Thank You

Major funding for Life By Comparison: The Stories of Frederick and Parmly Billings comes from the Museum Loan Network. A Museum Loan Network travel grant enabled the Western Heritage Center to visit the Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park and the Billings Farm & Museum (Woodstock Foundation, Inc.) of Woodstock, Vermont, and select artifacts for the exhibit. A Museum Loan Network Implementation Grant supported the costs of shipping the thirty-two objects from Vermont to Montana, provided the means to provide quality educational programming, paid the music consultant, Jim Cockey of the American Composers Forum, and aided in the construction of the exhibit.

The Museum Loan Network (MLN) facilitates the long-term loan of art and objects of cultural heritage among U.S. institutions as a way to enhance the installations of museums, thus enabling them to better serve their communities. The MLN programs have led to sharing of objects among different types of museums, fostering collaborations between institutions of varying size and discipline throughout the United States. Funded and initiated by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and the Pew Charitable Trusts, the MLN is administered by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Office of the Arts.

Matching funds were provided by Conoco, Inc., Woodstock Foundation Inc. of Woodstock, Vermont, and Wells Fargo Private Client Services. Local Funding support was provided by Del Rio Music, BLT Productions, Selbys Essco, Don Miller Photo, Heins Creative, Perkins Restaurants, Northern Hotel, and Albertsons.

Thanks to community participants from Montana and Vermont that made the "Music as Artifact" music come alive with their voices, instruments and talents.

Thanks to the staff at the Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park and the Billings Farm & Museum of Woodstock, Vermont, for their gracious hospitality.

Thanks to the American Composers Forum, the Museum Loan Network, and Joseph S. and Mirian Sample for funding Museums, Composers, and Communities, a community based pilot program which created the partnership between Jim Cockey, the Billings Symphony, and the Western Heritage Center. This grant brings Jim Cockey to Billings to do school programming, carry out three weeks of school residencies, and to write an original composition based on the exhibit, Life By Comparison: The Stories of Frederick and Parmly Billings.