and open to the public. Information: School of Music, 406-243-6880, [email protected].
  


Radius Gallery's second annual holiday show kicked off November 20 from 5:00-7:00 p.m. This year 73 artists have contributed a super-abundance of terrific artworks-over 200 small paintings, pastels, photographs, and mixed media pieces.
Call 541-7070.
 



The 21st annual Juried Student Art Exhibit at the University Center Gallery of Visual Arts runs now through December 10.  Call 243-2813.  


  
The Sound of Music is a Missoula Community Theatre production for the holiday season at the MCT Center for the Performing Arts.  "Premiere Night" is Thursday, December 3 with a catered reception and the regular run plays Friday, December 4-6, 9-13 and 16-20. For tickets, visit here or call the box office at 728-7529. 



Performers and comic writers Katie Goodman and Soren Kisiel perform and read from their book, The Night Our Parents Went Out during Family Storytime at Missoula Public Library, Saturday, November 28 at 11:00 a.m. For more information, call 721-BOOK (2665).




Nancy Seiler presents Art Workshops throughout November and December at her studio at 330 Brooks Street. The next is Thursday, December 10, 9:00 a.m.-noon: Nature Journaling with Watercolor. The workshop repeats Saturday, December 12, from 1:00-4:00 p..m.  She'll show you how to sketch, ink, and apply watercolor to objects found in nature. We'll work inside the studio.   Nancy is a certified GOLDEN Art Educator. Call 370-1254 to register.

 



University of Montana School of Theatre & Dance presents Treasure Island by Ken Ludwig, Adapted from the novel by Robert Louis Stevenson, November 24, 27-28, December 1-5 at 7:30 p.m.  November 29 and December 5 at 2:00 p.m. Montana Theatre, PARTV Center, U of M Campus.

  
The University of Montana School of Theatre & Dance also presents Dance Up Close, December 4-5 and 11-12 at 7:30 p.m., and December 12 at 2:00 p.m. at the Masquer Theatre, PARTV Center, U of M Campus.



Join the annual holiday season celebration at the University Center for the UC Holiday Art Festival. The Art Festival will be held from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Friday and Saturday, December 4 and 5  in the University Center Atrium.  The UC Holiday Art Festival features unique, hand-crafted art from local and regional artists, as well as live music, live art demonstrations and prize raffles. This is the perfect place to get your holiday shopping done. Come support local artists as they show their wares in the beautiful UC Atrium.
The UC Art Festival is the longest running art fair in western Montana and has a legacy of returning and new artists from around the state and beyond. The UC Art Festival is a non-profit art fair that funds student-run programming at the University of Montana. For more information, call 243-5622.



The Montana World Affairs Council presents a lecture by Rafael Chacon, Ph .D, School of Art at the University of Montana titled Cuban Art in the Modern Age at the Missoula Public Library, Thursday, December 3, at 4:00 p.m. The next guest in the Council's Distinguished Speakers Program is U. S, Ambassador  (ret.) Vicki Huddleston, who was Chief of the U.S. Interests Section in Havana from 1999-2002.  The program will take place at the Doubletree in Missoula on Monday December 7 at 7:00 p.m.  Ambassador Huddleston will discuss U.S. - Cuban Relations 1900 - 2015: The Best of Enemies. For more information, call 728-3328.




MCT is participating in Toys for Tots this holiday season.  Please drop off new, unwrapped toys for a deserving child at the MCT Center for the Performing Arts before December 23, between the hours of 9:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m., Monday-Friday.  You may also drop toys off one hour before each performance of The Sound of Music (Dec 3-6, 9-13 and 16-20).  For more information, call MCT at 728-1911.  





For more information about arts events in the Missoula area, visit our website  
 Elsewhere in Montana and the Region...


Humanities Montana's next grant application deadline is December 20 for regular (over $1,000), fellowship, and three-year sustaining grants (must have received funding in a prior year to apply in this last grant category). Grant decisions will be made by February 9, 2016.






