SCOPE- Wed. Jan. 28 – The Voice of the Missoula Cultural Community

Today is Wednesday, January 28 and on this day in 1956 — gosh, that was only 58 years ago! — Elvis Presley made his first TV appearance. That was on the Dorsey Brothers Stage Show and SCOPE challenges all The King’s fans to name the tune he sang on his first boob-tube outing.

Un sitio dirigido por amantes de la cultura de todo el mundo

General Interest items

#1a – When Portland industrialist and arts patron John Hampton spoke at the Missoula Cultural Council Awards Luncheon January 16, he advised “don’t wait until politicians are elected before you find out how they would support arts and cultural activity: pin them down when they are campaigning.” The American Arts Alliance, a major national advocate for professional not-for-profit performing arts organizations, has launched a bid to persuade all the major-party candidates for president to explain how their administration would treat the arts if they took over the White House next year. Candidates Clark, Dean, Kerry, Kucinich, and Lieberman signed the Pledge for the Arts to "support the performing arts as an essential element of our society, encourage creativity in our communities, promote global cultural diplomacy and exchange of the arts, and stimulate the circulation of arts and ideas."

#1b – In New Hampshire, the movement to pin down the politicians was spearheaded by the New Hampshire Citizens for the Arts, a non-partisan art advocacy organization that operates independently of that state’s arts council. The New Hampshire State Council on the Arts is the advisory council for the Division of the Arts that has been made part of the Granite State’s Department of Cultural Resources. It was established in 1965 as the official state arts agency with legislation designed "to insure that the role of the arts in the life of our communities will continue to grow and play an ever more significant part in the welfare and educational experience of our citizens." To that end it supports local cultural organizations in a meaningful manner, not just with bureaucratic blather and money handouts. It recently had 350 people at its annual arts awards ceremony which included an Arts in Education Award, a Cultural Access Leadership Award and a Distinguished Arts Leadership Award. “The Future Belongs To Those Who Think Creatively” is the motto the New Hampshire arts council and it’s doing creative things, not just talking about it. Check it out at http://www.state.nh.us/nharts

#1c – Plans are moving ahead for the late March visitations to Missoula’s Sister City of Palmerston North in New Zealand by the Montana World Trade Center and the Missoula Cultural Council. MWTC will open an exhibit by Missoula and Montana artists at the city-owned gallery in Palmerston North on March 29 as part of its effort to develop commercial ties in Australia and New Zealand. For information on how to participate call MWTC at 243-6982. MCC is sponsoring a 14-day tour throughout New Zealand, with half of that time in Palmerston North, where it will arrange presentations of information about Missoula cultural events and organizations. To be included in that event call 721-9620 or

#1d – Included in the Culture Kits distributed at the January 16 Awards Luncheon was a CD that previews a video/DVD project designed to brand Missoula as The Creative Community. That’s a collaboration between MCC and WMQ Studio. The CD also contains information about the Creative Cluster Initiative and the Missoula Business Committee for the Arts. One small glitch: you have to scroll down on the opening page to find the “Click here to start presentation” line. Oooooops.

#1e- Today is Democracy Day in Rwanda, a country less than one tenth the size of Montana, where in 1994 over 800,000 were killed in tribal warfare while the United Nations again did nothing. General Romeo Dallaire, a Canadian peacekeeper, tried vainly to warn his UN superiors of the approaching genocide. On February 10 he will tell the story of one of the UN’s greatest failures in a 7:00 p.m. public lecture in the Dell Brown Room of UM’s Turner Hall. His appearance here has been arranged by The World Affairs Council of Montana. Call 728-3328 for details

#1f – The F. Morris and Helen Silver Foundation recently awarded the Missoula Children’s Museum a $5,500 grant to create several new science exhibits geared towards children ages 7 through 12. After a successful 11-month pilot project at Southgate Mall, the Museum re-opened last June in the Florence Building downtown. The new 3,500-square-foot space filled with activities and exhibits for kids and their grownups has attracted over 7,000 visitors. It’s part of a nationwide association of 250 children’s museums, a veritable movement that provides parents and kids with healthy destinations. The Missoula museum’s mission is to provide a fun, interactive and educational place where children and grownups develop a love for learning about the world together. Information about it’s programs was part of the Culture Kit given to all those who attended the MCC Awards Luncheon January 16 and you can learn more at http://www.missoulacultural.org/events/mcm.html

On the Literary Landscape

#2a – Cruzatte and Maria isn’t the latest in Ovando author Peter Bowen’s series of novels about Metis Indian sleuth Gabriel Du Pre and his kin and kind in the mythical hamlet of Toussaint somewhere in the badlands of eastern Montana, but it has a mystery plot that fits right into the current Lewis and Clark BiCentennial program. The tale involves murder most foul during the making of a television special on the Lewis and Clark voyage through that part of Montana. The Metis are a multi-tribal mixture of indigenous, French and Scottish blood with great difficulty gaining recognition as an independent culture. One reviewer says that “Peter Bowen does for Montana what Tony Hillerman does for New Mexico.”

