SCOPE for Wed. Jan. 14- The Voice of the Missoula Cultural Community

Today is Wednesday, January 14 and on this date were born the following people, all famous in their time in the same field of cultural activity: Franchinus Gaffurius in 1451; Corona Elizabeth Wilhelmine Schroter in 1751; Johannes Josephus Viotta in 1814; Clara Kathleen Rogers in 1844; Vincenzo Davico in 1889 ; George Amadee Tremblay in 1911; and Edgar Sergeyi Hovhanesyan in 1930. If, perchance, you don’t recognize them, see the END NOTE.

General Interest items

#1a – “Missoula – The Creative Community” is the theme of the annual awards luncheon this Friday at the St Patrick’s Hospital Broadway Building Conference Center. Sponsored by the Missoula Cultural Council, the event gives recognition to those who have made outstanding contributions to the cultural life of the community. Added to the Cultural Achievement Awards this year are awards to local businesses in recognition of their exception support for the arts and cultural activities here. The buffet luncheon and registration tables open at 11:30. Tickets may be reserved at 721-9620 or [email protected] or purchased at the event. The $20 per person price includes a Cultural Kit, hand designed by art students and packed with information about Missoula’s cultural treasures, free tickets, and other valuable “goodies.” For more information click on http://www.missoulacultural.org

#1b – Included in the Culture Kits will be a CD describing a promotion campaign that “brands” Missoula as a creative community. The CD is a collaboration between MCC and WMQ studios and includes the non-profit arts organization economic impact study that MCC conducted with Americans for the Arts. The CD also describes the Missoula Business Committee for the Arts program.

#1c – Also in the Culture Kits will be the form by which non-profit organizations can apply for furniture and office equipment being offered through the Missoula Business Committee for the Arts in-kind donation program. Those applications will be processed later this month through the MCC office.

#1d – The first businesses to become “charter investors” in the Missoula Business Committee for the Arts will be introduced at the Friday Arts Awards luncheon, which includes an appearance by Judith Jedlicka, CEO and President of the New York City-based national BCA. The keynote speaker will be John C. Hammond, a Portland industrialist who was awarded the national BCA Leadership award last year.

#1e – A New York Times article on January 8 was headlined “Many State Arts Councils Make Their Case and Survive Budget Cuts.” It noted that deep cuts in California, Michigan and Florida represented two-thirds of all cuts absorbed by state arts agencies. Most of the other 47 states made substantially smaller reductions in their arts budgets than were proposed at the beginning of 2003. Sixteen states kept their cuts to less than 10 percent, and in 18 other states the arts budget actually increased or stayed the same.

#1f – In Michigan, where the arts budget fell from $22.5 million to $11.8 million, the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs has a staff of only six but it still gets things done in a big way. Maybe it’s because that agency is now part of that state’s History, Arts and Libraries department, a move which seems to have eliminated bureaucratic wrangling and wasteful staffing expenses. An example what a wide-awake and energetic agency can do is the recent Creating Cool conference convened by the Michigan arts agency that brought together all those elements needed to play a role in the rapidly emerging Creative Economy. You can learn what was accomplished there in the breakout sessions available at http://www.michigan.gov/hal/0,1607,7-160-17445_19272-83274–,00.html

#1g – With four bequests totaling $360 million, Joan B. Kroc, the widow of McDonald’s Corporation founder Ray Kroc, tops the Chronicle of Philanthropy’s list of the biggest donations by individuals in 2003. National Public Radio got $200 million of that bequest but arts organizations fared poorly in the giving game. The second most generous giver was Irwin Jacobs, CEO of wireless communications company Qualcomm, who pledged $110 million pledge to the engineering school at the University of California. Rounding out the top five were Microsoft co-founder Paul G. Allen, who pledged $100 million to create a research center in Seattle that will map the mouse brain; Los Angeles-based philanthropists Eli and Edythe Broad, who pledged $100 million to establish a genomics research institute in Cambridge MA; and former eBay president Jeffrey S. Skoll, who increased the endowment of his family foundation by some $72 million. Previous list-topping gifts have included separate $16 billion and $5 billion donations by Bill and Melinda Gates and a $5 billion gift from Intel co-founder Gordon Moore and his wife Betty to their family foundations. To browse or download the complete list, visit: http://philanthropy.com/free/update/2003/12/06002602.htm.

