The Artists’ Gallery in the Emerson Cultural Center will feature the work of MACK and Geri Ward during the month of December.  The show will include a Featured Artist Reception where you can meet the artists and share a glass of wine.


Ward says that "The act of painting usually takes me where it wants to go, not necessarily where I thought I was going with it. This kind of surprise and discovery is what keeps painting alive and original for me, as well as for my collectors".  Ward has been painting and exhibiting her luminous and inventive work in Bozeman since she and her family moved here from the San Francisco Bay area in 1974.

MACK's art reflects her Alaskan upbringing, love of the West, Mountains and Water. All of her art is bright and whimsical, seeking the positive and often a good laugh.  Most of her work focuses on characters who are multi-ethnic to represent the world family we all belong to and are loosely based on Yup'ic Eskimo masks from her childhood, as well as ethnic influences from around the world and the American West/Northwest. MACK is always looking to pay tribute to the under-represented, putting their attributes on full and joyful display!

Come see the artwork and meet its makers at the Featured Artist Reception in The Artists’ Gallery, Friday, December 12th from 5:00 pm to 8:00 pm.

Montana State University has debuted a website directed at veterans. The site, which provides a full listing of services and resources at MSU for veterans utilizing an attractive multi-media format, may be found at: http://www.montana.edu/veteran/.
 
“We’re pleased with the website because not only will it reach out a lot more veterans, providing essential information in one place,” said Brenda York, director of MSU’s Office of Disability, Re-Entry and Veteran Services. “It is also a beautiful symbol of how MSU embraces veterans’ attendance at the university.”
 
The new website, which is a part of a recent overall redesign of MSU’s website, includes videos, interviews and information welcoming to veterans. Four videos are embedded in the page, featuring a welcome from MSU President Cruzado, interviews from MSU veterans discussing veteran support services, academics and life in Bozeman. The page was designed and produced in-house by MSU University Communications.
 
“It is essential that the Web presence of MSU’s Veteran Services reflects the quality of their service and the importance of supporting veteran students in succeeding at Montana State University. This new website does that,” said Jake Dolan, director of MSU Web and Digital Communications.
 
MSU has been designated several times by several agencies as a veteran-friendly institution. York says there are about 589 veterans enrolled at MSU, a number that has risen steadily in the last five years. In that time, MSU instituted several key services aimed at serving veterans, including opening a new veterans’ center in the basement of the SUB about five years ago.
 
York said MSU is proud of the reputation that it has earned as one of the most veteran-friendly campuses in the country.
 
“We owe it to veterans to provide them with a quality education and place to come after service,” York said. She adds that veterans are an asset to the student body at large, providing diversity that enriches the student body.
 
“Their experiences also enable them to provide leadership and share cultural experiences from their service,” York said. “The entire campus benefits.”

Prospera Business Network announced the winners of its 2014 Business Excellence Awards at the organization’s largest celebration of the year on Thursday, Nov. 6, at the Best Western GranTree Inn in Bozeman. Nearly 220 individuals were in attendance recognizing businesses and individuals in five categories for their exceptional contributions to the region’s business community.

The award categories were: Innovator of the Year, Entrepreneur of the Year, Woman Entrepreneur of the Year, Economic Leadership Award, and Business of the Year.

406 Aerospace and President Ehson Mosleh were named the 2014 Innovator of the Year in recognition of the company’s application of state-of-the-art technologies to develop, design and build small satellites. 406 Aerospace leverages excess launch vehicle capacity by designing and building low-mass, low-power systems, sensors and software for clients including NASA and the United States Air Force. The company was formed in 2012 by commercializing technology out of the Montana State University Space Science and Engineering Laboratory.

Copper Whiskey Bar & Grill Managing Partners Jon Slye and Jay Thane were named the 2014 Entrepreneurs of the Year in recognition of their significant revenue growth, job creation and commitment to supporting Montana-made products. Copper features a wide array of beer, spirits and food products from Montana producers and the restaurant saw positive financial performance within the first six months of opening. They have created jobs for nearly 50 employees at Copper and are also in the process of opening a second restaurant, in the former Weebee’s location, which is anticipated to employ another 65 individuals.
 
Noelle Johnson, owner of The Daily Coffee Bar, was named the 2014 Woman Entrepreneur of the Year in recognition of her passion for high-quality coffee and pastries and her long-lasting success in the Bozeman community. Noelle opened her first location on College Street in 1993 and has since expanded to a second location at Oak and Rouse. The Daily Coffee Bar has seen profit growth each year since it was established, and has also enjoyed exceptional employee retention.

