Leadership

Dear Friends,

As a lifelong learner and advocate for the humanities in my community and state, I have been honored to serve Humanities Montana through the past few years, and I look forward to our future with great anticipation. The past year, in particular, has been filled with new opportunities to reach Montanans in every corner of the state as this report will show.

In 2022, we celebrated 50 years of service to Montanans, and we took that opportunity to spotlight some of our closest friends and supporters, revisit our beginnings, and look ahead to an exciting future! Dr. Margaret Kingsland, executive director of the Montana Committee for the Humanities from 1974 to 1995, remembered the early years as a time Montanans from all corners of the state were engaged in a vigorous review and assessment of values, priorities, and public policies. The Montana Committee for the Humanities (as we were then called) was there to facilitate these discussions through conferences, library programs, documentaries, and community conversations. Decades later, as the world began to cautiously emerge from a pandemic, Humanities Montana was proud to serve as a statewide catalyst to address issues of inequity, political divisions, and the need to share the multitude of stories that make up Montana’s history and present day.

As you read this Annual Report, the trustees and staff at Humanities Montana are preparing to welcome a new executive director, Jill Baker, a fourth-generation Montanan who has had an impressive career leading nonprofit organizations in the state. We know that Jill and the rest of Humanities Montana’s dedicated staff will continue to uphold the standard of excellence featured in this report. As board chair, I’m confident that this organization is poised to meet each new challenge with new ideas, as we look to the next 50 years.

Sincerely,