MPAC's History

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Land Acknowledgement

The Montana Performing Arts Consortium (MPAC) is a statewide arts organization. Art, in all its forms, is a uniquely human product. It is born out of human culture, human history, and human experiences: both personal and communal. People, culture, and what we think of as “art” have been here for many generations. It was here before we called this place Montana or the United States.

MPAC acknowledges that Montana is the traditional homeland of several tribes, including the Assiniboine, Blackfeet, Chippewa Cree, Crow, Gros Ventre, Kootenai, Little Shell, Northern Cheyenne, Pend d’Oreille, Plains Cree, Salish, Sioux, Hidatasa, Mandan, and Arikara. Today this land is home to twelve sovereign tribes with over 65,000 enrolled members. The indigenous people of this area have cared for the land for time immemorial. We honor those who have been and continue to be stewards of the land and pay our respects to the elders and ancestors. We honor those who have taught us about a way of existing where there is no word for “art” because beauty is naturally woven into every aspect of life and those who carry on the traditions of dance, music, painting and other traditions are regarded as storytellers.

Our Story: community and cooperation

The Montana Performing Arts Consortium (MPAC) formed in 1981, incorporated in 1982, and achieved tax-exempt status with the IRS in 1983. In this early period, MPAC contracted with Montana Arts for executive administrative services. During its first 10 years, MPAC coordinated over 50 tours of performing arts events and saved presenters over $1M through reduced fees for block-booked events. (Block-booking is three or more presenting organizations coordinating to book an artist or artistic group, making an offer which pools the combined individual offers of the “block” and offering performances along a route and in a timeframe beneficial to the artist.) This savings increased the number of events presenters offered and stimulated audience growth for their communities. During these early years MPAC leadership provided consultations which influenced the creation of 12 new performing arts subscription series. At this time, MPAC leadership prioritized Montana performing artists’ development and growth alongside that of presenter development. In spring of 1984, MPAC held the first annual Montana Performing Artists Showcase and Block-booking Conference. The conference later expanded to include professional development workshops for artists and presenters.

Recognizing the need for further development and support of rural and emerging presenters, MPAC began the Presenter Development program in 1987. Since the inception of the program MPAC has awarded over $400,000 in fee support monies to emerging and established rural presenters. This assistance helped these small organizations to develop their performing arts series, upgrade artistic quality, and create artist residency programs in their underserved rural communities. Through a 2009 federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act grant, with competitive “shovel-ready” rural projects, MPAC fully-funded all FY2010 Presenter Development applications—the first and only time in its history.

In 1991, MPAC successfully applied for a two-year national model pilot project grant from the National Endowment for the Arts Presenting and Commissioning Program to study the effect of federal funding on rural series programming. The result of this study was that MPAC’s Presenter Development Program served as the model for and became 1 of 6 original participants in the NEA’s Rural and Inner City Re-grant Initiative.

In 2018 the board hired Keern Haslem, Great Falls, as the first employee Executive Director, and retained Montana Arts for business management services. MPAC continued serving presenters and artists through the Covid-19 Pandemic with a virtual conference in January 2021. In August of 2022, The board hired Emily Wolfram, Great Falls, as the current Executive Director. MPAC continues in its mission to support performing arts touring and help Montana communities access high-quality arts programming through its two primary programs: the Artist Showcase & Conference and Presenter Development.