Missoula Cultural Council – Some news and upcoming events for the week of August 15, 2005

This past Saturday marked the 150th anniversary of the signing of the Hellgate Treaty in Council Groves in Missoula between the United States and the Confederated Tribes of the Flathead, Kootenai and Upper Pend d’Oreille. As reported in yesterday’s Missoulian, the signing “generated outcomes both good and evil.”

In Missoula…

Montana Public Radio is bringing StoryCorps to Missoula for three weeks, August 4-22. The StoryCorps mobile recording booth, which is housed in an Airstream trailer, is now parked on the grounds of the Boone and Crockett Club (the old Milwaukee depot at Higgins and 3rd). Participants in the project will work in pairs, one interviewing the other about their lives, experiences, hopes, dreams, and histories. The pairs may be friends or loved ones, spouses, parent/child, student/teacher, co-workers, coach/athlete, neighbors, etc. The sessions are about 40 minutes long, and a StoryCorps facilitator will guide each couple through the interview process and handle the technical aspects of the recording. At the end of the session, the participants will get a CD of their interview, and with the couple’s permission a copy will be sent to the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress where it will be part of a national digital archive. Copies of the Missoula interviews will also be archived at the University of Montana Mansfield Library. Selected segments will air on National Public Radio’s Morning Edition program. Montana Public Radio will also broadcast some of the local stories and will be creating special programs around the StoryCorps project. For more information contact Michael Marsolek, Program Director, Montana Public Radio at [email protected] or call 243-4931 or 800-325-1565. Also visit http://www.mtpr.net/

Upcoming events at the Montana Natural History Center include Knapweed Biocontrol Collection Workshop with Prairie Keepers on August 16 at 6:00. Admission is free. Help collect knapweed root boring insects for re-distribution in Missoula. You can take some home if you help collect for the common good! Meet at the Nature Adventure Garden at Fort Missoula. Volunteer Naturalist Training Meeting occurs on August 17 at 6:00 p.m. at MNHC. Join the team of Volunteer Naturalists who help to teach and support our Visiting Naturalist in the Schools program. We’ll introduce the program, discuss volunteer opportunities and prepare for our classroom visits in September. For more information call 327-0405 or visit http://www.thenaturecenter.org

Garden City Harvest presents the Annual Summer Moon Party on Thursday, August 18 from 6:00-11:00 p.m. at the PEAS Farm, 3010 Duncan Drive. Food is served at 6:30. Cost is $10 for students, $13 for adults (beer is extra) and children 10 and under are free. Entertainment provided by Cash for Junkers, the Local Yokels, and Pickin’ Circle with members of the Broken Valley Road Show. Or more information visit http://www.gardencityharvest.org or call 523-3663.

The Missoula Art Museum presents Artists’ Gallery Talk with Gail Nichols on Thursday, August 18, at 7:00 p.m. Clay Studio Artist-in-Residence and renowned Australian clay artist Gail Nichols will present a slide lecture featuring her work and research into salt-fired kilns. Missoula Art Museum’s Temporary Contemporary, 111 N. Higgins Ave. Call 728-0447 or visit http://www.missoulaartmuseum.org

Nearly 200 creative, talented and energetic middle and high school students from across America, Canada, and Japan converge on Missoula, Montana, for MCT’s Performing Arts Camp 2005. They are spending an intensive and fun-filled two weeks at Flathead Lake rehearsing and refining their performance skills. The camps will culminate in the production Broadway Rocks! with performances Friday, August 19, at 8:00 p.m., and Saturday, August 20, at 1:00 p.m., 4:00 p.m., and 8:00 p.m. in the Montana Theatre on the University of Montana campus. Broadway Rocks! is a high energy compilation of rock n’ roll musical theatre featuring some of your favorite tunes from “Bye, Bye, Birdie”, “Hair”, “Tommy”, “Rent” and more. Call 728-PLAY (7529).

