The Creative and Cultural Economy

Chuck Jonkel’s memory will be honored during the festival’s awards ceremony on Friday. The 5 p.m. gathering at the Wilma Theater will also feature clips from a documentary now in post-production about Jonkel’s life.

"I’m just so thrilled to have a female headliner this year," said Sarah Calhoun, festival founder and organizer

"There was something sort of mythic for me in coming to Montana,"

He formed Australian pop-rock band Men At Work in 1979, and they made quite a name for themselves, with chart-topping hits such as "Who Can It Be Now?" and "Down Under."

"We want to unleash the inventor in everyone."

"This could be the media-manufacturing hub," said Staggs, the film commissioner with the Montana Film Office. "It could be the place for startups, a place for content, digital-education tools, app makers, designers and coders. You could build Missoula to be the Austin of Montana – the startup tech center. Nobody is serving this industry."

The Missoula Cultural Council produces First Night Missoula each year on New Year’s Eve to celebrate the arts in Missoula. We would love to hear your feedback on how we can improve the festival – even if you’ve never been.

Filmed on location in Paradise Valley, Livingston and Bozeman, Walking Out earns the "Made-in-Montana" label.

"I Googled it and found out that it’s huge. My training helped me look beyond the immediacy of what I was doing and branch out."

The Missoula Cultural Council is once again collecting this vital information by participating in the Arts and Economic Prosperity V study. During 2016, MCC board members and volunteers will be present at selected arts events with surveys in hand for audience members.