On April 26 and 27, Hellgate and the University of Montana hosted around 200 kids, coming to take classes and engage with other students interested in the arts at the Montana Art Interscholastic. The Montana Art Interscholastics is a two-day art intensive full of critiques and workshops, attracting high schools from across the state.
“It’s a great opportunity for our kids from Missoula and from all over to just interact and meet each other and see what everyone is doing in the world of art,” said Laura Elliott, one of the Hellgate art teachers heading the project this year. “Students arrive on Friday, and then they have some time; they can go explore the new MAC, they can go to the UC gallery, they can go explore the MFA candidate gallery at the fine arts center.”
The interscholastic continued until Saturday as students spent the night in the Hellgate gym after the day of workshops and critiques. “We sleep lock-in style in the gym, and wake up in the morning and the kids have a series of three workshops from 23 local artists and UM professors,” said Elliott. Along with University of Montana professors, workshops are also taught by artists local to the Montana area.
The Montana Art Interscholastic is a longstanding tradition that travels to a different school each year. Hellgate has not hosted since 2016, and before that, 2005. “It kind of died during Covid so we’re trying to bring it back,” said Elliott. The Art Interscholastic aims to encourage students interested in art from around the state. The philosophy behind the annual convention centers around an “art oriented experience which expands the participants knowledge and awareness of visual arts,” according to the Montana Art Education Association.
This year, several guest speakers presented and taught to the students, all of which are rich with experience from the Montana arts. “We have Cameron and Aspen Decker coming, they’re some really involved local artists with the Salish community at the SNK,” said Elliott. “They’re going to do a big keynote speaker event about storytelling and local species of flora and fauna in Montana and the salish involvement in the place that we are.” Much of the Interscholastic centers around Montana and the area specifically, as students from ranging backgrounds across Montana come to learn more about art.
During the later portion of the day, students walked back to Hellgate to spend the night, preparing for the second and final day on Saturday. “They will be separated into larger groups and they’re going to make these really cool luminaries that we’ll art walk, parade, back to Hellgate,” said Elliott.
Throughout the day students make art and receive critiques, specifically receiving critiques on Friday and transitioning to workshops on Saturday. “They’re grouped into critique groups where they’ll get to have a really good college level art critique with a UM professor or a local artist, or maybe even one of our chaperone teachers.”
With the influx of high school students planning to arrive early Friday, the University of Montana prepared for this coming weekend. “They’re going to install a piece of artwork at the fine arts center,” said Elliott.
The Montana Art Interscholastic is an event that students look forward to throughout the year. Elliott highlighted that the simple step of being introduced to art at the higher level is extremely impactful for many students. “Just entering the door. As well as if they take tours at the MAC,” said Elliott, “And then we have kids coming from Havre or Glasgow, so this might be their first experience walking on a university campus and just being exposed to stuff they’ve never seen before.”
Interacting with other students who hold similar interests across the state enriches the experience as well and creates long lasting connections across the state. “A lot of the artists will be doing storytelling so we’re all telling our own stories so we get to know each other on a more personal level. So we all have a commonality.”
