Visual Arts
Christmas Spectacular Fundraiser
Rocky Mountain Ballet Theatre Headed To 08 Olympics
With dance being vital to Chinese culture, the pomp surrounding the 2008 Beijing Olympics will be quite the spectacle, and dancers from Missoula's Rocky Mountain Ballet Theatre will help make sure of it.
The Rocky Mountain Ballet Theatre will travel to Beijing in the summer of 2008 for nearly three weeks and perform at several cultural events as well as diplomatic conferences. Charlene Campbell, the artistic director of the Theatre, will escort 12 to 16 young dancers along with technical and production assistants to various provinces. "I think China has a very romantic perception of Montana, and we want to contribute to that," said Campbell.
Sen. Max Baucus made the invitation possible, working with the China Arts and Entertainment Group and its director Wang Hongbo. The group is a government-funded cultural exchange program, which will help fund the Ballet Theatre's stay. Campbell estimates they will still need to raise nearly $150,000 for airfare, production costs, and costume repair and design. Fundraising will include the upcoming fifth annual "Christmas Spectacular" on Nov. 25-26 at the Wilma Theater and Dec. 2 in Anaconda. The group will also perform at The Missoula Symphony's production of "Holiday Pops" at the University Theater on Dec. 9-10. For additional event information visit The Rocky Mountain Ballet Theatre's site at www.rmbt.org.
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Community Art Exhibit
Dear Travel PartnerI attended one of the most inspiring art openings last night in Bozeman. It was titled, “No Place Like Roam: Artifacts and Archives of Modern Nomads.” The Weaver Room at the Emerson Cultural Center was filled with people awing, laughing and daydreaming through artifacts and tales of the community’s far-flung adventures around the world.
How amazing it was to hear stories from my community, reminding me that everyone we know, and don’t know, has travel tales. It may just take the right artifact to spark the legend. The room’s walls are lined with items that
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SPECIAL PHOTO ESSAY
The Face of Montana: Portraits of People under the Big Sky
"[W]e know that people are formed by the light and air, by their inherited traits, and their actions. We can tell from appearance the work someone does or does not do; we can read in his face whether he is happy or troubled."
− August Sander
In the world of journalism we are always looking for a story, something interesting and action-packed or dense and emotionally gripping. We start discarding the ordinary as too mundane, and search to understand extraordinary events or people. But we all have a story, each filled with beauty and hurt, birthdays and funerals.
August Sanders, a mid-nineteenth century German photographer who photographed people from all walks of life, helped Teresa Tamura’s beginning photojournalism class understand how to capture a person’s story in a single image.
In this series of portraits of people in Montana, students found artists, cowboys, hairdressers, and neighbors that live in this state of wide open spaces, and snapped a single picture of their lives.
Road Trips
Tired of Airhead Politics? Head to Dixon’s Down Home Gallery Tour
When friends invited us on a day-trip to Dixon last year about this time, my first thought was, “Alright, apples!” As a child in Albuquerque, Dixon Apples were a seasonal joy, little signs sticking out of the bushels declaring, with a sense of pride, that they were grown right here in the New Mexico sunshine. But to my surprise, Dixon, New Mexico has nothing to do with Dixon Apples (though they do have apples trees in Dixon, New Mexico). [more]
Touching the YouTube Monkey
Helena Student Film Garners YouTube Fame
Capitol High School senior Nick Andrews has a phenomenon on his hands -- his banana hands. Andrews' positively hilarious short film above has seen time on the "Today Show," and ink in the Chicago Tribune and locally, the Helena Independent Record featured the young cinematographer. His hit, "My Hands are Bananas," has so far netted 513,068 views, 2,096 comments and been "favorited" more than 4,000 times on YouTube. Watch it and you'll see why. I'm still chortling.
