Scope Wednesday, December 31 – The Voice of the Missoula Creative Community :

Today is Wednesday, December 31, so it’s out with the old, in with the new. Better yet, it’s time to take a look in both directions, as did the two-faced Roman god Janus for whom the first month of the year was named. The year past was not a happy time in places like Iraq or Palestine, but that’s nothing new, as SCOPE has noted. On this date in 1492, the order was issued to expel 100,000 Jews from Sicily where they had been brought originally as slaves in 63 BC by Pompey after he sacked Jerusalem. On the brighter side, this is also the day in 1879 when Thomas Edison gave the first public demonstration of his incandescent lamp. For some folks, this may seem to have been a dark day in 1935 when a patent was issued to Charles Darrow for his game called Monopoly, the best-selling board game in the world, sold in 80 countries and produced in 26 languages including Croatian. Why the gloom? See #7a below. As for looking backward and forward in Missoula, read on.

General Interest items

#1a – First Night Missoula gets under way this morning at 10:00 a.m. and gambols merrily along until after midnight when the New Year settles in. The remarkable diversity of cultural events augers well for the future of Missoula’s constantly expanding horizons for arts and humanities. The printed schedule of events now takes up 29 pages of the 48-page, full-color glossy program, a striking affirmation of Missoula’s reputation as a creative community. Other cities have followed Missoula’s lead to create events of their own. You’’ find the program and all-event admission buttons at many locations or you can check the hourly schedule of events at http://www.missoulian.com/articles/2003/12/26/entertainer/ent01.txt

#1b – ArtsLink is one of the content-rich publications furnished to the Missoula Cultural Council by Americans for the Arts, the preeminent national arts support agency that doesn’t give grants but gets things done and helps local cultural agencies get things done. The current issue is about cultivating and empowering the new kind of arts leaders needed to cope with financial support issues and moving beyond the “same old-same old” bureaucratic formats that made state arts agencies vulnerable to legislative budget cuts. Example: after the California Arts Council appropriation was cut 94%, its director said “We are trying to reinvent ourselves and looking at what we can do to impact the arts as a whole rather than hand out grants.”

#1c – AFTA President and CEO Bob Lynch recounts in ArtsLink his participation in the recent Indiana Community Arts Conference arranged by Arts Alliance Indiana, one of the many nonprofit art service organizations that get done what state arts agencies don‘t get done. Its mission is "to advance community arts and aid in the creation of cultural opportunities statewide by providing capacity building resources to arts providers.” It is partly funded by the Indiana Arts Commission which itself is developing a network of 12 regional partners to enhance the delivery of services and move the decision-making about grants closer to the local arts community and arts audiences. That state agency has a staff of 10 to serve a population over six million The Montana Arts Council website lists a staff of eight to serve a population of less than one million.

#1d – In the current issue of the Montana Arts Council newsletter, Executive Director Arlynn Fishbaugh asserts that “Those of us working in and participating in the arts are confident and knowing of public value of the arts. We think we are communicating this value or that it is self-evident. We’re not and it’s not.” She refers to a Montana survey which reveals that half of all rural participants gave a ranking of ‘fair to poor’ as to the arts relevance to their own lives. Forty percent of urban interviewees expressed the same opinion. Whoa!

#1e – An example of how some states have found effective means of coping with funding strictures is the Oregon Cultural Trust, an innovative approach to long-term funding for all segments of that state’s culture, not just what is generally considered “art.” It uses private funding to avoid the vagaries of legislative budget cuts. You can learn how it works at http://www.culturaltrust.org

#1f – The man largely responsible for the creation of the Oregon Cultural Trust was John C. Hampton, a Portland industrialist who will speak at the Missoula Cultural Council’s annual awards luncheon on Friday, January 16. He won the prestigious 2003 Leadership Award from the national Business Committee for the Arts. Also returning to Missoula for the luncheon is Judith Jedlicka, BCA President and CEO, to assist with the annual MCC Cultural Achievement awards and the first-ever awards to be presented to Missoula businesses in recognition of their long-time support of local arts organizations. The next SCOPE will announce all the award winners.

#1g – The theme of the January 16 award luncheon is Missoula: The Creative Community. The hand-decorated Culture Kits that each attendee will get is packed with information about the organizations that infuse the Missoula region with creative activity. There’ll also be randomly distributed free event tickets, craft items, and gifts from BCA affiliates around the country. Missoula organizations that want their materials included in the Culture Kits should call 721-9620 or That’s also where to reserve tickets for the luncheon. Ticket price is $20.

