January First Friday

Help us welcome the light of 2025 with:

✨ Local Artist Leah Leitch
✨ Intention Setting Station with Lizzi Juda
✨ Live harp music by Lawrence Duncan

Join us on January 3rd for First Friday at Sacred Ally, a healing and empowering arts center dedicated to collaborating with our community and local artisans. We are excited to welcome in the new year by showcasing the art of:

Leah Leitch

Along with being a labor and delivery nurse, Leah is a photographer and book illustrator. She enjoys many forms of art including photography, graphite, charcoal, and watercolor.

Sacred Ally is proud to offer “Peony In Me: Holding Grief” for sale in our retail shop and to welcome Leah as our Artist in Residence for the month of January. We welcome to community to connect with Leah at this month’s First Friday event as we kickoff her time at Sacred Ally.

The book, “Peony In Me: Holding Grief”, beautifully illustrates grief as something you don’t get through. There is no end, but a transformation of how you hold it. The book doesn’t tell you how to feel but gives you a space to feel. To find solace and validation within its pages.

“Peony In Me: Holding Grief” is the second book Leah Leitch has illustrated. Her first book is called “Bits & Pieces”, a children's book published in 2016. Leah and her brother, Alex, are currently working on a third book and hope to have it published in the spring of 2025. Like Peony In Me, the third book will be about love and grief.

As our Artist in Residence we will have a mid-month event on January 16th from 7pm-9pm, “Peony In Me: Holding Grief” - a night of live exploration and emotional engagement. The mid-month event provides an additional opportunity for connection with Leah and her artistic process via a live reading, music, and dance experience. (click here to learn more).

Lizzi Juda

We welcome you to engage your creative spirit and connect with your inner self by stopping by our Intention Setting Station hosted by Lizzi Juda.

Take time to identify what matters most to you, where you want to put your energy for this year, and how you want to support yourself in living an intentional life.

We recommend grabbing a cup of ceremonial Cacao and giving yourself the space to connect deeply with your vision for 2025.

Lizzi has over 25 years of experience facilitating community gatherings.  She has been participating in events and workshops for over a decade that are focused on reclaiming healthy relationships with our bodies, our sexuality, and those we interact with. She is committed to creating this possibility in Missoula through a variety of regular events and offerings.

Lawrence Duncan

We are honored to welcome Lawrence Duncan who will be offering live harp music during our First Friday event this month. Please stop by to support this incredible local musician.

Lawrence Duncan has lived in or near Missoula since 1992, working primarily as a musician with Drum Brothers, A Musical Dreamtime Journey, and until 2018 as a Music-Thanatologist with Hospice of Missoula. In the early days he taught music at St Joseph School and then played with the new age fusion ensemble, Mandir. During 2016-2019 Lawrence was a student of the Orphan Wisdom School, founded by Stephen Jenkinson and Nathalie Roy.

✨ Stop by anytime between 5-8pm to meet Leah, Lizzi, and Lawrence. ✨

Enjoy our ceremonial cacao, meet our team, and relax in our community space. Discover the heart and soul behind Sacred Ally’s mission to empower and heal through artistic collaboration.

We look forward to welcoming you and celebrating the vibrant artistry of our community!

This is a free event, open to all ages.

We ask that all children remain supervised while visiting Sacred Ally to help us maintain our peaceful and professional space.

If you are interested in collaborating as a Featured Artist or Artist in Residence for a future First Friday, please contact: empower@sacredally.love.