#2b – Information about the Missoula Reads program is now available online at http://www.lib.umt.edu/gen/mslareads/default.htm

The Art Scene

#3a – The Art Mobile, a mobile art educational experience devised by Sara Coburn of Dillon is visiting Missoula schools this week, having appeared Monday at Lewis and Clark and DeSmet School yesterday. Today it’s at Lolo Elementary, tomorrow at Paxson and Friday afternoon at Prescott School.

#3b – Art Hang-up and Body Basics has announced an upcoming show and silent auction to benefit the art departments of the Missoula School System. Artist’s rendering of fans in any medium are requested for the April 2 exhibit in conjunction with First Friday Art Walk and the first anniversary of the opening of the Art Hang-up at 525 S Higgins. For more information call 327-8757.

#3c – The article about Missoula artist Sheila Miles on Montana Living magazine produced immediate results. A man in Chicago bought the painting shown in the photograph of Miles and a woman from California called wanting to buy the other horse painting pictured in the magazine.

#3d – For those interested in the work of another well-known Missoula artist, there’s a “virtual retrospective” of Nancy Erickson’s work at http://www.americanartco.com/artist_full.cfm?aid=79

#3e – The inexpensively constructed on-line “virtual museum” is rapidly changing the role of costly “bricks and mortar” collections in fostering public appreciation of art and cultural heritage. The Canada national museum last week opened its vast collections with a stunning assemblage of works available in both an HTML and preferred Flash enhanced tour of the treasures once stashed away there. Take a look at http://www.virtualmuseum.ca/English/index_flashFT.html

Musical Notes and Stage Cues

#4a – The Missoula Symphony Orchestra will offer A Valentine Present on Saturday, February 14 at 7:30 PM and Sunday, February 15 at 3:00 PM in the University Theater. Jacquelyn Marie Weitz, winner of the Missoula Symphony’s 2003-04 Young Artist Competition, will be the featured soloist, performing the Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 3. Weitz, 20, is from Billings and topped 34 outstanding young musicians from 8 states to win the Symphony’s Young Artist Competition this past December. Also on the program will be Polovtsian Dances by Borodin and, in celebration of Valentine’s Day, The Love of Three Oranges by Prokofiev and Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet. Tickets are available at the Missoula Symphony Office, located at 225 West Front Street or by calling 721-3194. Tickets will also be available at the door. Prices range from $8 – $30.

#4b – Peter Park tells SCOPE that the planned tour of the yet-to-be-formed Missoula Ambassador Male Chorus to Varna, Bulgaria, and other European cities, will depart here June 21 if funding materializes. The plan is to present two concerts in Varna. The first would be a concert of American choral music. The second would present orchestral and orchestral/choral music by American composers with the Missoula contingent joining the Dobri Hristov Women’s Choir — which sang in Missoula during the 2003 International Choral Festival. Missoula Symphony conductor Joseph Henry would lead the group. For more information call 721-7985 or

#4c – SOLD OUT: No tickets available for A Chorus Line at MCT.

Cultural Tourism Directions

#5a – The Missoula Convention & Visitors Bureau is producing the 2004 Calendar of Events for distribution to tourists visiting the area. If you have an event that is appropriate for visitors, send info to

#5b – The Western Montana Lewis & Clark BiCentennial Commission met Thursday afternoon in Lolo and reviewed upcoming activities associated with that historic event. Loren Flynn, Executive Director of the Travelers’ Rest Preservation and Heritage Association, gave an update on improvements being made at Traveler’s Rest State Park, which was recently enlarged through acquisition of a property fronting on Highway 93. Flynn also reported completion of a report by Missoula archaeologist Dan Hall that verifies the exact location of Travelers’ Rest. Hall will reveal his findings at a news conference on the afternoon of February 5 and a public meeting of the Association at 7 PM that night in the Lolo Community Center. You can visit Travelers Rest at http://www.travelersrest.org

The Creative Community

#6a – Ben Bloch, co-owner of Goatsilk, a Missoula art gallery, writes about art twice a month for the Entertainer section of the Missoulian, which also carries a weekly cultural commentary under the title of Fatuous Twaddle. Bloch takes a dim view of current efforts to foster “Creative Clusters” as a means of enhancing quality of life and economic well-being in Missoula. He echoes the sentiment of a “letter to the editor” in the Missoula Independent which demanded "When will Missoulians realize that if they want CITY culture, they should visit or move to a CITY?" Bloch laments that “Currently the visual arts in Missoula, and in particular the arts that might attract some money to the area, are mostly a collection of tame local art favorites selling and showing work at commercial galleries that generally cater to a culture of western fetishism and tourism.” In contradistinction, he argues “it is perhaps useful to think of ‘art’ as a sort of living organism; and much of what determines its dynamism has to do with the environs from which it’s birthed.” That concept derives from “renowned artist and thinker” Marina Abramovic, who decrees that "The main task of art is to serve society. Artists build connections between the society and the future. Art will never be able to function in nature, in forests, in savannas. Art is incompatible with landscape.” For more of that theory see #6b and to read all of Bloch’s argument click on http://www.missoulian.com/articles/2004/01/24/entertainer/ent07.txt