#1h – One of the items in those Culture Kits will be a request form for the second batch of office furniture and equipment available to Missoula non-profits as part of the in-kind donation program being set up by the Missoula Business Committee for the Arts. Fifteen Missoula non-profits obtained furniture and equipment donated by First Interstate Bank in the first phase of this program. The present consignment includes file cabinets, desks, and chairs in various sizes.

#1i – Palmerston North, Missoula‘s Sister City in New Zealand, has just released a 58-page Arts Policy statement that details how that community intends to enhance its cultural resources and encourage local arts activity. In summary, the City Council report makes clear that “The arts have social, economic, environmental and cultural benefits for Palmerston North. …The current Government has highlighted the significance of the arts. The arts are valued for providing opportunities for creative expression, for contributing to a New Zealand identity, and for helping to build strong creative industries.” People on the cultural and commercial tours to Palmerston North on late March will get a chance to see what makes that such a creative community. For information about the commercial tour — which will include an exhibit of art by Missoula and Montana artists — call the Montana World Trade Center at 243-6982. For info on the cultural tour, contact MCC at 721-9620 or

#1j – The Montana Community Foundation and its Five Valleys regional division have awarded a grant to the Montana Transport Company to support its 2004 dance touring season. Learn more about MoTrans and how to book a performance at http://www.motrans.org

#1k – Ooops, when SCOPE last week mentioned a glass recycling program with collections to be made at the Gold Dust building on January 17 from noon to 2 PM the address was not given. It’s that newish 18-unit plus community room housing complex at 330 North First Street.

The Art Scene – Focus on Public Art

#3a – The many downtown Missoula store window displays that used Christmas and the Holiday Season as a theme were a kind of public art. You can enjoy a gallery of them at the MCC website:

#3b – The Texas town of Odessa — not much more populous than Missoula — is corralling 6-foot-2-inch white fiberglass jackrabbits to showcase local artistic talent, attract tourists and raise money for future public art projects. It’s one of many similar community projects that replicate Chicago’s “Cows on Parade” project to put art on the streets. In Racine WI Downtown Bears it All will feature 150 fiberglass bears decorated by area artists will roam the streets next summer while Cincinnati boasts of The Big Pig Gig.

#3c – A bronze statue of Martin Luther King in the North Carolina town of Rocky Mount, where King once spoke on racial harmony, is causing a racial ruckus. Residents in the black area where the statue was placed complained that it didn’t look like him. Then they learned that the sculptor was white and the complaints escalated. Now the city council, which has a black majority, is trying to figure out what to do. Good luck.

#3d – The newest piece of public art in London is a public toilet made of one-way mirrored glass across from the Tate Gallery. Imagine. Or, if your imagination fails, see and read about the loo in the BBC report at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/arts/3257370.stm

#3e – The City Council in Iowa City IA — population 62,000 — has allocated about $38,000 for public art projects in four neighborhoods there. Another public art program in that city — Poetry in Public — gives local poets of all ages the opportunity to showcase their work around town for one year. About 50 poems will be posted in downtown kiosks, city buses, businesses and University of Iowa buildings and rotate around town for a year. The city pays about $1,200 from its Public Art fund for the project. The poems can be no longer than eight lines. Cool.

#3f – The California community of Menlo Park — population 30,785 — now requires that public art be added to new commercial buildings and major remodeling project. Some communities require that 1% of construction costs of public buildings be used for art installations. The Menlo Park measure applies the same requirement to privately owned buildings. Imagine!

#3g – The Public Art Network Council will meet in Washington, DC January 16-17. PAN is a program of Americans for the Arts which provides services and develops resources for individuals and organizations engaged in the expanding field of public art. You can find out what’s happening at http://www.americansforthearts.org

Miscellaneous art items

#4a – The First Friday Art Walk is benched for January 2 but there are other arts activities going on. farm Art Space at 119 S. Higgins will have a reception this Saturday from 11 AM to 2 PM for its new exhibit of drawings by Santa Fe artist Michael Diaz whose work has been shown internationally. The new exhibit at R’t-est studio and gallery at 801 #3 Ronan street will open on Friday at 5 PM.

