Bozeman Soup is a collaborative social effort to provide small grants for projects benefiting the community. The first Bozeman Soup was held on November 15th, coordinated by Montana State’s Art History and Activism course as a class project, taught by Professor Melissa Ragain but completely organized by the class’s 18 students.

It is an incredibly simple and successful model. Bozeman Soup solicits project proposals seeking funding. The projects submitted should focus on bettering the community such as bringing resources to the needy, providing cultural outlets for the artistic, or an effort to raise social awareness. The submitted entries are narrowed down to four that are featured at the main event. The evening costs $5 which buys you a seat (if not sold out), a bowl for soup, and a vote. The presenters have 4 minutes to discuss their project and goals and the audience has a few minutes to ask follow-up questions. After the presentations are completed, the group breaks for a bowl of soup, time to consider and discuss the options amongst the attendees, and cast their vote. An hour later, the votes are tallied and the recipient of the funds is announced. The evening is informative, communal, efficient, and delightfully fun. Attendees will leave the evening being exposed to awareness about the community and a desire to donate to all the presented causes, or at the very least, spread the word.

The November Bozeman Soup was held at the Beall Park Recreation building with over 100 attendees. There was no high technology used. The presentations are purely speaking, no slides or PowerPoint tools. Voting is cast by index cards in a bowl – reflective of its simplicity.

The Art History and Activism students who organized and hosted the occasion solicited the requests for proposals by simple means as well — word of mouth and board postings. Many of those who heard about the grant opportunity were fine art, film, or creative study students who typically do not have abundant funds to support their goals. The group received 18 proposals to review and narrow down. The varied submissions included a community bike share program, establishing a sculpture garden, and requests to support independent film productions. The final proposals selected to present at Beall Park, included a project to build a year round community greenhouse and food forest (edible perennials) to feed the community; an effort to help businesses create transgender restrooms and awareness; the upkeep of The Cottonwood Club community art gallery; and the support of PhD student, Michael Running Wolf’s goal to support his collection and preservation of native American tribal histories in a database and website to share results. Each presenter told their story, provided a compelling need, and gave a new awareness to those attending.

Over 100 people attended the event in November making the grant donation over $600. Each student played a role in preparations. Ashley Moon, Graphic Art major, created posters and fliers, Texel Feder, Liberal Studies Major, Art History minor, helped with logistics. The scene was lively, friendly, and intimate. The room was energized by a common passion to provide good will and make Bozeman a wonderful place to live. The soup was graciously donated by Rendezvous Catering and students pooled to provide additional snacks like pretzels and Chex mix.

Bozeman Soup is modeled after Detroit Soup, which was founded three years ago with the goal of bettering the hard hit city with micro grants. Small focused efforts make steady improvements, even for a bankrupt and bleak city like Detroit. Detroit is seeing change, slowly, thanks to direct and intentional efforts funded by groups like Detroit Soup. The organization is a spin off the Chicago group, InCubate, which explores innovative ways for arts funding. The idea of borrowing and expanding the Soup concept is encouraged while molding it for the area’s own culture is necessary to attract membership. For example, the Detroit Soup, attendees sit on the ground and sometimes share soup out of communal buckets. This is not ideal for attendees in outdoor active town with many bad knees and backs. Bozeman Soup is the start for collaboration, bringing together creative communities, a forum to host social discussion, and provide support to creative people in the area.

The next Bozeman Soup will be outside the confines of the MSU class but the inaugural event had such good attendance that 30 people had to be turned away, purely due to lack of space. Opening it up to a larger facility and audience is not necessarily the solution. Keeping it to scale nurtures the simplicity of the speakers and the intimacy of the gathering. Close quarters and lack of flash or theatrics, required presenters to make eye contact and concisely state their case.

After an ample break for soup, discussion and voting, the ballots were counted and the anticipation was high. The $625 was awarded to The Cottonwood Club who graciously accepted the gift with discussions of improving the sound system, lights, and making drywall repairs. Though the evening came to formal close, the good will did not. Attendees were approaching all presenters inquiring about future support and taking dollars out of wallets to donate, outside the $5 soup share.
A date is not yet set for the next Bozeman Soup, but look to Bozeman Magazine for 2014 calendar updates and happenings.

For additional information about Bozeman Soup, email at bozemansoup@gmail.com

Becky Stein is an author and freelance writer who sustains her writing and outdoor habits by working as a software professional.