Curtain closes on Montana Artists Refuge's 18-year run

BASIN — There are places where creativity blossoms. You can breathe in their heady energy as soon as you step into the space.
For the past 18 years, the Montana Artists Refuge in Basin has been such a place — welcoming some 300 artists to this tiny historic mining town.
Into the refuge’s high-ceiling, airy studios came actors, dancers, composers, musicians, opera singers, painters, sculptors, writers of fiction and nonfiction, poets, screenwriters, filmmakers, multi-media artists, costume designers and more. They journeyed from as far as China and Poland or as near as Missoula and Great Falls.
Many looked shell-shocked when they first drove into the tiny town of 212 — a place so sleepy dogs nap in the middle of Basin Street, the main thoroughfare.
But as sun and mountain air and starry skies poured in their studio windows, a door in the mind swung open — spilling out plays, poems, music.
The last artists came and left in September, with the refuge officially closing its doors Oct. 1.

Curtain closes on Montana Artists Refuge's 18-year run