Pandemic causes cancellations

Coronavirus hasn’t hit Sanders County, but it has impacted the art world here, including the cancellation of the Sanders County Arts Council’s Artists in Paradise and the Montana Baroque Music Festival, both which were slated to take place at the end of July.

Management at Quinn’s Hot Springs Resort informed the baroque festival’s artistic director, Adam LaMotte, that they would have to cancel this year’s performance because of the pandemic. “With our mostly senior festival audience we have received several cancellations, as they  are genuinely concerned about travel and group functions during this time of COVID-19,” said Denise Moreth, the resort’s general manager and events coordinator to LaMotte, who has coordinated the baroque festival for the last four years. “Along with the unknown future we face regarding coronavirus, with restrictions on group event sizes and the obvious high-risk factors, we feel this is the responsible decision at this time,” she said.

“I wasn’t surprised, considering all that’s happening in our country. We will all miss being at Quinn’s, seeing all the lovely people there at our concerts, and playing wonderful music together,” said LaMotte, a violist who has performed at Paradise all 16 years and also plays for the Portland Baroque Orchestra. LaMotte said they were planning to feature baroque composer Antonio Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons” doing five or six pieces each evening. 

The Montana Baroque Music Festival was first put together by former Plains resident Jean Morrison and Monica Huggett, a world-renowned violinist, who joined the eight other musicians from around the world. Morrison went to Quinn’s Resort to ask about having the festival there. The festival started under the umbrella of the Sanders County Arts Council, then the Clark Fork Enrichment Corporation, also a nonprofit organization, but always in conjunction with Quinn’s. This would have been the 17th year for the festival. The performance had been scheduled for July 14-16.  

Moreth said that the decision came last week after much discussion between the resort’s senior management team and Mark Melief, one of the owners and it was a unanimous decision to cancel it this year. She said the management team started talking about the possibility of not having the concert in April as the coronavirus grew. She added that it was a tough decision, but she felt it had to be made. “The Montana Baroque Music Festival helped put Quinn’s on the map with a unique group of guests,” she said. Nearly 500 people, mostly from outside the county, attended the festival last year.  

Quinn’s Hot Springs Resort was one of the businesses hit hard by COVID-19, closing in March, even prior to the government mandated order, and had to lay off 113 employees. The resort reopened its doors with government restrictions and social distancing guidelines on May 22. LaMotte plans to have the baroque festival in 2021, but has not picked the specific dates. 

This would have been the sixth year for the Artists in Paradise event, scheduled to take place July 16-18 at the Paradise Center, said Ilene Paulsen, the event coordinator. Paulsen said they had a dozen artists signed up for this year’s show. “Two major detriments for continuing the show were the Paradise Center did not know if they would be open and we cannot have the show without our volunteers, whom are mostly vulnerable to the coronavirus,” said Paulsen, who had planned to have a booth for her paintings. Paulsen has been a participant in the show for the last four years and painted two of the four murals on the outside wall of the Garden, Gift & Floral building with Rick Harder two years ago. “We understand the ongoing health concerns, especially as Montana opens and we have non-resident visitors. We also understand the limitations of the venue,” wrote Karen Thorson, the Arts Council’s vice president in a letter to the participating artists.

Paulsen said this was to be the third year for the event to have a theme, going with the “Renaissance” this year. Members of the Sanders County Arts Council had been working on the planning of the show since last fall. “A cancellation is difficult because artists put forth the time and financial sacrifices to have art and photography pieces at a show,” said Paulsen, who added they will be back next year the third week in July and it should be a “wonderful show.”

Other events sponsored by the Arts Council were also put on hold or canceled out of concern for the health of residents, including the Kaleidoscope Summer Arts Camp For Youth and the “Tapestry” performing arts season, as well as other art classes, according to Joy Nelson, the organization’s president. Thorson said art classes are tentatively planned for this fall, although she said they are waiting to see what the medical circumstances will be. The group’s Art on the Walls exhibit at Clark Fork Valley Hospital for this quarter was also canceled and Nelson will be contacting artists to retrieve their work. The exhibit is usually a mix of art mediums, but for the first time since beginning the program 12 years ago, it was planned to be a photography only show. Nelson said they had 64 pieces from 10 photographers. Five had never participated in the program. The hospital continues to be in a near lockdown situation with restrictions in place, said Barry Fowler, the hospital’s director of Human and System Resources.

The Arts Council has devised an alternative to highlight artists and their work on the organization’s Facebook. Thorson said that once a week they will be sharing information of an artist or performer. Those interested can contact her at [email protected].