The Children’s Museum presents Seuss Story Time Saturday, August 20 at 11:30 a.m. for ages 3-5 in the basement of the Florence, 111 North Higgins. For more information call 541-7529

The Pattee Canyon Ladies’ Salon is having its seventh annual group art exhibition on August 25, 26, and 27, with an opening reception on Thursday, August 25 from 5:00 – 8:00 p.m. The exhibition will take place at the Brunswick Building, 223 West Railroad Street, and will feature studies from the figure in various media including pencil, oil pastel, oil paint, gouache, fabric, plaster, and ceramics. The Pattee Canyon Ladies’ Salon is a group of women artists in Missoula who draw inspiration from the female nude as well as from each other’s work, ideas, and companionship. Now celebrating its 19th year in existence, the informal organization meets to draw twice a month For more information contact Nancy at [email protected].

The Historical Museum at Fort Missoula is proud to present a walking tour of Fort Missoula on Thursday, August 25 at 7:00 p.m., by the founder of the Fort, Major Charles Rawn (portrayed by Director of the Historical Museum Robert M. Brown). This free walking tour will begin outside the main Museum building. Learn more about the history of Fort Missoula and Missoula in this interactive walking tour. Learn more about the 25th Infantry Bicycle Corps, the Alien Detention Center and the famous “Olive Oil Incident,” the Grant Creek Schoolhouse, Locomotive #7’s starring role in a major Hollywood movie, St. Michael’s Church, and more. The “Major” may even talk about the founding of Fort Missoula, the odd affair at Fort Fizzle, and the nearly disastrous Battle of the Big Hole. Dr. Brown has been the Historical Museum at Fort Missoula’s Director for 14 years and has been impersonating Major Rawn for three years. This program is part of the “UNCOVER MONTANA” program series sponsored by the Historical Museum at Fort Missoula, Traveler’s Rest, and Lolo National Forest. For more information, call 728-3476.

The Museum of Mountain Flying in Missoula is sponsoring a dance/celebration to honor the 60th anniversary of the end of WWII and its veterans, and including all veterans to date. The Ed Norton Big Band along with Eden Atwood will perform at Northstar Air Express hangar at the east end of the Missoula Airport on Friday, August 26. There will be dancing, food, beer/wine, door prizes and displays. Doors open at 6:30, ceremonies at 7:30 and dancing at 8 to midnight. Cost is $25 a person, $45 a couple or $250 a table of 10. This is also a fund raiser for the museum. Tickets available at Southgate Mall, Worden’s Market or Rockin Rudy’s. Or call 549-8488. Come join the fun but also to honor our veterans. For more info call number above.

The International Wildlife Media Center & Film Festival is now accepting submissions for our 5th Annual International Wildlife Film Festival Poster Art Contest. Your artwork could become next year’s IWFF Poster and be on display throughout festival week at our headquarters in Missoula. A professional panel of judges will review the entries, and the winning artwork will be adopted as the face of the 29th Annual International Wildlife Film Festival in 2006. Judges will be looking for realistic impressions of the theme, "People & Nature – Living in Harmony," in which bears are not the major subject. The artwork will be used in IWFF promotions, up to and throughout the 29th festival. The entry deadline is November 1, 2005. The entry fee is $10. For more information and entry forms, please visit our web site at http://www.wildlifefilms.org/festival/postercontest.htm.

Elsewhere in Montana and the Region…

September 9 is ship-date for Eat Our Words: Montana Writers’ Cookbook. The book highlights recipes and writings from some 90 Montana authors. A joint undertaking by MCH and Farcountry Press, its sales will benefit our Montana Center for the Book. Eat Our Words will be available from Farcountry Press and in fine bookstores near you. Bon appétit et bonne lecture!

Congratulations to Montana’s first poet laureate, Florence resident Sandra Alcosser, whom Governor Schweitzer appointed in July. Professor Alcosser will be a gala reader at the Montana Festival of the Book in September.

The National Endowment for the Humanities has announced that the Montana Committee for the Humanities will be awarded a 2005 We The People grant of $50,640. The grant will be used to support a variety of on-going programs as well as a special conference the Committee is planning for 2006.