The Carbon County Arts Guild of Red Lodge presents Nov 1-30:  The Art of Mike Kosorok through November.  Mike has been a professional artist for over 40 years and is well-known in the region for his broad, sweeping landscape paintings of the Beartooth Mountains and the area around Red Lodge and Bear Creek, Montana.  Mike works in oil, watercolor, pen and ink and mixed media.  He is recently retired from his teaching career in the Red Lodge schools.  Also through November, The Blind Men & The Elephant, Drawings by Stephen Glueckert.  This series of 20 drawings was created using oil based drawing materials, including oil pastel, cattle marker, Keno crayon, and China marker.  The drawings are directly inspired by the ancient parable that has much to teach us today. On November 30 the 6th Annual Holiday Bazaar Opens.  Browse the selection of scarves, socks, jewelry, pottery, notecards, small paintings, bags, and more as you consider everyone on your gift list.  The bazaar runs through the end of the year, during the Arts Guild's normal hours. For more information, call the Guild in Red Lodge at 446-1370.

 
 
 
 
 


The  Yellowstone Art Museum in Billings announces the opening of a thought-provoking exhibition, Persistent Memories: Narrative Sculptures by Willem Volkersz. The exhibition will remain on view through January 3.  "A Lonely Business": Isabelle Johnson's Montana opened on Tuesday, November 3 and remains on view through January 3, 2016. Friday, November 27 marks Native American Heritage Day at YAM.  The museum is open until 5:00 p.m. and admission is free to everyone in honor of Native American Heritage Day. Take a break from Black Friday holiday shopping and enjoy our current exhibitions.



 



 
The Sanders County Arts Council announces the Fourth Quarter exhibit of Art on the Walls, at the Clark Fork Valley Hospital.  In addition to the artwork of Sanders County artists, John Meckler will demonstrate his techniques for chip carving; Kathy Logan and Jack Stamm will provide music on hammered dulcimers; and refreshments will be provided by the CFVH Hospital. The exhibit runs through December 20. Artists exhibiting work are: Katherine G. Cavill, Ellen Childress, Valerie Curtiss, Andrew Gonzalez, Rachel Gonzalez, Rick Harter, George Humeston, Cricket Johnston, Arlene Littlefield, Sue Honts Mann, Dane McNabb, John Meckler, Shirley Proctor, and Douglas Wilks.   For more information call 826-8585.


 



 
   
  
For complete information about arts and entertainment throughout the region, visit www.livelytimes.com 





Nationally...

How Dance Shaped America (And Vice Versa)
The Daily Beast, Nov 22, 2015
From Bill Robinson and Fred & Ginger to Michael Jackson's big-bang moonwalk and 'Soul Train.' In 'America Dancing,' a history of those who danced past the rules and defined the country.
Cultural critic Megan Pugh emulates her subject in America Dancing: From the Cakewalk to the Moonwalk, a celebratory mash-up of a century's history within studies of two legendary performers (Bill Robinson and Michael Jackson), one classic screen team (Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers), and two innovative choreographers (Agnes de Mille and Paul Taylor).  Click here



Design Team Named For Performing Arts Center At World Trade Center Site
New York Times, Nov 20, 2015
The Brooklyn-based architecture firm, REX has been selected to reconceive the Performing Arts Center at the World Trade Center, which was originally designed by Frank Gehry. The decision, announced Friday, is a significant step forward for a building that has been problematic since it was first introduced as part of Daniel Libeskind's master plan for the site formerly known as ground zero. REX, led by Joshua Prince-Ramus, was one of three finalists considered for the center, along with Henning Larsen of Denmark and UNStudio of  The Netherlands. Davis Brody Bond will be the executive architect.  Click here


America's Cult Of The 'Amateur'
New York Times Magazine, Nov 17, 2015
''The Original Amateur Hour'' was America's first televised variety competition, and from 1948 to 1970, it broadcast the hidden talents of American workers - the juggling machine operator, the housewives' kitchen band. Viewers at home played armchair critics, voting by phone or postcard to determine which acts returned for the next episode. Reviewing a DVD retrospective of ''Amateur Hour'' in The New York Times in 2006, the writer Claire Dederer watched a contestant blow smoke out of the back of his jacket while making train sounds on a harmonica but found herself transfixed by his face: He ''actually looks happy,'' she wrote. ''Not pretend happy, like the ambitious souls on 'American Idol,' but truly happy, the way a person looks when he knows he's onto something really great.'  Click here


