The Creative and Cultural Economy

"I came here on a distant location to do a TV series, not planning to move," Gilpin said. "But I realized, you know, what a good place to be."

“Montana’s Big Sky belongs on the big screen. What better place to premier CALL OF THE WILD 3D than right here in Montana’s Capitol City,” said Governor Brian Schweitzer. “Fourteen Montanans were employed through the filming of this movie and over 30 Montana businesses in Helena, Lincoln, Phillipsburg, Missoula and Kalispell directly generated business as a result.”

“It’s a really good arts community.”

“Those are very poignant stories,” Wyckoff said. “It was really a very, very concrete way to appreciate that change or lack of change.”

Montana Shakespeare in the Parks will perform William Shakespeare’s "The Tempest" and "The Two Gentlemen of Verona" during its summer tour of 75 free performances in 59 communities in Montana, northern Wyoming, eastern Idaho and western North Dakota.

Even a small town like Missoula, Mont. (population 64,081), now boasts its own symphony orchestra, two ballet companies, a prize-winning repertory theater and an annual International Choral Festival.

Late author-poet John Updike called Missoula, Mont., the Paris of the 1990s. A decade of so later, Missoula remains the cultural mecca of the Treasure State.

Neal Fagen, a Montana transplant working in the cycling mecca of Portland, Oregon, is responsible for the Montana Transit Authority’s creations.

If this video doesn’t bring a tear to your eyes and makes you smile for the rest of the day, you are a cold hearted bastard.

Last year’s inaugural festival drew an estimated 75,000 to Uptown over the three-day event, and this second year promises to bring upwards of 120,000 to Butte the weekend of July 10 to 12.