by Patia Stephens

People who haven’t spent much time in Montana often imagine the state to be a vast cultural wasteland, a place where rodeos and cowboy poetry constitute high culture. The rest of us know otherwise. We know that Montana’s many treasures include fine museums, top-notch theatrical companies and fantastic music festivals. We know that in Montana, it’s possible to have the best of all worlds.

As the state’s cultural center, Missoula often is the place where those worlds collide. UM in particular is a magnet for students who seek to discover and enrich their talents, as well as for teachers who want to share their gifts. The ripple effects are felt across Montana.

In its comprehensive, 10-year review and recommendation for reaccreditation of the University, the Northwest Association of Schools and Colleges commended UM for its dedication to cultural outreach.

“The University of Montana-Missoula appears to be committed to artistic and cultural activity throughout the campus and throughout the state,” the report affirmed.

The sound of music
The School of Fine Arts, despite severe funding problems noted by the report, was singled out for its excellent artistic education and “highest quality” exhibitions and performances, many of which are shared with residents across the state.

“Outreach is the nature of who we are and what we do,” says Tom Cook, music department chair. “We have a faculty that is very aware of the importance of outreach in terms of service to Montana citizens and recruitment.”

UM music teachers travel across the state to serve as guest conductors at festivals, as judges at competitions, and as clinicians at workshops for K-12 students and teachers. Several are members of the String Orchestra of the Rockies, a select group of musicians from throughout the state.

“Our faculty members are very active,” Cook says. “They spend a great deal of extra time and effort off campus.”

Music students also are busy with performances in Montana and the Northwest. Student ensembles include the University Symphony Orchestra, Symphonic Wind Ensemble, Big Sky Winds Marching Band, Opera Theater, Percussion Ensemble and Steel Band.

“Even [K-12] students who are not musicians are positively impressed when the jazz band performs in Libby,” Cook says.

All the world’s a stage
Montana schoolchildren also benefit from the Department of Drama/Dance’s Montana Repertory Theatre. A professional touring company that brings Broadway-style productions to communities across the state and country, the Montana Rep includes a strong educational outreach program.

While a cast of 12 professionals and graduate students performs hits like “It’s a Wonderful Life” or the recently opened “Diary of Anne Frank” from Bozeman to Billings and from California to New York, a smaller Montana Rep troupe goes on the road to Montana high schools and libraries.

For a few days in each community, children learn to write poetry, turn those poems into scripts and stage their own plays.

“What’s neat about it is that it gets the kids writing and they realize anyone can write poetry,” says Greg Johnson, the Rep’s artistic director. “It’s not something only famous people can do.

“Even if kids aren’t artistically inclined,” he adds, “it’s an excellent tool for getting over shyness and learning how to talk in front of others.”

The cast and crew of three — an actor, director and technical director — then present a professional production, such as this year’s “Belle of Amherst.”

Dancing with parts of speech
Kids get to learn about nouns, verbs, adverbs and adjectives in a completely new way when they catch a performance of the Montana Transport Company, UM’s modern dance troupe.

In the production “Moving Words,” Mo-Trans uses dance to explore grammar while engaging kindergartners through sixth-graders with audience participation. The show tours to elementary schools throughout the Northwest, to provide not only entertainment, but also alternative means of learning.

“Maybe the kids will say, ‘Oh, I get it, because I’ve seen it,’” says Amy Ragsdale, Mo-Trans artistic director. “Maybe they’ll suddenly understand what an adverb does.”

As one of the few touring dance companies from Montana, and the state’s only modern dance company, Mo-Trans also performs dance concerts for grownups and families. Each show includes pieces from choreographers both local and global, and travels to towns large and small across the region. The love of dance, pure and simple, is the troupe’s main inspiration.

“This is an art form that has been passionately inspiring for some people to be engaged in,” Ragsdale says. “They become dancers, and it’s the great thing in their lives. Our hope is that when we go to, say, Conrad, some of the kids will see it and think, ‘Wow, maybe I could do that.’ Maybe it will suggest a possibility they’ve never thought of before.”

Mo-Trans also presents dance and movement workshops for senior citizens in nursing homes, people with developmental and physical disabilities and women recovering from domestic violence.

“There’s a liberating effect,” Ragsdale says. “Our hope is to really have an impact on the community, to reach as many different populations as possible.”

Picturing creativity
The University’s art department brings visual enrichment to Montana residents through exhibits of student and faculty work both in the campus Gallery of Visual Arts and in shows that travel across the state.

Art students and faculty members also travel to elementary, middle and high schools to present workshops on everything from creating one-of-a-kind books to painting murals. The workshops give schoolchildren a chance to explore their artistic sides and try out something new.

“It gets their creative problem-solving process going,” says Jim Bailey, art department chair. “A lot of kids prefer a hands-on experience. Here they are learning by doing versus just thinking about doing. They’re putting theory into practice.”

Many of UM’s art faculty members also donate their time and expertise to other statewide concerns, such as Montana’s historic preservation board or the Montana Education Association.

On the frontier of education
“To be truly educated, one must have exposure to art in all forms,” says Maggie Mudd, director of UM’s Museum of Fine Arts.

The museum’s mission is to collect, display and preserve works of art for the education of students, for scholarly research and for public enjoyment. With a permanent collection of nearly 10,000 works of art, the museum serves as one of Montana’s main depositories for collections from around the state, such as those of Henry Meloy and Fra Dana.

“I think it’s interesting that even at that early period of time, people in Montana intuitively knew that exposure to art was a basic component of an educational experience,” Mudd says. “A good university de facto included an art collection.”

Other works in the permanent collection range from those of important Western artists like Edgar Paxson, Joseph Henry Sharp and Ralph DeCamp to the international greats Pablo Picasso, Marc Chagall and Robert Motherwell. The collection even includes a Rembrandt etching.

A vital component of the museum’s work is keeping the history of art and collecting in Montana.

“We have works given to us by very outstanding and interesting historical figures in the state,” Mudd says. “So what we carry in the collection is also a tremendous bank of history. It’s an archive not only of the art but also of all the history that swirls around us.”

Many of the works in the collection are displayed in the museum’s Meloy and Paxson galleries on campus, as well as through traveling exhibits and loans to art centers throughout Montana.

“The permanent collection has benefited the state through loans — and lots of them — to museums and galleries that make them vibrant centers in their own communities,” Mudd says.

Upcoming Museum of Fine Arts shows include the Nelson Chang collection of Chinese antiquities and “Shelterbelt,” an installation by Montana artist and wheat farmer Gary Horinek. A traveling exhibit of work by long-time Montana art educator Jerry Rankin will visit Butte and Miles City.

“I think everything we do is outreach because of the public nature of what we do,” Mudd says. “Our shows are productions. They are open to the public, but happily, there’s no box office. People can just come.”

For more information on cultural outreach, contact the School of Fine Arts at (406) 243-4970.