#1h – National Endowment for the Arts Chairman Dana Gioia last week announced a new component to that agency’s national initiative, Shakespeare in American Communities, which already has raised the hackles of some arts mavens who cry “a pox upon your traditional art forms. …bring on da funk.” This second phase, Shakespeare for a New Generation, will provide middle and high school students in underserved communities across the United States the opportunity to see professional productions of Shakespeare plays. Up to twenty theaters will be selected to receive matching funds to support activities for students from at least 10 schools in their community, state or region during the 2004-05 school year. Arts Midwest invites proposals from nonprofit theater companies to participate in Shakespeare in American Communities Phase 2: Shakespeare for a New Generation. Applications are available at http://www.artsmidwest.org

#1i – Missoula lost another cultural icon last week when Tom Collins died at age 83. An energetic participant in Missoula’s Sister City program, in 1975 he was awarded New Zealand’s prestigious Gilmour Memorial Trophy, given annually in to an American who has enhanced international relations through high standards of sportsmanship. He was recently awarded the Neil Bucklew Presidential Award by the University of Montana, where he once headed the UM Foundation. A resident here since 1949, he filled many civic posts and was for a time director of the State Department of Planning and Economic Development. He was famed internationally as an accordion player.

On the Literary Landscape

#2a – Hats off to the Entertainer section of the Missoulian for a first-rate “roundup of a year’s worth of reading with connections to Montana.” Included are compilations of Montana-based books for young readers and a look at what titles will be published in the coming months. “It’s no secret that Montana – and Missoula in particular – is a writer’s paradise. Few cities 10 times our size can boast of as many well-regarded fiction writers. And while many other areas of America boast a longer recorded history, few states can rival the wealth of colorful and dramatic tales that form the fabric of Montana’s known history. Nonfiction writers needn’t dig deep for great source material in this state; More often than not, it’s playing out in plain view every day.” http://www.missoulian.com/entertainer/

The Art Scene

#3a – The current United Express SkyWest Magazine features Monte Dolack’s Dancing Cranes limited edition print on the cover and a laudatory profile of the Missoula artist inside. It notes that this particular painting represents what the artist most cherishes — conservation, communication, and friendship between cultures. You can see it at http://www.skywestmagazine.com Monte is one of four Missoula artists represented in the art exhibit being taken to Missoula’s Sister City of Palmerston North in New Zealand in late March. Read more about that at #5a below.

#3b – "Today, the study of art history is more and more about subordinating art — to ‘theory,’ to politics, to just about anything that allows one to dispense with the burden of experiencing art … on its own terms. … Increasingly, art history is pressed into battle — a battle against racism, say, or the plight of women or on behalf of social justice. Whatever. The result is that art becomes an adjunct to an agenda: an alibi for … you can fill in the blank by consulting this week’s list of trendy causes." That’s the opinion of Roger Kimball, writing on "The rape of the masters" in the December issue of the New Criterion.

#3c – Art Associates of Missoula will have its first presentation of the new year on y 21st at 10:00 AM in the Art Museum of Missoula. Dudley Dana, photographer, psychologist and owner of the Dana Gallery here will discuss the work of Missoula architect A.J. Gibson. For more info call 721-5117 or 728-5325.

Musical Notes and Stage Cues

#4a – Auditions for MCT Community Theatre’s production of Deathtrap will be held from 6:00 to 10:00 PM January 26 at MCT room 302. Performance dates are March 11-14 and 17-21. The play first appeared in 1979 as a novel by Ira Levin, whose other novels include Rosemary’s Baby, A Kiss Before Dying, The Boys from Brazil, and The Stepford Wives. Deathtrap involves five characters in throttling, kissing, stabbing, and shooting one another in their attempts to get their names in lights. The lead is a failed playwright who toys with the idea of murdering a young playwright and stealing his play.

Deathtrap ran on Broadway for over four years and was made into a movie. Learn about the play and its author at http://home.earthlink.net/~junepulliam/levin.htm

#4b – After years of preparation, digital radio receivers finally go on sale nationwide today, pairing CD-quality audio in over-the-air broadcasts with text information such as song titles, weather and news alerts. The launch officially began this week in Cedar Rapids, where one station already is broadcasting in digital. Digital, high-definition service has been touted as one of radio broadcasting’s biggest advances in nearly a century. Unlike satellite radio, a subscription service that also uses digital signals, digital radio represents a technological upgrade of the free service offered by traditional "terrestrial" broadcasters.

