2018

October 11th, 2018

GREATER MONTANA FOUNDATION GRANTS BY TOWN - 2018

GMF GRANTS OVER $315,000

FUNDS STILL AVAILABLE FOR CERTAIN GRANTS

BOARD INITIATED GRANTS

$7427 for expenses related to two GMF-sponsored primary election debates, held in the Ed Craney Studio of the Montana Historical Society Museum. One debate was for candidates for the US Senate and the other was for candidates for the US House. These debates were intended to better educate Montanans about issues and choices in these important races. Both debates were broadcast and live streamed.

GRANTS FOR STATEWIDE ORGANIZATIONS

Friends of MTPBS: $50,000 for the Montana Friends of PBS Program Fund, for continuing support for numerous programs, including Backroads of Montana; 11th and Grant; and a new one hour version of C.M. Russell and the West, a one hour version of the successful three hour film, for national release, prospective documentaries, Barns of Montana and The Bozeman Trail, along with on-going news and elections coverage.

Montana Broadcasters Association: $40,000 for the annual EB awards for broadcast excellence. Named in honor of broadcast pioneer E.B. Craney, GMF founder, the “EBs” recognize excellence in a variety of categories through a competitive process, encouraging and rewarding the best of Montana broadcasting.

Montana Historical Society: $40,000 total: $20,000 in continued support for the Edmund B. Craney Film and Media Archives, which has been completed with GMF support over the last three years. Conservation work on endangered films will continue, along with purchases of needed equipment and an on-line presence. MHS will also build a broadcast film collection. $20,000 for improvements to the Ed Craney Studio, to provide updated and improved technical equipment, building on an earlier GMF grant for the Montana Historical Society’s Montana Museum’s auditorium.

Montana Public Radio: $20,000 in continued program support, in areas such as general economic reporting; Can do: Lessons from Savvy Montana Entrepreneurs; Richest Hill: The Future History of Americans Biggest Superfund Site. Funding also supports The Write Question, and Research in the Trenches.

Montana Reporter: $10,000 for a series of on-line stories on important issues related to Montana’s economy. Web-based stories, which will appear on the website of the Montana Free Press, will be available for re-publication by commercial and non-commercial Montana news outlets, including broadcaster websites and daily and weekly newspapers.

Montana Watershed Council: $2500 for Montana Watershed Stories, a digital, print, audio and visual campaign to improve public understanding and support of watershed groups. The Montana watershed groups bring landowners and communities together to find innovative, practical solutions to conserve natural resources. The Watershed Stories campaign will encourage communication of collaborative conservation and natural resources management on multiple levels.

BILLINGS

Beartooth Films: $7500 for “Return,” a full-length documentary following a Montana Vietnam veteran as he returns to Vietnam for the first time since the war. Joined by his son, this veteran sets out to retrace his steps, reckon with the past, and, for the first time, share reflections and insights from the war. This story carries with it a captivating adventure, an introduction to a little-known culture and a story of a father and a son on a hopeful, if heavy journey.

Friends of Yellowstone Public Radio: $10,000 to fund four locally produced community programs: Flavors Under the Big Sky, investigating many aspects of Montana food; Resounds: Arts and Culture on the High Plains; taking an intimate look at art and artists located in the High Plains of Montana and Wyoming; Field Days, produced in collaboration with The Prairie Star newspaper which follows a single farmer or rancher through each season; and Billings Symphony Concerts, featuring encore concerts from the last ten years.

BOZEMAN

Montana State University School of Film and Photography: $2,000 for the annual Hugh Galusha-Ed Craney award for two outstanding senior film projects.

Universal Vision: $10,000 for The Montana Sessions, a broadcast and digital series, taking Montana musicians and recording them live in our state’s most scenic locations. The series captures the music that reflects Montana’s values, history and trends.

DARBY

MAPS Media Institute: $60,000 total: $20,000 in continued support for the award-winning MAPS Media Institute free after-school program serving four county schools. The public/private partnership integrates science, technology, engineering, the arts and math concepts within a media arts and service learning curriculum, including an entrepreneurial program. In 2017, MAPS was one of 12 programs in the nation to receive a National Arts and Humanities Youth Programs award, the highest honor for organizations dedicated to creative youth development; $40,000 for the MAPS Media Mobile Lab, the statewide outreach program. In response to urgent needs in other rural and tribal communities, MAPS is working with school districts, community partners and donors to provide week-long workshops free of charge to all students for the workshops.

GALLATIN GATEWAY

Thunderheart Media: $5000 for Buffalo Resurrection, a second grant to support the completion of a one hour film documenting the Blackfeet Nation’s efforts to establish a thriving buffalo herd on their reservation. Its purpose is to inspire and educate native and non-native America about the power and importance of the buffalo to the American experience and how the animal can positively impact life in Montana and the US.

HELENA

Artemis Common Ground: $10,000 in continued program support for Homeground Radio, Changes and Choices in the American West, which strives to offer a vision of the rural west that a healthy economy and conserving our environment are interdependent, and that by working together we can achieve both.

Myrna Loy: $7500 to bring MAPS Media Lab to rural East Helena, to work in collaboration with two other projects to engage a group of 12-18 year olds in creating a series of short documentaries about teen life in rural East Helena. Its purpose is to address issues, including challenges of environmental remediation, and to build community around the town’s unique cultural identity and heritage.

MISSOULA

Missoula Butterfly House and Insectarium: $1575 for Bug Bites, a ten-episode pilot series of insect and arthropod educational podcast, created with Montana Public Radio. The goal is to further the organization’s mission of educating and inspiring Montanans and decreasing the degree insects and others are feared.

University of Montana School of Radio-TV: $30,000 in continued support for various programs including the student documentary, the summer internship program, student Legislative reporting; Business: Made in Montana and the Montana PBS news brief.