"My work has always been closely connected to architecture. But structure goes beyond buildings and cities. It lies at the heart of all activity, and speaks about patterns and hierarchies within societies. Structures that may seem unique within a culture are often seen elsewhere with slight variations—e.g. the teepee circle in Wyoming and an ancient Celtic circle in England. The cultural similarities and differences that unite us as a people provide a link to our history and continue to inform and inspire my work."
— Phoebe Toland
Phoebe Toland was born in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania. She earned a BFA from Rochester Institute of Technology in New York and an MFA from Montana State University in Bozeman. Her art is in the permanent collections of all four major art museums in Montana: the Holter Museum of Art in Helena, the Yellowstone Art Museum in Billings, the Paris Gibson Square Museum of Art in Great Falls, and the Missoula Art Museum in Missoula. Over the years she has been a featured artist in numerous exhibitions in Montana, Oregon, Washington, Pennsylvania, California and Arizona. Toland received the Artist's Innovation Award from the National Endowment for the Arts in 2009, the Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Foundation Grant in 2005, and the Meadowlark Foundation Education Grant in 2001. In addition to being a professional artist, Toland has been a teacher of art for nearly four decades—at Carroll College, the Myrna Loy Center for the Performing Arts, the Holter Museum of Art, and elsewhere around the state—and has worked for years in the field of art conservation for museums, historical institutions and private collectors.