By TOM BENSEN
The Roxy Theater will host the first annual Montana Film Festival October 1-4, bringing a lineup of new, acclaimed independent films and recent festival hits to Missoula. Four made-in-Montana movie premieres and a Montana film retrospective will highlight the state’s past, present and future cinematic glory. The inaugural festival will welcome guest writers, directors, actors, and industry professionals to experience Montana hospitality and be inspired to develop future productions in this wonderful location we call home. Visit here.
The Missoula Art Museum presents Kathryn Schmidt: Seen In Broad Daylight
through October 24, Terrain: Plateau Native Art & Poetry through February 27, 2016 (pictured here). John Buck: Free for All through March 12; Good Wood: Carved And Cut From MAM’s Permanent Collection
through March 12. A Few of My Favorite Things, an exhibition selected by MAM’s Senior Exhibition Curator Emeritus Stephen Glueckert, opens October 2.
The Montana Museum of Art & Culture presents The Intimate Diebenkorn: Drawings 1949 – 1992 now through December 12 in the Paxson and Meloy Galleries. MMAC presents Music in the Artist’s Studio: Cello Concert with Greg Sauer
Thursday, October 1, from 5:30-7:30 p.m. in the UM PARTV Center – Masquer Theatre. MMAC partners with the Missoula Symphony Orchestra to present this unique evening of music. Artist Richard Diebenkorn developed a profound love of classical music and often listened to Mozart, Haydn, and Bach while painting in his studio. Guest cellist Greg Sauer will perform pieces inspired by the paintings of Diebenkorn. Tour the galleries following the concert during a special docent-led tour.
Nature, music and art will converge during a live, multimedia performance at 7:00 p.m. Monday, September 28, at the North Underground Lecture Hall at the University of Montana. UM’s Environmental Studies Program will host the presentation, “‘What Can I Do?’ Spaceship Earth,” which is designed to show audience members how their actions affect the earth. The event is free and open to the public. Colorado folk musician Laurie Dameron will perform as environmental photographs taken by John Fielder and Karl Snyder are shown. For more information on the event, call Vicki Watson at 243-5153.
The University of Montana School of Music presents the Student Ensemble Series: UM Choral Gala Performance, October 5 at 7:30 p.m. at the UM Dennison Theatre.
Zoofest 2015, a Free Celebration of Montana Music and Art, is at Caras Park Saturday and Sunday, October 3 and 4, from 2:00-10:00. the event features The ‘Lil Smokies, Cure for the Common, Off in the Woods, Tom Catmull, Three Eared Dog, The Dodgy Mountain Men, Locksaw Cartel, The Halladay Quist Band, Tony Holiday and the Velvetones, Aaron Howard, and Ticket Sauce
Fact and Fiction presents Michael Hodges reading and signing The Puller, 7:00 p.m. September 29; and Martin Clark reading and signing The Jezebel Remedy, 7:00 p.m. September 30. Both events are at F&F Downtown.
First Friday Gallery Night is October 2 from 5:00-8:00 p.m. throughout Missoula. Visit here for more information.
The Missoula Community Theatre invites students to Go West! This fall afterschool performing arts class is designed especially for the K-5 grades, October 13-November 7. Go West combines music, history and drama about the Gold Rush days. To learn more about the schedule, times and registration, visit here or call 728-7529.
The Gallery of Visual Arts at the University of Montana presents Variations from an Unlimited Sequence by Jodi Lightner throughout October, with an opening reception from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. Thursday, October 1. It is free and open to the public and will include a talk by Lightner at 5:45 p.m. The Gallery of Visual Arts is located on the first floor of the UM Social Science Building.
It’s a busy week for live music. Marty Stuart is at the Top Hat Tuesday, September 29, and the Adams Center hosts Death Cab for Cutie on September 30 and Neil Young on October 1 (sold out). Visit here.
A novelist who won the 2009 Guggenheim Fellowship in Fiction will visit the University of Montana on Friday, October 2, lecturing about writing fiction during the day and reading fiction that evening. Both events are free and open to the public. Stacey D’Erasmo, associate professor of writing at Columbia University, will present her craft lecture, “On Beauty,” from 12:10 to 1:00 p.m. in Payne Family Native American Center Room 105. Her fiction reading begins at 7:00 p.m. in the Turner Hall Dell Brown Room. To learn more about the Creative Writing Program and D’Erasmo’s visit to UM, call Karin Schalm, program coordinator, at 243-5267, email here or visit the website.
The Radius1 Anniversary Show, opening October 2 from 5:00-7:00 p.m., is a tribute to the artists we started with, as well as a few others we’re delighted to now be representing in the region. Featuring the Radius Gallery 12: Courtney Blazon, LeAnn Boyd, Lucy Capehart, Susan R. Carlson, Pamela Caughey, Ric Gendron, Michael Haykin, Karen Kemp, Louise Lamontagne, Bobbie McKibbin, Megan Moore and Barb Schwarz Karst. Call 541-7070.
The Five Valley Chorus Rocky Mountainaires and the Sweet Adelines Chorus present “Cruisin’ Along With a Song,” Saturday October 3 at 3:30 p.m. at eh UM Recital Hall. For information and tickets, call 370-7873 or email here.
The Missoula Symphony Orchestra presents Yearn for Freedom featuring Gregory Sauer, cello soloist, October 3 at 7:30 p.m. and October 4 at 3:00 p.m in the UM Dennison Theatre. Visit here for more.
Living Art of Montana presents “Faces of Living Art: a 22-Year Mask Retrospective”, an exhibit of masks created by Living Art workshop participants from 1993 through 2015 displayed at the Downtown Dance Collective throughout October and November. There is a First Friday opening reception at the DDC on October 2 from 6:00-8:00 p.m.
The Missoula Community Theatre is holding an open audition for the roles in The Sound of Music on Sunday, October 4, at the MCT Center for the Performing Arts. Please use the Main Street entrance. There is a wide variety of roles available for adults, as well as a limited number of roles for children under 16. The minimum age to audition is 6 years old. No advance preparation is required. For more information, call 728-1911 or visit here
UM Jazz Series is a new program beginning with a concert by Benny Green on Wednesday, October 7, at 7:30 p.m. in the UM Music Recital Hall. For more information, call 243-4851.
The Jeannette Rankin Peace Center invites the community to help us celebrate our 29th annual Peace Party gathering, October 11 at 3:00 p.m. in Caras Park. We will focus on the theme, “Peace Like a River”, knowing that rivers flow gently past obstacles and create the world around it with persistence and grace – a perfect inspiration to peace in our own lives. Feel free to wear your favorite river wear and celebrate with us. For more information, call 543-3955 or email here.
The Art Associates of Missoula monthly meeting will be held on Wednesday, October 21, at 10:00 a.m. in the Education Center of the Missoula Art Museum. Brandon Reintjes, new Curator at MAM, will introduce himself with a tour of MAM exhibitions. All Art Associates meetings are free and open to the public. For more information please call Susie at 544-0891.
For more information about arts events in the Missoula area, visit our website.
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Tom Bensen has lived in Missoula since 1986, and has been the executive director of the Missoula Cultural Council since June 2004. He has directed First Night Missoula each New Year’s Eve since 1997. He is a member of Missoula’s choral ensemble Dolce Canto, and enjoys being outdoors, whether it is hiking, biking, skiing, walking the dogs, or mowing the lawn. His wife Susan works for Montana Public Radio, and their son Peter attends Hellgate High School.