Tim Holmes is the first American artist ever invited to give a solo exhibit at the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, Russia, the world’s largest art museum, where his sculptures remain on permanent exhibit. His work has gained notice among some of the world’s peacemakers, from the Chinese dissident students of Tiananmen Square to the Physicians for Social Responsibility. Jimmy Carter, Czech hero Vaclav Havel, and the late Coretta Scott King are among Holmes’ best-known collectors.

Holmes has created many international projects such as the U.N. Women’s Peace Prize and other peace awards. He has worked with Archbishop Desmond Tutu in efforts to create an international peace center on Robben Island, the gulag where President Nelson Mandela and thousands of others were imprisoned during the dark apartheid years and on South Africa’s bid for the Olympics. Though Holmes is most well known for sculpture he works in a variety of media, all pointing toward a more responsive, cooperative and sustainable future. 

Krys Holmes is author of Montana: Stories of the Land, adopted statewide as the Montana history textbook in public schools. Her poems, essays, and short stories have been published in various local and regional literary magazines and anthologies. She lives in the Elkhorn Mountains outside Helena.  Krys is also the Director at the Myrna Loy Arts & Cultural Center and interim director at the Holter Art Museum.

Ashby Kinch is a professor of English literature specializing in the literature of the medieval period, particularly late medieval literature.  He has published recent articles on neuroscience and literature, as well as word-image relations in both medieval literature and in the work of a contemporary American poet, Cole Swensen. He is a co-PI on a Keck Foundation grant to develop an integrated curriculum in neuroscience across multiple disciplines, and serves on the Institute of Health and Humanities, and the Humanities Institute at the University of Montana. Ashby has extended his research and thinking on death into public humanities projects, including funding from the Institute of Health and Humanities to develop writing workshops on death, and to produce a modern adaptation of a 15th century multi-media art form known as the “Dance of Death.” Since fall 2017, he has served as associate dean of the graduate school.