A new exhibit at the Ravalli County Museum in Hamilton titled A Walk Through the Bitter Root, is in progress. Beginning at the Conner area, the exhibit continues on down the Valley to the “Old Charlos Heights Clubhouse” at Lost Horse Road. This portion of diorama, called the Darby Room, is funded by Timber Workers United/Darby Logger Days and an anonymous donor. Artist Suzette DelRae is painting the Sapphire Range on one side of the room, and the Bitter Root Range on the other. The history of “timber, mining, the railroad and agriculture” will unfold as guests take that Walk …, creating a wonderful legacy for future generations. The Museum is open for tours and research on Sunday from 1:00 to 3:00, Thursday, Friday and Monday from 10:00 to 4:00, and Saturday from 9:00 to 1:00, hosting the Farmers Market at the Museum. They are normally closed on Tuesday and Wednesday. For more information, contact the Museum at [email protected] or call 363-3338 Thursday through Monday.

The Montana Baroque Festival – Music for Peasants and Princes is at Quinn’s Hot Springs in Paradise from August 16-18, beginning each evening at 7:00 p.m. Performers include international baroque violinist Monica Huggett, Gonzalo Ruiz, oboe, Susan Jensen, harpsichord, Lori Presthus, cello, Adam Lamotte, baroque violin, and Victoria Gunn, viola. Below is a schedule of events:

· Tuesday, August 16: Gypsy Music in the Baroque era

· Wednesday, August 17: Haydn and the Gypsies

· Thursday, August 18: Folk melodies/duets – Bartok, Beethoven, Vivaldi, Purcell.

Tickets are $10 or $25 for the series. Festival activities also include river float trip, horseback riding, carving demo by Montana artist Henry Larum, swimming/soaking in mineral water, golfing at Thompson Falls and Plains courses, hiking, sightseeing, antique shopping and touring. Call 826-3150, 888-646-9287 or 826-3600 for tickets/info.

The Hamilton Players will be performing the adult comedy, Murder At The Howard Johnson’s August 18-21, and 25-28 at The Hamilton Playhouse, 100 Ricketts Road. Murder at The Howard Johnson’ is a light and funny suspense comedy about a love triangle in a Howard Johnson Motor Inn. Thursday through Saturday performances begin at 8pm and Sunday performances begin at 2pm. There will be an opening night reception on Friday, August 12th where the public is invited to stay and celebrate with the cast and crew. This show contains some adult language. Tickets are $10.00, reserved seating, and will be available at The Hamilton Playhouse Box Office. Box office hours are Monday through Friday 2pm-6pm, performance Saturdays 10am to Noon and one hour prior to show time. For more information or to purchase tickets over the phone with a credit card, call 375-9050 during box office hours.

Drum Brothers are offering a weekend drum making and rhythm retreat August 26-28 near Kila. For the fifth year in a row, Drum Brothers and a circle of rhythmists and drum-makers will gather outdoors in Montana forest lands for a weekend retreat celebrating world rhythm, community, and the beauty of Montana. Whether you’re just beginning to explore the drum, or you’re already a seasoned practitioner, join us as we camp together and celebrate through music this season of heat, light, and nature’s beauty. The weekend will be filled with West African hand-drumming classes, group discussion and sharing, evening celebration circles, and free time to hike or dip in a spring pool. Drum-makers will be building a 12"x 24" Ashiko drum. This dynamic and powerful hand-drum is ideal for playing a variety of West African and world rhythms. Extra drums will be available for new drummers. Call 726-4448 or visit http://www.drumbrothers.com. Registration deadline is August 15th. Register online at http://www.drumbrothers.com/catalog or contact Satsang Music at 406-726-4448 or [email protected]. Rhythm exploration $205; Drum Building 12"x24" cedar Ashiko Drum $360; Drum Building 12"x24" hardwood (walnut or cherry) Ashiko Drum $385. Note: drum building registrants will attend the regular class schedule when not assembling drums.

From the Montana Associated Technology Roundtable…

MSU-GF offers a new certificate program in Creative Arts Enterprise this September
“We want to respond to the needs of students who wish to develop sustainable careers from their creative endeavors,” said Dr. Mary Sheehy Moe, Dean of MSU-GF. “We are creating a program that is student-centered, that utilizes the resources of the real-world workplace in the community, that provides guidance and practice, all the while nurturing the individual’s creativity.”