#6b – Marina Abramovic, born in Belgrade, Yugoslavia in 1946, is — as one art critic puts it — “a performance artist who investigates and pushes the boundaries of physical and mental potential. In her performances she has lacerated herself, flagellated herself, frozen her body on blocks of ice, taken mind- and muscle-controlling drugs that have caused her to fall unconscious, and almost died from asphyxiation while lying within a curtain of oxygen-devouring flames.” That may not be as appealing as, say, Karen Finley, smearing her body with chocolate or selling her canned vocal performance art over the phone, but you can learn more about Abramovic’s theory of art at http://www.eyestorm.com/feature/ED2n_article.asp?article_id=38&artist_id=108

The Cultural Environment

#7a – “Culture may be described simply as that which makes life worth living.” T.S. Eliot

#7b – Only about half Japan’s adults took part in a cultural event in the past year, a government survey there has showed. The 50.9 percent of Japanese who reported attending a movie, the theater, a concert, museum or art gallery in the previous 12 months represented a 3.5 percentage point drop on the figure recorded in an identical survey held back in 1996. Nearly half those who did not go cited a lack of time for their sparse interest in cultural activities, but a shocking 39.5 percent said they weren’t interested, a massive 11.7 percentage points more than in the survey conducted eight years ago.

#7c – “Missoula is populated with, even powered by, people who made a deliberate choice to be here. For many, life in Missoula — with its famously laid-back ethic, fistful of rivers, mountainous beauty, easy access to winter and water recreation, and its proliferation of friendly Aussie-cross dogs — is the life worth living.” From review of A Chorus Line in the Independent.

Miscellaneous

#8a – The 2000 presidential election will get another rerun on February 6 at 7 PM when the New Crystal Theatre screens a documentary in the Urey Lecture Hall on the University of Montana campus that focuses on the Florida recount. Former US Congressman Pat Williams and University of Montana political science professor James Lopach will comment on the film and lead a discussion afterwards. A $5 donation is suggested.

#8b – Americans for the Arts and The United States Conference of Mayors presented singer Tony Bennett with their the 2004 Arts Legacy Award at the mayors’ annual Public Leadership in the Arts Awards conference in Washington DC on January 22. Bennet was honored for his efforts to advance the arts for future generations. In addition to Bennett, recipients of the other 2004 awards are: Henry Winkler for the Legendary Artist Award; Mayor Martin O’Malley of Baltimore for Local Arts Leadership and Governor Edward G. Rendell of Pennsylvania for State Arts Leadership.

Media and Web Watch

#10a – Following confessions by the New York Times and USA Today that their reporters had fabricated news reports, the British Broadcasting Corporation last week conceded that that its report charging the government of having "sexed up" Iraqi weapons threats “was wrong.” Its reporter had put words into the mouth of an anonymous source who later committed suicide. Worse, BBC had steadfastly defended its reporter. Things will be different now, the BBC promises. Sure.

#10b – As examples of how the media manipulates the “news” continue to multiply, a group of Associated Press managing editors has launched a National Credibility Roundtables Project. It’s billed as an effort to encourage a wider public discussion of news coverage and journalistic issues. The Missoulian is one of 35 news organizations around the country that e-mailed 11,495 readers last week. A meager 1,750 newspaper and online news readers responded — 34 were Missoulian readers — to this query: “If you had an informal chat in your living room with each of the presidential candidates, which issues would you discuss with them as being the most important to you?”

#10c – One of the 35 news organizations making nice with their audience is Newsdesk.org, a nonprofit, commercial free public-interest news project dedicated to the principle that democracy can only flourish when citizens are fully informed about the urgent issues of our times. It’s part of the non-profit http://www.artsandmedia.net One of Independent Arts & Media’s fundamental goals is to create a network of mutually supportive, cross-promotional, noncommercial media and arts projects, programs, organizations and producers.

#10d – Howard Dean said it in New Hampshire on Monday: "I never worry about the news media being fair. The news media does what the news media does. They’re an entertainment businesses at least as much as the news media."

#10e – Columnist Molly Ivins, singing the blues over the come-uppance administered by those Iowa hayseeds to “my man Dean,” labeled John Kerry as a sure presidential election loser because “he’s got no Elvis. You can’t win without Elvis.” After yesterday’s vote in New Hampshire, the tart-tongued Texas kvetch may want to join two-time loser Dean in singing Heartbreak Hotel.

Finally, as something of a coda to this week’s SCOPE roundup of cultural news and views, remember that all the previous SCOPEs are archived in the Library section of the MCC website. ModWest, the Missoula-based Internet Service Provider that hosts and tracks the traffic to that website, reports that the MCC website averages about 45-50 “unique visitors” per day who look at 4 or 5 pages each. People from 40 foreign countries have visited it recently to learn about Missoula’s cultural environment. See for yourself at http://www.missoulacultural.org Or, if you prefer, rock ‘n roll with The King at http://www.elvis.com

MARK at MCC