Dr. Becky Mahurin, Director of the Technology Transfer Office at Montana State University, was honored with the 2014 Economic Leadership Award in recognition for her substantial contributions to economic development throughout the state. In her 23 years as director, she has created a nationally prominent university tech transfer program and MSU consistently ranks in the top ten universities nationwide for licensing activity. Since 2003, the Technology Transfer Office has executed approximately 198 licenses or options with Montana companies or entrepreneurs and in the past 15 years MSU has spun out roughly 50 companies. Local examples of companies using licensed inventions include LigoCyte Pharmaceuticals, now Takeda Vaccines Montana, Cleanwaste and Bridger Photonics. Becky has also taken leadership roles over the years with organizations including the Montana Science and Technology Alliance, the Montana BioScience Alliance, the Montana Biotechnology Center at the University of Montana and the Prospera Board of Directors.
 
Bozeman’s Gibson Brands Inc., Acoustic Division was named the 2014 Business of the Year in recognition of their longevity in Bozeman, commitment to quality and efficiency and their role as a significant employer in the area. Producing high-end acoustic guitars for Gibson since Gibson acquired the Flatiron Mandolin Company in 1986; the Gibson Acoustic Division is currently the fastest growing guitar division within the Gibson Corporation. With assistance from the Montana Manufacturing Extension Center, the facility has reduced the time needed per guitar from over 30 hours to just 10.7 hours and now produces 94 guitars per day. Nearly all of Gibson Acoustic’s guitars are sold outside of the state, with over half going to international customers and with prices ranging from $1,500 to over $6,000. Of the roughly 120 craft builders employed at Gibson Acoustic, the majority has been with the company for over five years and the average tenure is ten years. In addition to generating revenue from outside of the area and providing quality long-term employment opportunities, Gibson Brands Inc., Acoustic Division has been a good corporate citizen, consistently supporting local organizations and charities.
 
Video vignettes highlighting the winners and their stories, produced by ABC Fox of Montana, are available at: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqwG3UogxaEGA9lIeVPtphQ

About the Business Excellence Awards
Prospera Business Network presents its Business Excellence Awards each year at the organization’s annual dinner to recognize exceptional businesses and leaders in our area. Award nominations are solicited and received from the business community with the final selection made by Prospera’s Board of Directors. The Business Excellence Awards is Prospera’s biggest event of the year, with more than 200 business and community leaders in attendance.

The Innovator of the Year Award is given to a business for an innovative business model or for creating innovative or value-added products or services.

The Entrepreneur of the Year Award is presented to an individual or team from a company in business less than five years in recognition of exceptional performance. Measurements could include: establishment of new product line, unique business model, significant growth in revenues, outstanding leadership, steady job growth, sustainable business practices, overcoming obstacles or hardships, community involvement, etc.

The Woman Entrepreneur of the Year Award is presented to a woman who owns at least 51 percent of a company, in recognition of her exceptional leadership and performance. Measurements could include: establishment of new product line, unique business model, significant growth in revenues, outstanding leadership, steady job growth, sustainable business practices, overcoming obstacles or hardships, community involvement, etc.

The Economic Leadership Award is given to an individual leader from government, non-profit, or business sector who has made a significant contribution to the economic development of our area.

The Business of the Year Award is given to an established business (in business for five or more years) in recognition for its significant contribution to the economic development of our area. Measurements could include: steady job creation, significant revenues from out of state, support for community events/organizations, sustainable business practices, etc.
 
About Prospera Business Network
Prospera Business Network is a member-supported nonprofit economic development organization in southwestern Montana whose purpose is to advance, challenge and inspire our regional business communities. Prospera Business Network is dedicated to supporting business expansion, retention and relocation by providing access to business consulting, financing, professional development and economic research. Prospera Business Network is one of the most comprehensive and collaborative economic development organizations in the area, with the mission to advance, challenge and inspire the business communities in southwestern Montana and in the process contribute to the overall growth and diversification of Montana’s economy.  Prospera Business Network provides a wealth of resources and tools to business leaders and visionary entrepreneurs and prides itself on the range and quality of its programs. To learn more about Prospera Business Network, visit: www.ProsperaBusinessNetwork.org
 
Award Winner photos attached, courtesy of Sunrift Studios.
 

 

The inaugural season of the Bozeman Doc Series continues with the Montana premiere of the acclaimed documentary, "Marmato", Sunday, November 16th at 7pm at the Emerson Cultural Center. Nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at this year’s Sundance film festival, the film chronicles the struggle between the miner’s of Marmato, a small village in the mountains of Colombia perched atop one of the largest gold reserves in the world, and the multinational corporation looking to take control of their mines. Screen Daily calls the film “a beautifully shot portrait of resistance”. Doors open at 6:30pm. Tickets are $10, and are available at Cactus Records, Movie Lovers, at the door and online at bozemandocseries.org. The series will continue through April and will bring the best documentaries of the year from around the world to Bozeman. For more information visit bozemandocseries.org. The Bozeman Doc Series. Real people. Real life. Come see the world.

