
Corby Skinner
Resounds: Arts & Culture On The High Plains HostCorby Skinner is an independent marketing professional with an enormous capacity for assessing issues and creating positive, effective messages.
His work is evident in all aspects of performing, visual and literary arts. He led the marketing and programming for the Alberta Bair Theater for 18 years, and served as Arts and Humanities Field Coordinator for the National YMCA of the USA for eight years.
Skinner has been the Director of The Writer's Voice since its beginning in 1991. Skinner has coordinated six Big Read programs for the National Endowment for the Arts and 15 consecutive High Plains Book Festivals
Corby Skinner received the Montana Governor’s Humanities Award in 2009, and the Philip N. Fortin Humanitarian Award in 2016.
He joined in the YPR staff as a community programmer co-hosting Resounds: Arts And Culture On The High Plains alongside Anna Paige in spring 2017.
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The Heart Mountain Interpretive Center preserves, memorializes, and provides education about the experiences of Japanese Americans incarcerated during WWII. The Center operates a world-class museum, historic site, and conference center, drives national programming, and inspires nonpartisan solutions to problems of our modern democracy.
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Dr. Ilse-Mari Lee Hastings is the President and founder of the Montana Youth Symphony. She joined the faculty of MSU in the fall of 1989 and served as Dean of the Honors College. She holds a doctorate in Cello Performance and Pedagogy, as well as master’s degrees in Cello Performance, Music Theory, and Composition.
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Tami Haaland is the author of four poetry collections: If I Had Said Beauty, What Does Not Return, When We Wake in the Night, and Breath in Every Room, which was the winner of the Nicholas Roerich First Book Award.
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Precious McKenzie has an MFA in Creative Writing and a Ph.D. in British Literature. In 2022, she served as a Fulbright Scholar in Ireland, teaching graduate students in the Public Humanities. She is the Director of Advancement for the Yellowstone Art Museum.She writes poems, short stories, and children’s books. Precious is the author of over 50 books for young readers, including Cinder Yeti (the 2020 Library of Congress Great Reads from Great Places selection for Montana), Ruffian, a novel for teens, and Infestation, a young adult novel.
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Over the past 30 years, Aaron Pruitt has provided leadership in programming, production, and fundraising at Montana PBS, and in 2017 he was appointed General Manager.
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The Archie Bray Foundation for the Ceramic Arts was founded in 1951 by brickmaker Archie Bray, Sr. The Bray provides residencies for ceramic artists from around the world, a year-round exhibition schedule, summer workshops, and community classes.
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Molly Kruckenberg is the Director of the Montana Historical Society. She studied history as an undergraduate and completed a graduate degree in library science. She began work with the MTHS in 1999 and moved to the role of Director after working as an archivist and then manager of the library and archives.
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The Don King Museum in Sheridan, Wyoming, showcases fascinating Western and Native American artifacts used by and created for horsemen and women from the region and beyond. Bill King is the current Director and Curator of the Don King Museum in Sheridan.
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Kendra Heimbuck is an experienced nonprofit executive skilled in leadership, fundraising, and community engagement. As Executive Director of The Brinton Museum, she works with the museum board of directors, advisory councils and staff to fulfill the museum's mission.
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Kayla de la Ossa is the Executive Director of the Schoolhouse History and Art Center (SHAC) in Colstrip, Montana. Hired in 2019 as Education Director, she has been in the leadership role at SHAC since 2021. Kayla also serves as Secretary of the Montana Art Gallery Directors’ Association.