02 May Wanderings: Hidden Gems

There’s nothing so full of promise as a road trip, especially when visiting both well-known and little-known locales. For many, Montana’s beauty is visible from the window, but there’s plenty of creativity to discover around the state. Different Western art styles are thriving, and non-profit art centers keep inspiration in ample supply. From Montana’s first contemporary art museum in Billings to a new cutting-edge installation space in Bozeman and a former brick factory turned international clay center in Helena, all roads on this excursion lead to art. Here are a few artistic gems to uncover in the Treasure State…

Beartooth Portal, a site-specific installation at Tippet Rise, was designed by Ensamble Studio, an international architecture firm. Photo: Iwan Baan

South-central Montana

The Yellowstone Art Museum (YAM) in Billings was established in 1964 when most regional museums offered historical fare. Instead, YAM opened its doors to contemporary and avant-garde works from the Northern Rockies and celebrates its 60th anniversary in 2024.

Chris Fraser’s artwork Asterisms was installed during the opening of Tinworks Art, a new non-profit art space in Bozeman, Montana. Photo: Blair Speed

This spring, an ongoing exhibition of author-illustrator Will James extends through June 1. As one of the most influential Western illustrators and writers of his generation, James created as many as 1,500 drawings, approximately 45 oils, and a handful of watercolors. He also wrote and illustrated 23 books based on his life experiences, including Smoky the Cowhorse, which won the Newbery Medal for children’s literature in 1927. YAM has the largest public collection of works by James, and the Big Horn County Historical Museum in nearby Hardin, Montana, houses artworks and cabins that were once part of the artist’s Rocking R Ranch.

Created by Robert Harrison, Potter’s Shrine and Tile X are two landmark ceramics installations at the Archie Bray Foundation in Helena, Montana. Photo courtesy of Archie Bray Foundation and Floating Leaf Studios

This summer, the YAM will also hold four major exhibitions, beginning in June with Celebrating Complexities: Ucross Native American Fellowship Artists, which showcases four artists’ work in photography, sculpture, painting, and printmaking. Opening in July, Jodi Lightner and Mark Earnhart explore the collective experience of a built environment. Other exhibitions include a celebration of founding director Donna Forbes, and the year ends with I Remember, a multi-generational project.

Richard Swanson’s Prairie Tops welcomes visitors to the Paris Gibson Square Museum of Art in Great Falls, Montana. Photo: Sara K. Johnson for Paris Gibson Square Museum of Art

Located about an hour’s drive from Billings in Fishtail, outdoor sculptures create a dialogue with art through the landscape at the Tippet Rise Art Center. Set on a 12,500-acre working cattle and sheep ranch, Tippet Rise is home to more than a dozen pieces of outdoor sculpture and hosts performances by internationally acclaimed musicians during its annual summer concert series held both inside and outdoors under the open sky.

A site-specific poem written by Layli Long Soldier on an old bar sign introduces visitors to Tinworks and reads I don’t trust nobody but the land. Photo: Blair Speed

The summer season opens on June 14 with new work by Wendy Red Star and historical favorites like Richard Serra, Mark di Suvero, Patrick Dougherty, and Alexander Calder, to name a few. Visit each installation via a van tour, by foot, or bring your bike. Check with Tippet Rise for concert details and available touring time slots.

Southwest Montana

Day Poem: Sun Mirror by Layli Long Soldier at Tinworks is especially powerful when the sun shines through the lettering. Photo: Blair Speed

Open from mid-June to mid-October, Tinworks Art in Bozeman provides a place for artists and audiences to engage with contemporary issues through art exploration.

This outdoor sculpture is one of many that dot the property at the Archie Bray Foundation in Helena.

This year, Tinworks presents The Seed is in the Ground, the work of Agnes Denes, an internationally recognized land artist whose 1982 Wheatfield — A Confrontation picks up 40 years later with Wheatfield — An Inspiration, which is on view throughout the season. Denes will take a patch of land on Tinworks’ property and plant winter wheat, which will be harvested, milled, and used to bake bread. This performance is an extension of her earlier work that addresses the environment and sustainability. Denes’ career spans from poetry and engineering to environmental issues and philosophy. By bringing this work to Bozeman, Tinworks bridges the ideas of place with art in a historically industrial and vibrant space. As Denes explains, “The wheatfield is hope. There is renewal in the seed. We are planting hope.”