Part Of Downtown Gallery Walk in Laramie
Annual Red Desert Photo Show Starts Friday
LARAMIE – Biodiversity Conservation Alliance’s Third Annual Red Desert Photo Show and Contest, will debut with a reception at Coal Creek Coffee in Downtown Laramie on Friday, October 6th from 5:00 to 9:00 pm. The event will coincide with the downtown Gallery Walk, and judging will occur approximately 7:30. [more]
Art in the West
High Spirits at the Miniatures and More Show
At the National Museum of Wildlife Art in Jackson, Wyoming last week, a tony crowd of art collectors dressed to the hilt in neo-western garb pursued the work of the artists they admire. For the artists present, the 19th annual Western Visions: Miniatures and More Show was not only a fundraiser for the museum but a chance to leave their solitary studios and visit with their artist peers.
"This event is the only time I feel like an artist," joked Tina Close, a longtime participant in the show and Jackson local. Sculptor Margery Torrey laughed and added, "We should exchange numbers. I don’t have much interaction with other artists." Close, dressed elegantly in a long black embroidered jacket, and taxidermist cum rancher Torrey, who wore a cowboy hat and buckskin shirt, met this year at the Wild West Artist Party.
The following night at the invitational Miniatures and More Show, the work -- in dimensions less than nine by twelve inches -- of one hundred and fifty painters and sculptors was exhibited. The board chairman emeritus, Bill Kerr, described the event as a means of "bringing together the collecting world with artists."
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Creative Expression in a "Second-Tier" City
National Media Discusses Denver Arts Scene
Forget the "Mile High City," "Queen of the Plains," or "Paris on the Platte"--Paul Goldberger, architecture critic for The New Yorker has offered up a new slogan for Denver: A "Second-Tier City." In the August 28th issue, Goldberger discusses Daniel Libeskind's addition to the Denver Art Museum, and his review is mixed. He praises the building for the boldness of its design and the innovation of the complex of condos and a hotel that the architect also built ("Such success is a reminder of the fact that second-tier American cities have often proved more willing to take architectural risks than supposedly sophisticated cities like New York."), but decries the odd angles that it provides as surfaces for hanging art. Goldberger writes, "The task of making surfaces that you can actually hang paintings on has gone, instead, to Daniel Kohl, the museum’s installation designer…To the extent that Libeskind’s building is workable as a museum, it is Kohl who has made it so." [more]
SPECIAL PHOTO ESSAY
An Empty Quarter: Photography from Montana’s Hi-Line
This past month, New West has had the great pleasure of hosting the photography of Michael Coles in our Missoula office. Michael's New West show "An Empty Quarter" featured 20 superbly printed black & white images from a study of Montana's Hi-Line region, a selection of which we offer here in digital form. We hope you enjoy it as much as we have.
Artist's Note: "An Empty Quarter" evolved from a series of trips across U.S. Highway 2 and various back roads stretching along the Great Northern rail line in northern Montana. It remains a work in progress. Images were photographed in counties such as Blaine, Philips and Valley -- counties almost the size of compact states, yet containing populations of less than 5,000 people. Such populations are referred to as "frontier populations;" areas with no more than six people per square mile. I found myself taken by the geometry, distances and signposts of North Central Montana, a region bordering on Canada that is referred to as "the Hi-Line." Census data indicate a hemorrhaging population. Yet a coral reef of towns set on a stark prairie ocean offered a smorgasbord of voices and scapes. --Michael Coles
Michael Coles is a freelance photographer working out of Missoula, Montana. Original prints from this show are available for sale. Michael can be reached at mcoles@mindspring.com, and more of his work can be found at www.mcolesphoto.com.
Art Walk
Invite: New West Hosts Cherlyn Wilcox at First Friday
Come join us for another uber cool New West First Friday this week when we host artist Cherlyn Wilcox this Friday, August 4th, premiering her show -- simply titled "New Paintings."
Wilcox paints primarily in oils and focuses on exploring her emotional connections with the local environment, emphasizing color and dynamic movement.
When: First Friday, August 4, 5-9 p.m.
Where: New West offices, 415 N. Higgins (in the alley behind the Old Post).
The show is up through August 25th including Artini Slam One, with the Missoula Art Museum, here at New West on August 17th.
Who: Cherlyn Wilcox and her "New Paintings"
What: Chit chat, good art, good beer.
We'll see you here.
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