A Message from the Montana Art Council

"Montana is gaining a reputation far and wide as a "land of creativity" because of the number of and the quality of our individual artists.

"Montana has also become an increasingly popular destination for artists, and the number of artists in the state has grown at three times the average growth in the labor market. Artists of Montana have an economic impact on the state of close to one-quarter of a billion dollars a year, according to a 2004 study. Key to this impact is out-of-state sales made by artists, who derived two-thirds of their revenue from out-of-state sales. The web will remain an important key to growth of artists' careers and income."

"The Montana Arts Council is the agency of state government charged with promoting the arts in Montana. It offers a variety of programs to build careers of individual artists.

Check out the agency's website at: www.art.mt.gov and sign up for its free
bi-monthly newspaper "State of the Arts."

— Arlynn Fishbaugh, Executive Director, Montana Arts Council