Megan Karls in-residence at the Historic Clark Chateau, in Butte
Megan Karls is the Concertmaster of the Wyoming Symphony and a violinist with the Spokane Symphony. She has treasured ties to Montana from her 12 years as Co-Concertmaster of the Great Falls Symphony and with their resident ensemble, the Cascade Quartet. Megan is known throughout the state of Montana for championing new commissions by living and local composers and for her innovative programming in chamber music and solo engagements. In 2021, Megan became the first woman in classical music to ever receive the Montana Arts Council’s Artist Innovation Award and is a recipient of the Yale Distinguished Music Educator Award.

Jory Mickelson in-residence at the Historic Clark Chateau, in Butte
Jory is an award-winning writer and storyteller living in Xwotʼqom / Whatcom / Bellingham on the homelands of the Lummi and Nooksack peoples. They are the author of three books of poetry: Picturing (2025, End of the Line Press), All This Divide (2024, Spuyten Duyvil Press), and Wilderness//Kingdom (2019, Floating Bridge Press), which won a 2020 High Plains Book Award. Their work has appeared in Prairie Schooner, Poetry Northwest, the Rumpus, Mid-American Review, and other journals in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. They have received fellowships from Dear Butte, the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation of New Mexico, The Sitka Center of Art and Ecology, the Jack Straw Writers Program and the Lambda Literary Foundation. A fourth-generation Montanan, they love the state's beautiful people and the land which they share.

Jim Diamondidis in-residence at Garden City Harvest
Jim is an oil painter whose work explores issues of access, sustainability, and human-environment relationships. Jim applies a contemporary conceptual framework to the traditional practice of realism painting. His painting practice is rooted in the observation of local ecology, and his most recent work centers around community gardens. Jim’s interest in environmental systems developed during time spent working on a permaculture farm in Guatemala and leading backpacking trips in New Hampshire. Jim studied painting at Anne Arundel Community College, the Washington Studio School, and Harvard University, and his paintings have been exhibited throughout the Washington, DC area.

Luna de Jesús Licea in-residence at Rocky Mountain Gardens
Born in 1996 in Guadalajara, Mexico, Luna de Jesús Licea is a self-taught Artist currently based in Los Angeles, California. Licea envisioned a career in culinary arts, one that later transitioned into graphic design, where freelance work opened the door to a deeper exploration of visual storytelling through Oil painting. Since committing to painting in 2021, Luna has continued to develop a practice rooted in community, identity, and cultural preservation and development.

Sarah McMurry in-residence at Moon-Randolph Homestead
Sarah is a fiber artist based in Kansas City, MO, where she is pursuing a BFA in Fiber at the Kansas City Art Institute. Sarah's work combines a reverence for traditional craft methods with a playful approach to making. Using slow processes like quilting, stitching, knitting, and weaving in combination with natural dye, her work offers a contemporary take on the past that unites us together. She is the recipient of a Windgate Arrowmont Fellowship, a Susan B. Lordi Marker award for excellence in Fiber, and a Barbara Kuhlman Foundation Scholarship.

April Werle in-residence at Home ReSource
April is a narrative painter exploring mixed-race identity, memory, and diaspora through scenes of intimate domestic life and American pop culture. Her recent solo exhibitions include I Live With a Ghost, PlatteForum; My Other Half, The Chase Gallery; and Secret Life of a Multicultural Couple, Bell Projects. Her work has also been featured in the Montana Museum of Art and Culture, The Holter Museum of Art, and Missoula Art Museum. Werle was selected as a PlatteForum Artist-in-Residence and for the Emerging Artist Residency at Centrum Foundation. She was honored with the Creative West Artist Fund Award, as well as the ARPA Grant and Strategic Investment Grant from the Montana Arts Council. Werle’s work has been published in Create! Magazine, New Visionary Magazine, and Mahalaya.

Addie Palin in-residence at Selway Bitterroot Frank Church Wilderness
Addie received her MFA in Poetry from the University of Montana, where she was the Richard Hugo Scholar. After fifteen years in the Chicago advertising community, she returned to western Montana, where she continues her work in that field.