Dot-Coms Are So ’90s; In Silicon Valley, Doing Good Is the New Thing
Venture capitalists are leading a push to remake Silicon Valley as a center for a new form of social entrepreneurship and venture philanthropy, a place where you can make good money by doing good.

Missoula Commissioners grant first permit to Brennan’s Wave
Brennan’s Wave will be a man-made, natural rock structure built in the Clark Fork River, west of the Higgins Avenue Bridge, and designed to create a whitewater play area for kayakers, canoeists and other paddle-boat enthusiasts.

For more about the Montana Associated Technology Roundtable, visit http://www.matr.net

Nationally…

From the Center for Arts and Culture….

How schools are destroying the joy of reading
USA Today, 8/3/2005
English teacher Patrick Welsh opines that more interesting textbooks would help combat the decline in reading. "Faced with declining literacy and the ever-growing distractions of the electronic media, faced with the fact that -Harry Potter fans aside – so few kids curl up with a book and read for pleasure anymore, what do we teachers do? We saddle students with textbooks that would turn off even the most passionate reader." – contributed by ArtsJournal.com http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/editorials/2005-08-03-welsh_x.htm

Decency activist joins FCC
Washington Times, 8/10/2005
"The Federal Communications Commission has added an anti-indecency activist to the staff of a key office, prompting talk that the agency is poised for another crackdown on programming it deems inappropriate for the airwaves. . . . Indecency opponents praised Mrs. Nance’s appointment, but a frequent FCC critic said it smacks of political patronage because positions like the one Mrs. Nance has been given are usually not given to activists." http://washingtontimes.com/business/20050809-094451-9282r.htm

Who Owns Culture?: Appropriation and Authenticity in American Law
Rutgers University Press, 2005
From the publisher’s website:
"’Who Owns Culture?’ offers comprehensive analysis of cultural authorship and appropriation within American law. From indigenous art to Linux, Susan Scafidi takes the reader on a tour of the no-man’s-land between law and culture, pausing to ask: What prompts us to offer legal protection to works of literature, but not folklore? What does it mean for a creation to belong to a community, especially a diffuse or fractured one? And is our national culture the product of Yankee ingenuity or cultural kleptomania?" http://165.230.98.36/acatalog/__Who_Owns_Culture__1210.html

Pentagon’s New Goal: Put Science Into Scripts
New York Times, 8/4/2005
Financed by the Air Force and the Army, "15 scientists are being taught how to write and sell screenplays. . . . Fewer and fewer students are pursuing science and engineering. . . . And what better way to get a lot of young people interested in science than by producing movies and television shows that depict scientists in flattering ways?" http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/04/movies/04flyb.html

To learn more about the Center of Arts and Culture, visit http://www.culturalpolicy.org

Internationally…

China Issues New Restrictions Aimed at Protecting Its Culture
New York Times, 8/4/2005
"New regulations proposed by the Chinese government would keep additional foreign satellite broadcasters from entering the market and would strengthen restrictions on foreign television programs, books, newspapers and theater performances, all in an effort to tighten control over the country’s culture. The regulations were announced on Tuesday [August 2] by China’s Propaganda Department, the Ministry of Culture and four other regulators." http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/04/business/worldbusiness/04media.html

London Sees Political Force in Global Art
New York Times, 8/4/2005
"It was purely coincidental, but between the London bombings of July 7 and the failed bombings of July 21, a Commission on African and Asian Heritage appointed by London’s mayor issued its first report, ‘Delivering Shared Heritage,’ which recommended ways of recognizing and integrating the contribution of black and Asian minorities to the life, culture and history of the city. Two years in the making, the report evidently made no mention of terrorism. . . . [T]he fact that three British-born Asian Muslims and one Jamaican-born Muslim convert were identified as last month’s terrorist bombers has given an urgency to the report and to the continuing debate about the place of minorities in British society." http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/04/arts/design/04essa.html

Finally…

Sprinkling Holy Water on ‘The Da Vinci Code’
New York Times

By SHARON WAXMAN, Published: August 7, 2005
When filmmakers asked how to make the movie version of The Da Vinci Code palatable to devout moviegoers, they were advised to fudge the central premise.

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Tom at MCC