Montana: Artist's Innovation Award

The Montana Arts Council (MAC) is launching a new program, the Artist’s Innovation Award, which is designed to honor the innovative ideas and contributions of Montana artists to the state’s culture and economy. The program will recognize up to five Montana artists per year who show extraordinary innovation in their work and artwork, outstanding originality and dedication in their creative pursuits, and a marked capacity for self direction. Each $3,000 award will be unrestricted, but must include a public activity that will convey the artist’s innovation (and showcase MAC’s sponsorship of the award) to other Montanans. A working group of Council members spent the summer developing the program, which embodies the agency’s commitment, articulated in its strategic plan, to “foster an environment where leaders look to the innovation of artists and the arts to enliven, invigorate and enrich their endeavors and their communities.” As MAC Executive Director Arlynn Fishbaugh stated, “The new program bridges needs of both individual artists and an agency that has to be accountable for how it spends all of its public funding.” For more information please contact Arlynn Fishbaugh.