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Montana Matters
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Butte receives NEA grant for Montana Folk Festival
National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Chairman Rocco Landesman announced today that Mainstreet Uptown Butte is one of 788 not-for-profit national, regional, state, and local organizations nationwide to receive an NEA Art Works grant. Mainstreet Uptown Butte is recommended for a $30,000 grant to support the First Peoples' Gathering of Native American performers, artists and folklife demonstrators. The 788 Art Works grants total $24.81 million and support the creation of art that meets the highest standards of excellence, public engagement with diverse and excellent art, lifelong learning in the arts, and the strengthening of communities through the arts.
The Montana Folk Festival, now entering its second year, (fifth counting the three Nationals that preceded from 2008-2010) has been a transformative event that has used the performing and visual arts to create a cultural magnet that draws thousands of visitors to Southwest Montana each July for a three day, free of admission celebration of music, dance, art ethnic cuisine and cultural diversity.
Chairman Landesman said, “The arts should be a part of everyday life. Whether it’s seeing a performance, visiting a gallery, participating in an art class, or simply taking a walk around a neighborhood enhanced by public art, these grants are ensuring that across the nation, the public is able to experience how art works.”
"This is a much needed component of our funding efforts to provide a stable foundation for this event for this year and beyond," said George Everett, Festival Director. "The NEA Arts Works grant allows us to bring together Native American artists and performers from throughout the state and region to contribute to the richness and depth of our explorations of Montana's heritage on our stages and in our Folklife Area."
The NEA received 1,624 eligible applications under the Art Works category for this round of funding, requesting more than $78 million in funding. For a complete listing of projects recommended for Art Works grant support, please visit the NEA website at arts.gov.
For more information about the Montana Folk Festival coming to Butte July 13-15, thanks in large part to support from the NEA, visit www.montanafolkfestival.com or on Facebook, www.facebook.com/mtfolkfest. |
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Thompson Falls Bighorn Sheep Herd Continues to Decline
Based on recent surveys, the bighorn sheep herd in the Thompson Falls area continues to decline. Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks biologist Bruce Sterling counted only 52 sheep on his annual flight this spring. This figure compares to 270 sheep counted in 2008. These numbers reflect the number of sheep observed in the survey, not the total number of sheep in the population. But the trend is alarming to Sterling, who attributes most of the decline to highway mortality. |
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Financial literacy offered for college students
Montana State University President Waded Cruzado announced on Friday the launch of three major
initiatives to help students through college: financial literacy training
for new students and their parents, an expansion of tutoring and advising
services to help students succeed, and a renewed effort to help students
graduate more quickly. |
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Butte council studying ways to spend $28 million in restoration money
The Butte Natural Resource Damage Restoration Council wants to hear from the public about their ideas to restore natural resources in the Butte area. The BNRC is holding two meetings to solicit ideas for restoration projects that could qualify for natural resource damage settlement funds designated for the Butte area. |
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Camping in Glacier National Park open soon
WEST GLACIER, MONT. –Many of Glacier National Park’s campgrounds will be opening for the summer season in upcoming weeks. Apgar Campground, on the west side of the park, will open with services on Friday, May 4, and St. Mary Campground on the east side, will open with services on May 14. Additional campgrounds will open as the season progresses. |
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Caribou wanders into Montana from British Columbia
A radio-collared caribou that wandered into Montana from British Columbia has been returned to Canada.
On Thursday, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks biologists received a report that a caribou was dead in the Salish Mountains in Pinkham Creek south of Eureka. The report was based on a mortality signal from the radio collar the caribou wore. The female caribou was part of a woodland caribou augmentation effort in the south Purcell Mountain's near Cranbrook. In this effort, 19 caribou from northern B.C. had been released about 40 miles north of the U. S. border last month. |
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Perch fishing good on Flathead Lake
Perch fishing on the East side of Polson Bay (Flathead Lake) has settled into a more sporadic schedule with good days and poor days, morning being best. When we had hot still days the small fish would bite but the larger fish became sluggish. Perch fishermen have caught at least 10 small mouth bass. Considering that the state record is 6.66 lbs. that is a very nice bass. Catching lake trout there is also common. |
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Essayist Wendell Berry says affection is key to solving Earth's woes
This year the National Endowment for the Humanities bestowed its highest honor for intellectual achievement in the humanities on the farmer, essayist, novelist, conservationist, and poet, Wendell Berry. "Yes!" I said, when I heard the news. For nearly fifty years, Berry has been unabashedly and sometimes scathingly critical of our highly industrialized, overly capitalized, and profoundly disconnected society. As an alternative, Berry has offered the rural life and values, his account of which drew me - and I'm sure many of you - to his work. (If you have not yet spent an afternoon in Wendell Berry's company, get to a library as quickly as you can. Treasure awaits.) |
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