Arts, Film & Events News | New West Network

Introducing...

Driving past most any Western city these days is a little like watching those time-lapse films back in grade school. Empty fields become bulldozed lots become framed houses become finished homes with trucks in the driveway and new grass in the yard.

It’s a time of dramatic change in the Mountain West. And I’m excited to say that we at NewWest.Net are now launching a quarterly print magazine to help us tell the big story of growth and change in the region.

The best way to check out our magazine is to subscribe. We want to know who’s interested in The New West, so we have made the magazine available free to qualified subscribers who answer a short questionnaire.

• Click here for the questionnaire for a free subscription.
• You can also subscribe for $9.95 a year by clicking here.

We’d love to hear your input and feedback on our new venture. Comments? Criticism? Story ideas? I’d love to hear them. You can email me at . And click “more” below for the full announcement. 

First Friday Opening

This past September, a group of Missoula artists called the Tainted Saints were hired to create a Halloween "haunted house" for the Badlander bar. They did much more.

In two months of after-hours labor--involving metalworking, carpentry, video production, make-up, dumpster diving for materials, and the consumption of truly astounding quantities of very bad beer--the Tainted Saints transformed a defunct Mexican restaurant into an Old West Zombie Brothel, in which they performed a blood-soaked, in-your-face, sensory-confounding performance art piece seen by more than 1,000 Missoulians on Halloween night.

Photographer Chris Lombardi documented this spontaneous eruption of community art, which involved the generous creative efforts of more than 40 people. You are cordially invited to the Badlander this First Friday, December 7 to see photos and a multimedia production in the zombie brothel where the event took place. The brothel will be torn down immediately following this show, so this is your last chance to see what will surely become a bloody little chunk of Missoula legend.

Beer, zombies, pretty pictures of pretty people making really ugly faces, inside Missoula's only undead brothel. It's a no-brainer.

Who: Photographer extraordinaire, Chris Lombardi
What: Photographs and multimedia
Where: Old West Zombie Brothel (The Back of the Badlander, 208 Ryman Street.)
When: Dec. 7 5-9 p.m.  [more]

Gallatin Valley Non-Profits

The Gallatin Valley is home to over 200 non-profits. These organizations do not hinge on metropolitan amenities, and are often created to preserve wild places and stimulate culture in communities of the West. As part of our New West economy, NewWest.Net/Bozeman is highlighting Gallatin Valley organizations in a weekly series.

When Emerson Elementary School closed its doors in the early 90s, the historic building was put onto the market, its future questionable. Concerned about buyers developing the property into businesses or housing, members from the Bozeman community successfully rallied together to preserve the building and create a community arts center.

Since its creation in 1993, the Emerson Center for the Arts and Culture has blossomed into the primary resource for the arts and culture in Southwest Montana, adhering to their mission of stimulating and celebrating the arts in all its forms, fostering a lifelong appreciation and understanding of arts and culture, and building community and economic development among creative enterprises, businesses and civic organizations. Jeane Alm, executive director, expands upon the Emerson Center and its efforts.
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From mentor to concept to screen

HATCH Festival, in early October, brings together mentors and students as a part of the festival's driving priniciples. What next talent can be fostered in the visual arts?

The Journalism Lab was designed to match students with working journalists for lasting mentoring relationships, and to put the students through the paces of putting together stories under tight deadlines.

Students from Montana State University, University of Colorado and Bozeman High School participated.

What is Hatch? is one film created from this program.  [more]

First Friday Reception

NewWest.Net First Friday is back this month with a new show and we'll be hosting the reception Oct. 5 from 5-9 p.m.

So, drop by our office, warm up, chit chat about Western issues and raise a glass to the art of Melanie Gardner, who calls her art, "drawing with paint."

Who: Melanie Gardner
What: Good company, good art, good beer.
When: First Friday, October 5th, 5-9 p.m.
Where: New West offices, 415 N. Higgins (in the alley behind the Old Post).  [more]

The possibilities of more than one mind

Creativity: using imagination to develop new and original ideas; sometimes preformed unaccompanied, but more invigorating when collaborated with others.

Bozeman is home to “creative live wires,” a plethora of professionals in the marketing, advertising, architecture, media and design fields. Hence, the creation of Off the Grid, a forum to network Bozeman’s professional creative arts community.

“This is a chance for everyone in our field to get together, celebrate, collaborate and put Bozeman on the map,” said Jeff Welch of Mercury Advertising.

Off the Grid is hosting their first event with Alex Bogusky, the innovative mind behind the global ad campaigns like Mini Cooper, Burger King and The Truth on September 2.

Update: Last night was a success, filling the Emerson Ballroom with a diverse group who are keen on cultivating the creative community within Bozeman. Stay tuned for more speakers, workshops and networking with Off the Grid. And if any ideas cross your mind on the future direction of this group, contact .  [more]

A celebration of creativity

It’s Sweet Pea Festival time again, a gala we look forward to every year.

When you scroll down BozemanEvent.net, it becomes overwhelming how many activities are happening at the 30th annual Sweet Pea Festival of the Arts — more than 45 different theatrical, musical and dance performances are listed over three days.

And this doesn’t include the Tater Pigs and other delectables that we look forward to every year served by local non-profits. And perusing the arts & crafts vendors tucked under the trees of the rolling green Lindley Park.

This truly is a homegrown festival that started in 1978 by a group of dedicated Bozemanites to stage a “celebration of creativity.” Over 20,000 people attend Sweet Pea festival, which is almost half the population of Bozeman alone. It’s an annual pilgrimage for folks returning to Bozeman where they once called home, tourists visiting or an ideal time to invite the parents for a visit.

Here are just a few of the creative highlights of the Sweet Pea weekend:  [more]

Western Writers

Utah-based writer and photographer Stephen Trimble's Lasting Light: 125 Years of Grand Canyon Photography (Northland Publishing) compiles dozens of the most memorable photographs of the Grand Canyon over the years, and pairs them with the stories of the photographers who took them and the history of photography in the Grand Canyon. The book won the 2007 Western Heritage Award in the photography book category. I recently interviewed Trimble via email about how he selected the photos for Lasting Light, how landscape photographers try to avoid clichés and "eco-porn," and the millions of snapshots of the Grand Canyon in family photo albums across the world.

New West: How did you select the photographers and specific photographs to include in Lasting Light?

Stephen Trimble: Lasting Light began when three people working with Grand Canyon photographers realized that the tales from the field were as compelling as the pictures themselves. Richard Jackson, at Hance Partners in Flagstaff, Arizona, had been making large custom prints for professional Grand Canyon photographers for years. He loved hearing the stories behind the pictures told to him by the photographers. He realized that he even made better prints after he had heard the stories! Richard drove up to Grand Canyon National Park and proposed a major exhibit featuring not just the Canyon, not just photos as fine art—but, rather, an exhibit featuring the passion and dedication and stories of an entire generation of Grand Canyon photographers. The people. The experiences.   [more]