Here’s a quick guide to some arts and cultural events happening around Missoula in the coming week.
Art talk: ‘The Human Impact of Conflict’
(Tuesday, May 24)
Irish artist Brian Maguire’s exhibition, “In the Light of Conscience,” portrays scenes of conflict much like a war photographer would. The large-scale paintings in the Missoula Art Museum depict war-damaged streets in Syria, of migrants who’ve died crossing the border from Mexico into the United States. To help put the imagery into perspective, an upcoming talk will bring in a variety of speakers for a community conversation.
The speakers are: Fernanda Menna Barreto Krum, co-founder of Imagine Nation Brewing, whose main career is as a trauma psychologist; Paul Mwingwa, a resettled refugee from the Democratic Republic of the Congo who came here in 2018 and is now the Refugee Congress Delegate for Montana; and Clay Scott, a journalist based in Helena, who has covered conflict in the Mideast among other locations. Chris Hyslop will moderate. He’s the executive director of the Montana World Affairs Council.
People are also reading…
It starts at 6 p.m. It’s free. The talk is presented by the MAM with Soft Landing Missoula, the International Rescue Committee, and the Montana World Affairs Council.
KFGM membership meeting and concert
(Saturday, May 21)
Missoula Community Radio is gearing up for growth and changes.
Later this summer, the low-wattage station is physically moving and going to a high-powered broadcast at 101.5 FM from its current spot at 105.5. The nonprofit station is also moving from its original headquarters at the Union Hall to the Missoula Public Library.
To learn more about its volunteer-oriented mission, head to the membership meeting at 5 p.m. at Free Cycles. You can sign up to be a DJ, help elect the new board of directors and register for membership. (There are free hot dogs.)
Then at 7 p.m., there’s a concert with music by The Cleaning Crew (dance/hip-hop), Jupiter Beat (rock) and the Sasha Bell Band (indie-pop). The cover is $10, or $8 for members.
‘Tremendous Trio’ at the Dana
(Saturday, May 21)
A trio of artists are opening this weekend at the Dana Gallery. The artists are Wesley James Drake, David Mensing and R. David Wilson.
Drake hails from Chicago and is well-traveled to far-flung destinations and also the West. He’s sharing oils that include street scenes of the Butterfly Herbs and the Oxford Cafe. He’s a member of the Oil Painters of America and the American Impressionist Society, according to his gallery bio.
Wilson is a longtime fixture of the Missoula art community, known for his rhythmic, expressive landscape paintings. Watch out for avian life in a more minimalist style.
Mensing, meanwhile, is an Iowan based in Oregon who shows regularly at the Dana, recognizable for the heightened palette of his landscape scenes and hot magenta under-painting.
The open house on Saturday runs from 2-5 p.m.
Catnyp at the ZACC
(Wednesday, May 25)
Henderson K. Shatner released his first album as Catnyp in 2019, after moving here from Europe where he had a group, Brand Violet, that earned positive reviews for its “surf-goth” sound before it eventually disbanded.
Shatner, an aficionado of rock from 1960s through ’90s, recruited fellow Missoulians to play with him on the album. His renewed enthusiasm for songwriting is apparent, since “IIII,” the fourth Catnyp album, lands this week. The first track, “Big Sky,” fits the surf-goth label, and speaks from the perspective of a ghoulish out-of-state resident who’s moved to Montana with dreams of making it more like where they came from. "I’m moving to Big Sky where a man can really stretch his wings/They got these very big fish in these tiny little ponds and it’s so easy to live like Kings," he says.
The album and the rest of Catnyp’s catalog is available on Bandcamp at catnyp.bandcamp.com/album/catnyp-iiii.
The opener is a new Missoula three-piece called Senterline. Doors open at 7:30 p.m., the show starts at 8 p.m. Tickets are $10 or $15 for a tour-support ticket.
Jazz quartet at Stave & Hoop
(Sunday-Monday, May 22-23)
A quartet of contemporary jazz artists are coming to western Montana for public concerts next week.
The Institute for Creative Music, a nonprofit based in Houston, Texas, is sending four musicians to perform and lead workshops for student musicians.
The IfCM Collective includes trombonist Nick Finzer (Anat Cohen Tentet, Wynton Marsalis, Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra), also saxophonist Caroline Davis (Lee Konitz, Angelica Sanchez), bassist Matthew Golombisky (Pedway, Tomorrow Music Orchestra), and drummer Chris Teal (Quintopus, Chris Teal Trio), according to a news release.
They’ll perform from 7-8:30 p.m. Sunday, May 22, at Stave and Hoop. Tickets are $20, go to staveandhoop.com/events. On Monday, May 23, they’re holding a workshop for area students at the West Side Theater. It runs from 10 a.m.-3 p.m. They’ll go over jazz, improvisation and composition. It’s free. Go to bit.ly/ifcmmissoula. They’ll play a concert that’s open to the public from 2-4 p.m.