In January 2001, a report for the Myrna Loy Center, authored by leading national consultant, Morrie Warshawski, demonstrated the need for the Myrna Loy Center to find new and creative sources of earned income. The MLC's future is dependent on developing new ways to make money. Several important initiatives were undertaken in 2001 to increase earned income:

• Media education was expanded with brand new video editing suites;
• Daytime rental of the building and parking allowed for an important new source of income. This was an important priority pursued by MLC board and staff with help from Lewis and Clark County and the City of Helena;
• Increased presentation of family films and live performances to engage more people of all ages has resulted in family film matinees and exciting performances in 2002, such as Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse, MacHomer, and Bill Harley;
• Mondays at the Myrna, a special summer series with great national and regional performers, became a big hit in it first summer resulting in exciting plans for the Summer of 2002; and
• Building upgrades and development of proposals for a new concession area have kept the staff and board busy.

2004 will be here soon and with it, thousands of visitors will be following the journey of Lewis and Clark through this area. The Myrna Loy Center has established a major program, Echoes of Discovery, to create big and small performances here and along the trail. Project Bandaloop, the country's leading aerial dancers, visited Helena with representatives of Dance St. Louis and Portland's White Bird to attend A Métis Legacy and to talk about an exciting series of dance spectacles on the St. Louis Arch, at Gates of the Mountains on the Missouri River, and at the Astoria Bridge at the mouth of the Columbia, all in 2004. Before these three big events, Project Bandaloop hopes to do some exciting performances here in Helena. They climbed buildings and visited local sites with the help from folklorist Nicholas Vrooman, Tim Burton, Helena's City Manager, Gary Carpenter at the Civic Center, Fr. Kevin O'Neill at the Cathedral, Chip Clawson from the Archie Bray, and Sara Scott from the Forest Service.

On December 2, the Myrna Loy Center held the first of two community meetings to investigate ways to help local performers. Several topics were set for the discussion including ways to provide better access to the Myrna Loy stage; training for artists in video editing for their work and for marketing; the future of "Grants to Artists"; training for artists to build stronger community participation with them in their work and vision; and open discussion about what it means to be an artist living in Helena and the surrounding area.

With help from the Lee Foundation, the Myrna Loy Center brought together all the Helena arts groups that have participated in Arts Plus. This program was first started through a grant from the NEA to the Myrna Loy Center in the early 1990's. The program was so successful that over time the Helena School District, the Montana Arts Council, Grandstreet Theater, the Helena Symphony, Premiere Dance, the Holter Museum and the Archie Bray Center, all developed special programs that fit under the name Arts Plus. Recognizing the potential to continue this good work and to increase opportunities for young people to experience the arts, all these groups have now redefined Arts Plus as a coalition of Helena arts non-profits advocating for arts education and developing special programs for Helena's youth.

During the last fiscal year, July 2000 to June 2001, the Myrna Loy enjoyed its best year ever for attendance at the films -- over 17,000 patrons -- and that was for an abbreviated ten-month year! We were helped by the availability of a variety of interesting films, from Chicken Run at our gala re-opening weekend in September 2000 to an unprecedented seven-week run of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon later in the year, and by our increased emphasis on presenting films in both the auditorium and the screening room whenever possible.

Our method of programming films has also changed significantly from previous years, when we booked films six weeks in the future. In today's competitive market, it has become standard operating procedure to literally book on Monday for what will be shown on Friday. This means we get today's films sooner, but also means a continuous scramble to get out the word about the new fare appearing on-screen. Patrons can learn about our films in a variety of ways:

• For those on the Internet - our informative web site at myrnaloycenter.com
• Daily ads in the Helena Independent Record (see "Movies" page listing at the bottom of the front page!)
• Special 2X2 ad in the Your Time section of the Independent Record on Fridays. (This ad gives times for the whole week)
• See posters in the Myrna Loy Center lobby
• Call the Myrna Loy at 443-0287
  

The Myrna is just now entering its most interesting part of the year - December to March, and we are looking forward to a fine selection of award-winning independent, foreign, and notable Hollywood films. Some of the titles currently on our radar include: La Cienga, Fat Girl, The Man Who Wasn't There, Life As a House, Amelie, The Heist, Buffalo Soldiers, Tape, Waking Life, The Devil's Backbone, Beijing Bicycle, and Brotherhood of the Wolf to name a few.

The Myrna Loy has just "wrapped up production" on its pilot series of Video Editing classes. The response to the first series was excellent and the Myrna now plans to offer the classes on a continual basis starting in January 2002.

Video Editing is just the beginning and our overall goal is to develop a strong series of classes dealing with all facets of New Media. The Myrna made strides in this direction by offering classes in Adobe's Photoshop and Illustrator during its pilot run. All of the software used in the "Dungeon" (the Myrna's new media lab) is considered to be the industry standards for the desktop platforms they run on. The Myrna Loy is now positioned to stand tall in the new world of DVD content creation.

What does this mean to the outside world looking in? The Myrna Loy is now poised to offer media education on the cutting edge of technological advancement. Along with the education offered to the general public, the Myrna will also be offering grants to artists who want to learn the process of Non Linear Editing and use the tools of the future to shed new light on projects of the past and present. The Myrna Loy will also be working to create cohesive joint projects with artists that will offer audiences a glimpse of the fusion of art and technology.

The Myrna Loy Center is excited about using the Internet in implementing part of its outreach/marketing program. In May 2000, the Myrna Loy Center launched an aggressive outreach and marketing strategy that incorporated, as one of its major components, the Internet. The design strategy of the web pages is highly focused on keeping the information up to date, as well as organizing the pages so that the information can be easily accessed. Although we use very sophisticated computer programming in implementing our web site, conscious decisions are made to limit the use of these technologies so that most of our web site visitors, including those who are using telephone modems and older browser versions, can efficiently access the information on our site.

Based on its early success in using the Internet, the Myrna Loy Center, in November 2000, expanded its use of the Internet by providing its patrons with Internet Ticketing and streaming audio and video previews of the Center's upcoming live performances. Steady growth patterns of our web site are occurring. In November 2001, a record number of 2,944 visits was recorded. The Films, Upcoming Performances, Gallery of Photos, Multimedia Center, Honor Roll, Ticketing, and News at the Myrna Loy are among the most popular web pages. For the week December 2-8, 2001, a record-breaking 876 visits were recorded at our web site. We continually use quantitative statistical information to identify the strengths and weaknesses associated with the use of the Internet for our audience development activities. We are excited about the progress we have made in utilizing the Internet and we welcome your suggestions for additional ways to use the Internet.

The year 2001 was one of challenges for our Nation and the world. The arts are a very important part of our world's ability to cope with situations that, at times, appear to be random and chaotic. Art has been and always will be the portal that creatively opens up before us allowing us to see and to move into the better world that is before us. We at the Myrna Loy appreciate your support and look forward to serving you and your family's needs for today, as well as for tomorrow. We wish each of you a Happy and a Healthy Holiday Season.

Ed Noonan, Executive Director
Myrna Loy Center

Past Year-End Reviews

Year-End Review for the Year 2000

Myrna Loy Center 15 North Ewing Helena, Montana 59601