By TOM BENSEN
The second annual Zootown Fringe Festival is August 13-17 at several venues as well as on the street throughout downtown Missoula. Visit the website to learn more.
The City of Missoula Public Art Committee has extended the deadline for two art calls in Silver Park. The new deadline is October 6, 2014. Visit the website for all information and the application.
Total Fest is also this week from August 14-16. Thursday’s performances are at Zootown Arts Community Center, and the remaining days feature acts at the Palace Lounge, Badlander, Freecycles and Big Dipper.
Current exhibits at the Missoula Art Museum include Blessingway: Prints by Melanie Yazzie through September 6; Bill Ohrmann: Tainted Revelations through October 11; Crossing the River: Hmong Story Cloths through October 25; The Art of Human Conflict Conflict through December 24; the newly refurbished Edgar Paxson Murals are on display through September 6, before returning to the Missoula County Courthouse; Pamela Caughey: Ubiquitous: Migration of Pathogens through December 24; Helen McAuslan: The Kent State Paintings, on loan from the Museum of the Rockies, through November 22.
The Montana Museum of Art & Culture at the University of Montana presents Sandra Dal Poggetto: Meditations on the Field, in the Paxson and Meloy Galleries. Throughout the summer and early fall of 2014, Helena-based artist Sandra Dal Poggetto will be featured in a solo exhibition of new and recent works at the Montana Museum of Art & Culture at The University of Montana. Dal Poggetto uses an abstract language and fragments of the western landscape-hide, feathers, wood and wire-to create evocative paintings and drawings. She draws on and deconstructs both Euro-American pictorial language and American Indian visual traditions.
The Missoula Downtown Association’s Out to Lunch and Downtown Tonight continue through August. This week features the Ben Rice Band Wednesday and Russ Nasset & the Revelators Thursday evening.
Missoula City Bandwraps up the summer season this Wednesday at Bonner Park, featuring Jay Straw,
Shakespeare and Co. presents Monday, August 11th: Memoir: The Minimalists read from Everything That Remains as part of their new book tour, tonight, August 11, at 7:00 p.m.
Fact & Fiction Downtown presents a Luncheon for
Carrie LaSeur, author of Home Place, 11:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. August 12 in the new Radius Gallery, 114 East Main. Tickets are $10; Shelley Kirilenko reading and signing My Year as a Jew, 7:00 p.m. on August 14 at F&F Downtown.
Living Art of Montana presents Saturday Workshops through the summer. August 16 features Ceramics with Tracy Pohndorf.
Missoula Outdoor Cinema presents Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986) PG-13 8:45 p.m. August 16 at 1001 Worden Street on the North Side.
Missoula Children’s Theatre Performing Arts Camp
presents The Bard on Broadway-Shakespeare, Rattle and Roll. This lively show is a musical revue of Broadway and film material, inspired by the Bard himself. Performances are one weekend only; Thursday, August 14 at 8:00 p.m., Friday, August 15 at 5:00 and 8:00 p.m. and Saturday, August 16 at 1:00 and 4:00 p.m. For tickets, call 728 PLAY (7529), visit the MCT Box Office at 200 North Adams or purchase online at the MCT site. All seats are reserved, and the performance will be at the MCT Center for the Performing Arts.
Summer Camps and Classes are offered through August at Missoula Writing Collaborative, The Clay Studio of Missoula, Zootown Arts Community Center ,The Missoula Art Museum ,Downtown Dance Collective, Montana Natural History Center, MCAT, and Tangled Tones Music Studio.
The next Tell Us Something is at the Top Hat August 19 at 6:00 p.m. The theme is “Busted.” Tell Us Something is Live storytelling. True stories shared live, stories are true, told from memory, and last ten minutes. 11 storytellers share their true stories.
The Radius Gallery, Missoula’s newest art gallery, opens this month with an Open House August 21 from 3:00-5:00 p.m. at it’s location at 114 East Main Street. The gallery features the work of Melissa Bangs, Courtney Blazon, Lucy Capehart, Susan Carlson, John Cook,Ric Gendron; Karen Kemp, Louise LaMontagne, Bobbie McKibbin, and Megan Moore.
The Friendship Force of 
Missoula & Western Montana hosts a Potluck Picnic at Bonner Park August 20 at 5:00 p.m.
TheClay Studio presents a Summertime High Tea on August 24 at 4:00 p.m. at 2405 Dodd Ranch Road. Visit the website for more information
The Rocky Mountain Ballet Theatre presents a Julliard Master Class with Charla Glenn, August 24-26. Visit their website for more information.
UM Theatre & Dance production of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol are August 27 at 6:15 p.m. in teh PAR TV Building on UM Campus. Please contact umtheatre@montana.edu for questions and more information.
Snowbowl Mountain Music presents the David Grisman Sextet, September 14 at 5:00 p.m. Visit the website for more information.
Registration is open for theFlamenco Montana Festival, featuring Teo Morca, Carlos Lomas, and Vicente Griego, is September 18-21. Visit the website for more information.
For more information about arts events in the Missoula area, visit our website .
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Tom Bensen has lived in Missoula since 1986, and has been the executive director of the Missoula Cultural Council since June 2004. He has directed First Night Missoula each New Year’s Eve since 1997. He is a member of Missoula’s choral ensemble Dolce Canto, and enjoys being outdoors, whether it is hiking, biking, skiing, walking the dogs, or mowing the lawn. His wife Susan works for Montana Public Radio, and their son Peter attends Hellgate High School.