Mayor Andrea Davis to appoint committee for Missoula’s first arts and culture plan in more than 30 years

Mayor Andrea Davis said she will appoint a blueprint committee to develop Missoula’s first arts and culture plan in more than 30 years, speaking at the Arts Missoula awards ceremony.

Davis said the plan will be “a living, actionable roadmap, created by and for the people of Missoula,” intended to guide city efforts to support artists, cultural organizations and community-wide arts participation over the next decade.

The announcement came during the Arts Missoula awards event, where Davis thanked the nonprofit for encouraging the city to pursue coordinated planning. “I will soon appoint a blueprint committee to begin shaping Missoula’s first arts and culture plan in over 30 years,” Davis said, adding that the effort is intended to move “not simply being a planning document, but [to be] a living, actionable roadmap, created by and for the people of Missoula.”

Michael Road, director of CoLab for Civic Imagination at the University of Montana and a member of the committee, said the timing of a local plan is important amid national and regional changes affecting public support for the arts. Road described an arts and culture plan as an opportunity to “articulate how we want to connect the arts to the everyday lives of everyone in our community and in every sector,” and said plans in other cities have helped secure resources and strengthen cross‑sector partnerships.

Davis and Road framed the plan as a tool for sustaining the local creative economy and preserving public access to arts programming as funding and civic priorities shift. The mayor said the plan will examine ways to help artists make a living in Missoula and to weave arts participation into broader civic life.

Davis did not give a timeline for the committee’s appointments or for the plan’s completion at the event. She called the committee a city‑led effort with input from the public and arts sector stakeholders. Road, who said he is on the working committee, encouraged broad community engagement during the planning process.

The announcement follows remarks at the ceremony that highlighted the role of arts organizations, schools and public programs in Missoula’s cultural life and the stresses posed by proposed cuts to federal arts funding. The mayor’s office and Arts Missoula said they plan to share details about committee membership and opportunities for public involvement as they become available.