Every artist needs someone to believe in their potential. The Emerging Artist Impact Fund helps the Zootown Arts Community Center (ZACC) say YES to artists by providing the space, resources, visibility, and opportunities they need to discover and share their creative voice and thrive in their artistic career.

At the ZACC, an emerging artist can be a young person picking up an instrument or paintbrush for the first time, an adult returning to creativity after many years, or an artist ready to take the next step in their professional practice. Through youth and adult classes, music and arts programming, exhibitions, live performances, and hands-on creative experiences, the ZACC creates welcoming places for people to explore, experiment, build confidence, and find their true voice through the arts.

Gifts to the Emerging Artist Impact Fund support the people, spaces, and resources that make these opportunities possible. Funding may be used for artist stipends, gallery exhibition opportunities, live performances, youth and adult classes and programming, scholarships, professional development, artist markets and special events, access to studios and equipment, marketing and promotion, and the staff and operational resources needed to bring it all to life under one roof in the heart of Downtown Missoula.

Whether it is a child discovering the joy of making art, a teenager finding belonging through music, an adult discovering a creative voice they didn't know they had, an artist mounting their first exhibition, or a musician stepping onto the ZACC stage for the first time, the ZACC provides a place to begin and a place to expand their career.

Your gift provides the ZACC the ability to respond when someone is ready for a creative opportunity and the resources to say YES.

When you invest in emerging artists, you invest in the creative future of our entire community. 

Art makes the world a better place.