During the fall of 2010, members of the Greater Gallatin Homeless Action Coalition (GGHAC) created a Warming Center Committee to take a look at a short-term immediate response to the need for a safe and warm place for homeless men, women, and families.

Since then, in partnership with Human Resource Development Council (HRDC), Bozeman’s Warming Center has provided seasonal shelter to anyone in need thanks to a group of volunteers who work year round to raise funds and donate their time, energy, and talents to get the shelter up and running each season.

In addition to creating a solution to homelessness in the Greater Gallatin Valley, GGHAC holds monthly meetings at the Salvation Army on the second Thursday of every month to from 11: 30 am to 1 pm to discuss funding opportunities and event planning for Project Homeless Connect and the Homeless Veteran Stand Down.
Last year more than 170 people, varying in age from toddlers to senior citizens stayed at the Warming Center.  On most winter nights there were 30-40 people who sought shelter from Montana’s cold winter nights.

The Warming Center is located at 2104 Industrial Dive and is now open from 7am-7pm and is offering free showers on Monday (10am- 2pm), Thursday (10am-2pm), and Saturday (9am-2pm). Each guest gets 20 minutes, including eight minutes with the water running. And they are expected to clean the shower when they are done.

The Warming Center Showers are a collaboration of ten community partners:
    •    Alcohol & Drug Services of Gallatin County
    •    Community Health Partners
    •    Gallatin Mental Health Center
    •    Help Center
    •    HRDC
    •    St. James Episcopal
    •    United Methodist Church
    •    Two individual community members
    •    7th Day Adventist

The Warming Center is in need of volunteers to assist staff during operating hours, cleaning and maintaining the facility, laundry services, and more.
For information about making a donation to keep the doors open throughout the winter season and/or volunteering at the Warming Center visit:  thehrdc.org.

Award-winning science writer David Quammen has published a new book about the Ebola virus and the disease it causes, and will give a free public lecture about it at Montana State University.

Quammen will speak on “Ebola and Beyond: Scary Viruses in a Globalized World” at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 18, in Ballroom A of MSU’s Strand Union Building.

A Bozeman resident and former Wallace Stegner Professor in Western American Studies at MSU, Quammen published “Ebola: The Natural and Human History of a Deadly Virus” this fall in response to public and media bewilderment about the disease, after circumstances became more severe in West Africa. Quammen drew on material from his compendious 2012 book, “Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic” to assemble this new little volume, adding a fresh introduction and an epilogue devoted to recent events.

“The 2014 epidemic of Ebola virus disease in West Africa is unlike any Ebola event ever seen before,” Quammen said. “In fact, as of this writing, it’s already 10 times larger in terms of case fatalities – 10 times more punishing to Africans, 10 times more scary and befuddling to people around the world – than any single outbreak of an Ebolavirus (there are five kinds) during the previous known history of the disease.

“The peculiarly unfortunate circumstances that allowed this outbreak to simmer for months and then explode in the three countries first affected, and especially in Liberia, included weakened governance after decades of civil turmoil, inadequate health care infrastructure, shortage of trained health care workers and simple barrier-nursing supplies, population density and poverty in the capital cities, suspicion of Western medicine, and traditional funerary practices,” Quammen said.

Quammen has written many books, including “The Reluctant Mr. Darwin,” and “The Song of the Dodo.” He has been published in several national magazines and won numerous awards.  “Spillover,” for one, was a finalist for seven awards and received two of them: the Science and Society Book Award given by the National Association of Science Writers, and the Society of Biology (UK) Book Award in General Biology.

Quammen was educated at Yale University and Oxford University, and has lived in Montana since 1973.  He has received honorary doctorates from MSU and Colorado College.

