HARLEM, Mont. – If you’ve driven down Harlem’s Main Street over the past year, you’ve likely noticed the striking buffalo mural on the side of one of the downtown buildings. It’s a fitting introduction to what’s happening inside: a working studio where Fort Belknap youth are learning to tell their own stories through film, music, photography, design, and emerging technologies while building the academic, creative, and professional skills they’ll carry into the future.
This month, MAPS – Fort Belknap is opening its doors and inviting everyone to come see what local youth have been creating.
Meet & Greet Week will take place Monday, August 24 through Thursday, August 27, from 4 to 6 p.m. each day. Families, neighbors, educators, and community members are welcome to tour the studio, meet the staff and teaching artists, enjoy a bowl of soup, and learn about the free opportunities available to local youth throughout the school year. Families who enroll a student during Meet & Greet Week will also be entered into a raffle for exciting prizes.
The celebration culminates in an Open House & Community Feed on Tuesday, September 1, featuring a shared meal, tours of the studio, and brief presentations from MAPS staff and students highlighting projects completed over the past year and what’s ahead for the coming one.
Visitors will also get a first look at the program’s new Tech Lab, completed this summer. The expanded space features 3D printing, drone technology, virtual reality, and video game design alongside MAPS’ professional recording studio, podcast production space, and filmmaking, photography, and digital media classrooms.
MAPS programming is free of charge and serves students in grades 7 through 12 from Harlem, Dodson, and Hays-Lodge Pole, as well as homeschool and private school students throughout the Fort Belknap Indian Community. Flexible scheduling helps students balance MAPS with school, athletics, jobs, family responsibilities, and other commitments. Throughout the school year, students participate in professional media arts instruction alongside homework help, tutoring, scholarship and college planning support, career exploration, and mentoring. Along the way, they build the communication, leadership, teamwork, and problem-solving skills that help prepare them for school, careers, and life.
Teaching artist Dean Doney Jr. designed MAPS’ recording studio and leads the program’s music production, podcasting, and audio production classes. For Doney, the space is where technical skills and creativity come together. “The recording studio is a space where students create at a professional level,” said Doney. “They’re learning how to record, mix, produce, and collaborate using the same tools and techniques found in professional studios. Every project they work on helps build skills they’ll carry into future education, careers, and service to their community.”
Craig Todd spent more than 30 years as an educator in the Harlem School District before coming out of retirement to serve as Program Director of MAPS – Fort Belknap. For Todd, the projects students create are only one part of the program. Every day, MAPS supports young people academically, creatively, and personally, helping prepare them for whatever comes next. “What makes this program special isn’t the technology, it’s the relationships,” said Todd. “Students come here for homework help, mentoring, scholarship guidance, and a place where they know someone is always willing to help. We hope families stop in during Meet & Greet Week, see what students have been creating, meet our team, and learn how MAPS can support young people throughout the school year.”
MAPS Media Institute is a Montana nonprofit that has provided free, year-round media arts programming since 2004. The organization operates year-round programs from its studios in Ravalli County, Lewis and Clark County, and the Fort Belknap Indian Community while also bringing workshops and educational opportunities to rural and Tribal communities across Montana.
Since first partnering with the Fort Belknap Indian Community in 2016, MAPS has worked alongside Tribal leaders, educators, artists, and Elders to build a program shaped by local priorities and opportunities. Guidance from Aaniiih and Nakoda cultural leaders helps students preserve language, document history, celebrate traditions, and tell stories that reflect the people and places of Fort Belknap.
Over the past year, students produced promotional videos for the Harlem and Hays-Lodge Pole school districts, created a video series highlighting Fort Belknap Tribal departments and services, and partnered with the Tribal Health/CDC Prevention Program to produce youth-focused radio public service announcements. These projects reflect a core part of the MAPS model: project-based learning, where students apply real skills to real projects that strengthen their community.
“The best learning happens when young people know they’re supported, challenged, and trusted,” said Clare Ann Harff, MAPS Executive Director. “We’re incredibly grateful for the partnership we’ve built with the Fort Belknap community over the past decade and for everyone who has helped shape this program. We hope you’ll stop by, share a meal, meet the staff and students, and celebrate everything they’re accomplishing.”
The MAPS – Fort Belknap program is supported by the U.S. Department of Education’s 21st Century Community Learning Centers grant, administered by the Montana Office of Public Instruction, along with support from the Montana Arts Council, the Greater Montana Foundation, the Stranahan Family Foundation, the Steele-Reese Foundation, the Arthur M. Blank Foundation, and several local individual donors.
MAPS – Fort Belknap is located in downtown Harlem at 73 Main Street. For more information about Meet & Greet Week, the Open House & Community Feed, or year-round programming, contact Clare Ann Harff, Executive Director, at clareann@mapsmediainstitute.com or (406) 363-4824, or Craig Todd, Program Director, at craig.todd@mapsmediainstitute.com or (406) 690-2524. Learn more at https://www.mapsmediainstitute.com.