Cultural Tourism Directions

#5a – A video conference on Monday gave Missoula cultural tourism interests and opportunity to share thoughts with their counterparts in Palmerston North, Missoula’s Sister City in New Zealand. The Missoula Cultural Council was joined in the conference by representatives of MRA, MDA, MCVB, and MWTC. That last acronym translates as the Montana World Trade Center which is using an exhibit of works by Missoula and other Montana artists to cultivate commercial contacts “down under.” The MWTC commercial tour will include Australia while the MCC sponsored cultural tour spans a week in Palmerston North and another week at other New Zealand locales. For info on MWTC call 243- 243-6982. For details on the cultural tour, which departs here March 26, call Wide World of Travel at 721-4110 or [email protected]

#5b – Just as cultural activists are agitating for a change from the “same old-same old” policies that hobble some arts agencies, tourism operators are urging changes in how their industry is promoted. The legislature in Washington State last year approved the concept of regional tourism promotion agencies that aren’t limited to chancy appropriations of bed-tax money. The Spokane hotel association, for example, wants the county to begin taxing occupied rooms throughout the county as a way to raise about $1.5 million a year for tourism promotions. That idea came a-cropper when it was discovered that RV parks weren‘t included. "The RV park thing — the hotel association never in our wildest dreams thought that as a lodging establishment that RV parks should be included," one hotelier confessed. Hello?

#5c – On the other side of the country, the Connecticut state legislature removed the tourism office from the Department of Economic and Community Development and put it under a new Commission on Arts, Tourism, Culture, History and Film.

#5c – There’s much more to Indianapolis than the annual Indy 500 auto race according to the Office of Cultural Tourism, an initiative of the Indianapolis Cultural Development Commission. The five-year, $10 million Cultural Tourism program, begun in June 2001, is intended to help the local economy and boost Indianapolis culture. The Arts Council of Indianapolis, the Indianapolis Convention & Visitors Association, Indianapolis Downtown Inc. and the mayor’s office joined forces in this effort.

The Creative Community

#6a – A public meeting this Thursday at 6:30 PM in the City Council Chambers is intended to focus awareness and communicate the needs and possibilities for adaption of the former St. Francis school complex in the downtown district as a community resource that could include special education and creative activities. The Xavier Foundation is hosting the event.

The Cultural Environment

#7a – A 14-page complaint filed by the attorney for a woman suing Wal-Mart because the grocery bag she lugged out of its store in Florida cites cracked, spilled the goods, and damaged her toenails. She is seeking damages in excess of $30,000. Her husband also is seeking that amount in damages, claiming that as a result of his wife’s injuries he has been deprived of her attention and comfort and suffered a loss of consortium. That’s mighty cheap consortium, not?

#7b – Nine students from Shude High School in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, are visiting Missoula for several weeks and are eager to meet local residents. They will have a chance on January 24 when the Missoula Public Library hosts a 2:00 PM gathering where the young Chinese visitors will share poetry and pictures from their homeland. For information call 721-2665.

#7c – That Washington Post feature on Montana saloons is getting a lot of play nationally, with papers all around the country gleefully reprinting that reporter’s take on The Big Sky’s boozy culture.

Media and Web Watch

#10a – As if further proof were needed of how the media manufactures news, a veteran reporter for USA Today resigned last week after being investigated for bogus reports he filed. That prompted the Washington Post media critic to confess that “The Kelley controversy comes at a time of growing public mistrust of the mainstream media.” A survey released Monday by Pew Research Center revealed “a fundamental shift in which more Americans are turning away from the establishment media and getting their campaign information from newer outlets.” The greatest defections were among those younger than 30, nearly two-thirds of whom say they are not even somewhat interested in the Democratic presidential campaign.

#10b – “Today we live in an age of ‘yellow journalism,’ where the mainstream media sensationalizes their content in order to increase circulation and increase profits.” That’s the opinion of Yellow Times, an alternative online publications which is completely reliant on individual reader contributions. The current issue asks ”Is American culture really superior to all others?” and other delectations. You can check it out at http://www.yellowtimes.com

END NOTE: Those birthday boys and girls were all famous composer/musicians in their day. So much for fame. As for famous football quarterbacks, sure Brett Favre is famous today, but who remembers that on this day in 1968 Bart Starr had another great day as the Green Bay Packers beat the Oakland Raiders, 33-14 in Super Bowl II at Miami? The SCOPE scribe does. He was there. Veni, vidi, cheereo.

MARK at MCC