OUR 2026/27 APPLICATION
PERIOD IS CLOSED
Eric Siegel is an alum of OpenAiR and took part in the 2021 summer residency at the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness’s Paradise Guard Station. Eric is a poet, environmental journalist, and natural history enthusiast. His reportage about landscapes and their politics in the Western US has most recently appeared in the environmental magazine High Country News. Eric has worked as an adjunct professor of Environmental Humanities at the Colorado School of Mines, as well as a field naturalist in the high country of Colorado, a field instructor for the Wild Rockies Field Institute in Montana, and a Wilderness Fellow with the Society for Wilderness Stewardship. He recently completed a land-based artist residency at The Jentel Foundation in Wyoming and is currently an MFA candidate in poetry at Colorado State University, where he also teaches.
Amy Ragsdale is a choreographer and now writer based out of Missoula, Montana. She began her career performing in Boston with Impulse Dance Co. and in New York with Fred Benjamin, Ze’eva Cohen, Laughing Stone dance companies and as a guest with Douglas Dunn and Dancers and Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane.
Ms. Ragsdale was on the faculty of the Theatre and Dance Department at the University of Montana for twenty years. She founded two dance companies -- Mo-Trans and Headwaters Dance Co. and has taught contemporary dance in Spain, Indonesia, Martinique, Mozambique, and Brazil. Her choreographic work has been performed throughout the Northwest and in New York, and televised on Montana PBS, KSPS, and CNN’s World News. Amy earned a B.A. in Art History from Harvard College and an M.A. in Movement Studiesfrom Wesleyan.
Bev Beck Glueckert is a 4th -generation Montanan living and working in Missoula. She's been working as an art instructor and workshop facilitator for adults and children for over 35 years. She is also a studio artist whose work has been widely exhibited throughout Montana and the surrounding area. Bev served as adjunct faculty in drawing and printmaking at The University of Montana and at the former University of Great Falls. She is a co-founder/ member of the SALTMINE Artists group in Missoula.
She holds a BA degree in Art from the University of Idaho and a MFA degree in printmaking from the University of Montana.
Erin Saldin is the author of The Dead Enders (Simon & Schuster) and The Girls of No Return (Scholastic). A former Peace Corps volunteer, she lives in Missoula, Montana, where she is an Associate Professor of English and Honors at the University of Montana.
BT Livermore is a sign painter, printmaker, woodworker, junk hound, and all-around maker of things, currently living in Butte, Montana. Their work is fueled by good coffee, quality hugs, and inspired by a love of vintage advertising and ephemera. BT is also a volunteer steward of the community printmaking studio at the Imagine Butte Resource Center, and loves sharing the secrets of printmaking to whomever wishes to learn.
David Sheerin is a music educator, fisherman, and arts enthusiast. Through his career he has worked as a public school music teacher in both Frenchtown and Gardiner, taught private lessons, directed youth choirs, and played piano for numerous events, musicals, and performances. Currently he works for himself as a fly fishing guide, musician, and piano tuner. He enjoys being a part of the music and music education scene in various different ways and is thrilled to be a part of the Open AIR selection process. When not working he spends most of his time on dog walks with his fiance Lizzie and two dogs Marvin and Emmylou.
Cait Finley is an American artist and curator based in Montana. Her practice examines the tension between human time and geological time through sculpture, writing, video, and performance. Finley often frames forces such as petroleum, capitalism, and climate change as entities, using narrative to explore how humans attempt to accelerate or compress deep time to fit our fleeting, corporeal lives. She received an MFA in Sculpture from Syracuse University and a BFA in Ceramics from the University of Montana. Finley has exhibited nationally and internationally and is currently Assistant Curator at the Missoula Art Museum.
A second generation born and raised Missoulian, Heather Shibahn Stockton spent most of her youth being encouraged to explore, learn, and create art in the mountains that surrounded her parent's home. With continued support from her family and friends, Heather earned a BA in Fine Arts, an MFA in Media Arts with an emphasis in Integrated Digital Media, and a K-12 State of Montana Teaching License through The University of Montana. She is in her 8th year serving at the Zootown Arts Community Center as the Operations Executive. Her spare time is spent exploring the nearby mountains and water with her husband Sam, and pups Larry Walker and Peter Forsberg.
Mike Steinberg is a producer, writer-director, cinematographer and editor. Steinberg’s films have played international film festivals including AFIDOCS, The Portland Film Festival, Gozo Film Festival, Big Muddy Film Festival, and St Louis International.
For twelve years, Steinberg served as Executive Director of the Roxy Theater in Missoula, MT, a non-profit community cinema that he led from a nearly shuttered neighborhood theater to the center of film culture in Missoula.
Steinberg lives in Missoula, MT where directs KFGM, Missoula’s Community Radio Station owns a record store, writes, photographs, and makes films.