MWR to receive $30,000 grant
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News from the Missoula Writing Collaborative
MISSOULA — The Missoula Writing Collaborative has been approved for a $30,000 Grants for Arts Projects award to support “Young Voices of the Mission Mountains”: Creative Writing Residencies on the Flathead Reservation of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes.
This project will bring professional writers to seven schools to teach fourth-through sixth-grade students poetry, poetic literature and writing inspired by American Indian artists. The Missoula Writing Collaborative’s project is among 1,073 projects across America totaling nearly $25 million that were selected during this first round of fiscal year 2021 funding.
“We are enormously grateful to the NEA for this funding so that our writers can continue writing poetry, creating ledger art and doing ekphrastic art (poetry in response to art) with students in schools in Arlee, Charlo, Dixon, K. William Harvey, St. Ignatius and Pablo,” said Caroline Patterson, executive director of the Missoula Writing Collaborative. “Through the power of storytelling, students learn to express the joy and sorrows that are part of living. The expression itself instills confidence, clarity and capability.”
MWC writers will conduct 12-week writing residencies in seven elementary schools. Writers teach free verse and form poetry using writing prompts and videos from Heather Cahoon (Pend d’Oreille), Jennifer Finely (Salish-Chippewa-Cree) and Vic Charlo (Bitterroot Salish). Writers will also create ledger art with translator Aspen Decker (Salish), inspired by coyote stories and ekphrastic art inspired by Salish painters Corwin “Corky” Clairmont and Jaune Quick-to-See.