Cultural Tourism Directions

#5a – Maybe it was the Thursday night “pint night” at the Rhino that befuddled Andrew Slough, the Ski Magazine writer whose recent visit here resulted in a cover story of the Missoula Snow Bowl. "Beneath the town’s hardscrabble exterior,” he wrote, “lurks a pleasantly historic, increasingly diverse and surprisingly enlightened town." Surprisingly? And how, Mr. Slough, do you define “enlightened?“ He is also surprised to discover that “Scattered on area roads among the hippie vans and beat-to-hell pickups are a growing number of new Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Cadillac SUVs, driven predominantly by white-collar immigrants fleeing the West Coast’s congestion and crime.” You get his drift, and can read his full report at http://www.skimag.com/skimag/mountain_life/article/0,12795,560927,00.html

The Creative Community

#6a – San Diego State University recently announced the formation of a pioneering forum for civic engagement and journalism called Envision San Diego: The Creative Community. It’s a partnership of media mavens and academics designed to enhance citizen awareness of and commitment to solving major public policy issues affecting community development. Backing the partnership are a large number of corporations and civic organizations from throughout the region that have formed the City of the Future Steering Committee to assist and advise the media partnership. Only two of the 21 members of the Steering Committee have an arts or cultural connection. Creativity anyone?

#6b – Many communities are competing for a breed of yuppie, the Yuspie — Young Urban Single Professional. These college-educated, never-married 25- to 39-year-olds are "the dream demographic for any human resources person," says Carol Coletta, Memphis-based host of the radio program Smart City. "That’s why cities are beginning to think about these workers and how to attract them."

#6c – Yuspies will feel right at home at Worden’s, the popular deli-market at 451 N. Higgins that now offers wireless connections to the Internet. Chew and cyber chat. Cool.

#6d – In Spokane the mantra for civic and cultural leaders is boho mojo, referring to the creativity, tolerance and the elusive quality of cool that have become the goals of economic development experts all around the country. Spokane is taking to heart the first of 10 principles in the Memphis Manifesto: "Cultivate and reward creativity. Everyone is part of the value chain of creativity. Creativity can happen at anytime, anywhere, and it’s happening in your community right now. Pay attention." Amen.

#6e – There will be a Creative Cluster roundtable in Missoula in January, probably in the Jan. 21-23 range. Details in the next SCOPE. One of the clusters that the Missoula Cultural Council is encouraging is media arts, already thriving here. Example: the 2004 Big Sky Documentary Film Festival February 20-25 at the Roxy Theater will showcase 65-80 non-fiction films from all styles, formats and production dates, from the most innovative and timely new films to classics and rare historic works. Learn about this event at http://highplainsfilms.org

The Cultural Environment

#7a – It turns out that the Monopoly game has become a leading symbol for those who regard mass consumerism and corporate agglomerations as threats to cultural diversity. Wal-Mart, Microsoft, and McDonalds are just a few of their favorite monopolistic targets. The board game itself has been attacked as a monopoly by the creator of a board game called Anti-Monopoly. He’s a professor who claims the idea of a “monopoly” game was stolen from a Quaker woman and that he himself was under legal siege by the monopolistic corporation that currently owns rights to the Monopoly game and claims right to the word itself. He tells the fascinating story at http://www.antimonopoly.com

#7b – A Citizens Advisory Committee has been working on a comprehensive master park plan for Missoula and the its nearly ready to be presented to the City Council and County Commission for their review before adoption in February. The role of city parks and open space as a cultural resource is part of that plan and was included in a survey in which residents expressed their views on current and future park usage. The use of public parks for recreation and as a place for social discourse is a key to a Creative Community, according to the experts in that field. The next CAC meeting starts at 5:45 PM on January 7 at City Hall.

Media and Web Watch

#10a – Speaking of monopolies, The Watley Review has just revealed that all those poinsettia plants that bedeck the Christmas season are the product of a predatory and nefarious monopoly. Well, not really. It’s another send-up by this unusual website that spoofs the mainstream media’s penchant for twisting facts. You can share the fun at http://www.watleyreview.com/2003/122303-2.html

Finally, in Scotland today it’s the day of Hogmanay, an annual celebration that ushers in the New Year in a most exuberant fashion. Nobody knows for sure where the word Hogmanay came from. Opinions differ as to whether it originated from the Gaelic oge maidne ("new morning"), Anglo-Saxon Haleg Monath ("Holy Month"), or Norman French word hoguinané, ("gift at New Year"). Hogmanay’s roots reach back to the pagan practice of sun and fire worship in the deep mid-Winter. The flame and fire at Hogmanay symbolize many things. The bringing of the light of knowledge from one year to the next, putting behind the darkness past, but carrying forward its sacred flame of hope and enlightenment to a better world. Edinburgh and Glasgow both have street parties for 100,000 people. Learn more at http://www.hogmanay.net and Happy New Year.