Acting 'Death Of A Salesman' In Yiddish: 'It's A Jewish Play Written By A Jewish Playwright About His Jewish Relatives'
New York Times, Nov 13, 2015
Before he was a salesman, Willy Loman was a peddler on the Lower East Side.  You won't find any proof of that in the script of Arthur Miller's "Death of a Salesman," but it makes intuitive sense to Avi Hoffman, the actor playing Willy in New Yiddish Rep's Yiddish-language production. In the back story Mr. Hoffman has settled on, Willy is a Jewish immigrant who came to the United States in 1910 or so, fleeing pogroms in Russia. He learned a little English and started hawking wares.  Click here



Documentary Films Are Changing In A Big Way. Finally The Oscars Have To Deal With It
The Hollywood Reporter, Nov 12, 2015
Something unprecedented is happening in the world of documentaries: The inmates are taking over the asylum! For decades, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has discredited itself by celebrating, almost exclusively, documentaries that address the same important subjects (the Holocaust, dead icons, etc.) and that are presented in the same conventional style (talking heads, archival footage, etc.). Don't get me wrong: Many previous best documentary feature Oscar nominees and winners are excellent films - but they simply do not represent the full spectrum of what's out there. It's no wonder generations of people have grown up thinking of documentaries as medicinal, boring movies to be dreaded.  Click here



Internationally...

France Moves To Help Cultural Industry After Attacks
Los Angeles Times, Nov 20, 2015
The French government is moving to bolster cultural venues and cinemas across the country following last week's terrorist attacks in Paris, with Culture Minister Fleur Pellerin saying that at least 4 million euros, or about $4.3 million, have been allocated toward a "solidarity fund."  Her initiative comes after museums, concert halls, movie theaters and other cultural spaces have reopened their doors to the public following last week's massacre in the French capital, which included an attack at the Bataclan concert hall, a popular space for live music events.  Click here



Iran's Amazing Modern Art Treasures
Bloomberg, Nov 19, 2015
Inside the rotunda of the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, a circular walkway spirals down from the street level, like an underground version of Frank Lloyd Wright's Guggenheim Museum in New York. A series of galleries branches out from there, giving up astonishing secrets from one of the finest-if forgotten-collections of 20th century art in the world. A show this fall included abstract expressionist paintings by Kandinsky, Motherwell, Pollock, Rothko, and Stella, to name just a few from the museum's vault. Sculptures by Ernst, Giacometti, Magritte, and Moore are on permanent display in the garden. The corkscrew-shaped foyer wraps around a giant Calder mobile-its playful red shapes glinting in midair beneath the stern glares of Ayatollahs Khomeini and Khamenei in portraits above.  Click here



Estonia - A Country Built On Song
The Atlantic, Nov 12, 2015
Perhaps more than any other country in the world, the history of the Baltic nation of Estonia is a story set to song. Whether under German, Danish, Swedish, or Soviet occupation, Estonians have long turned to music as a way of preserving some semblance of national identity amid foreign domination. The country's massive song festivals, which date back to 1869, feature a choir of roughly 20,000 to 30,000 singers and have drawn audiences of more than 100,000 people-nearly a tenth of the population. But lately, as Estonia has opened up to the world, the world has been opening up the country's music scene to diverse influences. Which raises a couple questions: Has Estonian music lost its essence? And, if so, is that something to mourn or cheer?  Click here


We're Starting To Learn The Real Secret Of Stonehenge: How The People Who Built It Lived
New York Times, Nov 11, 2015
About 6,300 years ago, a tree here toppled over.  For the ancients in this part of southern England, it created a prime real estate opportunity - next to a spring and near attractive hunting grounds.  According to David Jacques, an archaeologist at the University of Buckingham, mud was pressed into the pulled-up roots, turning them into a wall. Nearby, a post was inserted into a hole, and that may have held up a roof of reeds or animal skin.  It was, he said, a house, one of the earliest in England.  Click here





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Tom at MCC

MCC - Connecting Art, Culture and Community through Education, Advocacy and Celebration.  As the official cultural agency for Missoula, MCC provides the community with resources for the development and promotion of arts and culture, maintains Missoula's sister-city relationships with Neckargemund, Germany and Palmerston North, New Zealand and produces the annual First Night Missoula celebration on New Year's Eve. For more information, please visit our website www.missoulacultural.org. 

 

Contact Us:
Missoula Cultural Council
327 East Broadway
P.O. Box 7662
Missoula, MT 59807

406-541-0860
406-541-0861 (fax)