For more information, go to http://www.davidquammen.com/

I went to see Phillip Phillips at The Field House on Friday night and I learned a few things:

1. Apparently I have a thing for white guys with acoustic guitars (but I think I already knew that)

2. My post concussion brain does not like strobe lights

3. Technology is a double edged sword.

Without reality TV and "vote via text message", I wouldn't know who Phillip Phillips is, but the level to which people are distracted by technology in their daily lives is disconcerting. The crowd was full of lit phone screens. The concert was going full blast and all around me, people were taking selfies, recording videos and even Facebooking! When the woman seated behind me wanted me to sit down because she was recording the song I was dancing to, I considered screaming into her lens "BE HERE NOW!" How dare she interrupt my joyful experience? I took one giant step to the right and kept dancing. I thought How can all these people be here in this amazing moment and be focused elsewhere? and then I realized that I was focusing elsewhere by thinking about all these other people! It sure is distracting, all the camera flashes and glowing screens. While I was dancing, singing and clapping, there were four people standing in front of me, holding their phones perfectly still with both hands, not making a sound. What I want to know is when in the world are they ever going to watch that video? Oh well, when they do, they'll hear my loud, out of pitch voice singing along to every song!

4. Those of us who go to a concert because we are familiar with the artist and truly appreciate his music  are few and far between.

There was a white haired grandma type lady behind me as we exited the arena. She was complaining because she only knew two of the songs Phillip played and "he just had to wait til the very end" to play his most popular song, Home. I should have responded to her: Well, that's what an encore is. Also, you know why I  knew every song? Because I bought his albums and I listen to them regularly because I genuinely enjoy his music! What a concept! I wonder why that woman was there? Maybe as a gift to a granddaughter she loves?

I've certainly been to concerts where I didn't know any of the artist's original songs but I've never complained about it. That's part of loving music and that's some of the point of an opening act, to expose you to music you've never heard before. I've discovered a lot of great artists that way.

5. I do not belong seated in the stands. I belong in that crazy, screaming, pulsing mass of humanity in front of the stage.

When I bought my ticket to this concert, months ago,  I was still suffering from some significant concussion symptoms. I wasn't even sure I'd be able to go and I figured if I did, I probably shouldn't be close to the speakers and would need to be able to sit down, so I bought seat tickets instead of general admission. I only stood up to dance for four songs, which practically broke my concert loving heart!

Music is one of the things I'm most passionate about, and going to see live music is one of my favorite things in the entire world. I've never made a list (although now I'm going to!) but I'm sure that I've easily been to over 100 concerts in my life. It's food for my soul. A Dave Matthews Band concert is my personal equivalent of going to church. I understand that's not common and I certainly don't expect all the other concert attendees to have the same enthusiasm for the experience that I do. I guess I just don't understand the concept of spending so much money on a concert ticket if you aren't fully committed to the experience. The same goes for people who get so drunk or high that they have no idea what song is playing. I've never understood that either.

I don't want to impose on anyone else's experience with my singing and dancing but I think I have a right to be doing it. I've paid good money for my own little space in that venue and I should be able to use it to enjoy the music however I see fit, as long as I'm not hurting anyone else. If I annoy you, well... I'm sorry but I'm not really sorry.

The deadline is Oct. 31 to apply for a Montana State University Extended University basic course for emergency medical technicians that will be taught next spring.

The EMT Basic Course will be taught 6:30-10 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays from Jan. 15 through April 30. The course covers essential skills required of emergency medical technicians. It will prepare students for the state and national written and practical exams. Students who pass the exams will be certified to perform life-saving skills as EMTs in a pre-hospital setting.

Tuition for the course is $800 for non-credit students. This course can also be taken for academic credit at an additional charge.

Kris Kaull, B.S., NREMT-P, CCEMT-P, will teach the class. Those who are interested in attending the course must be at least 18 years old, have a high school diploma or GED equivalent and must not have been convicted of certain felony charges.

Enrollment is limited, and students who apply must also interview with the course instructor. Interviews will be held on Saturday, Nov. 15.

For more information about the course or to request application materials, visit http://eu.montana.edu/profdev, call Extended University at (406) 994-6683, or email ContinuingEd@montana.edu.

The Artists’ Gallery in the Emerson Cultural Center will feature the work of Grace Dyk and Vanessa Rogers during the month of November.  The show will include a Featured Artist Reception where you can meet the artists and share a glass of wine.
 
Dyk is a watercolorist and oil painter who strives to capture the beauty of the Gallatin Valley landscape.  She enjoys working with shadow and depth in her paintings.  Dyk finds an artistic challenge in expressing the beauty of the natural world, which intensifies as the seasons change and add dramatic changes of color to the mix.
 
Rogers is a ceramic artist working exclusively in porcelain, which she appreciates for its smooth texture and ability to showcase brilliant colors in glazes.  Rogers hand carves and sculpts each piece with patterns and textures inspired by nature and the sea.  She endeavors to create pottery which marries the worlds of form and function as a metaphorical juxtaposition of the physical and spiritual world.
 
Come see the artwork and meet its makers at the Featured Artist Reception in The Artists’ Gallery, Friday, November 14th from 5:00 pm to 8:00 pm