Resident artist Janina Myronova is surrounded by her work in her studio at the Archie Bray. Photos courtesy of Archie Bray Foundation and Floating Leaf Studios

Additional exhibitions include works by James Castle, a deceased artist from Idaho who used spit and soot to create intimate portraits of his surroundings; Lucy Raven, who recreates glacier dams and makes prints from the silt on silk; Stephen Shore, a renowned photographer who looks at the landscape through the birds’ eye lens of a drone and examines changes between neighborhoods in the West; Robbie Wing, a sound artist, who uses the railroad to explore the history of place by recording the way sound travels through railroad ties; and Wills Brewer, the first artist-in-residence attempting to create a ceramic structure on site. Artists Chris Fraser and Layli Long Soldier also have work that is on long-term loan to Tinworks.

Many galleries at the Paris Gibson Square Museum of Art in Great Falls were former classrooms. Photo: Sara K. Johnson for Paris Gibson Square Museum of Art

While in Bozeman, visit the Bozeman Art Museum, a fledgling museum located on Main Street. While aiming for a larger campus, the space still holds first-rate exhibitions. This summer, ongoing through July 24, Glacier Revisited features lithographs, prints, and paintings of Glacier National Park. This history-based exhibit features vintage poster collections and works by local artists. Opening July 29, Plein Air Montana 2024 hosts the work of artists portraying the natural beauty of the Gallatin Valley.

Aunt Dofe’s gallery in Willow Creek, Montana, shows inventive and unique works by artists in an off-the-beaten-track space. Photo courtesy of Aunt Dofe’s

Another community staple in Bozeman is the Emerson Center for the Arts & Culture. Housed in a former elementary school, the Emerson has various artist studios, some of which are open for visits; art galleries on the first floor; and a lovely eatery, Sidewall Pizza Company. The Emerson also offers classes in drawing, ceramics, and metalsmithing. Stop in and wander the art-filled halls, or pause in one of three main galleries: The Lobby, The Weaver Room (upstairs), or the Jessie Wilber Gallery.

R.A.D. Metals Studio is one of many art studios at the Emerson Center for Arts and Culture in Bozeman. Photo courtesy of the Emerson

Also located in Bozeman, the Museum of the Rockies hosts art exhibitions on occasion and is worth the visit for the extensive dinosaur fossil collection and rotating exhibits in the varied galleries, including Native American, Pioneering Past, a look at Yellowstone’s geology, a Living History Farm, and the delightful Planetarium.

East-central Montana

The Holter Museum of Art in Helena presents multiple shows throughout its five galleries. This summer, exhibiting artists include Missoula photographer and painter Kristi Hager, who works in series to depict figures, war, portraits, and bodies of water from June 7 to July 12; ceramic artist Tom Bartel, whose work focuses on the figure and looks at what it means to be human, ongoing through September 29; and mixed-media artist Barb Schwarz Karst, who offers a fresh look at four genres of historical and contemporary portraiture, opening July 12.

Flo Waiting appeared in the Yellowstone Art Museum’s recent exhibition Activating the Surface: Paul Harris. The show attracted many visitors, who took selfies with Flo. Photo courtesy of the Yellowstone Art Museum

Also of note, Montana Modernists is a curated show using the permanent collection of the Holter Museum of Art to look at the mid-century Montana Modernist artists who brought a new way of examining Montana after WWII. A curator’s talk by yours truly (Michele Corriel) takes place on July 19 and the exhibit runs through September 22.

Also located in Helena, the Archie Bray Foundation for the Ceramic Arts is an internationally renowned ceramic residency that includes exhibition galleries on their 26-acre historic brickyard campus. The Bray began in 1951 and has since fostered the careers of ceramicists in Montana and across the world.

Located on the site of the former Western Clay Manufacturing Company, the campus has more than 17 buildings, including a 12,000-square-foot resident artist studio facility, a new education and research facility, and multiple sales and exhibition galleries. The property is open to artists, students, gallery visitors, and ceramic supply customers and also offers classes, self-guided tours, and structured group visits. Stroll the grounds and visit some extraordinary ceramic works left behind by former directors and residents, including Rudy Autio, Ken Ferguson, and David Shaner. The old beehive kilns still stand and provide a peek at how ceramics were once fired. It is worth a visit to walk around the grounds.

Another off-the-beaten-path venue, Aunt Dofe’s Gallery in Willow Creek, continues the practice of the founding artist’s original intent of showing regional contemporary artists whose works do not often appear in galleries. The space is a bit quirky, but because of its location, people tend to stick around and talk about art. Shows this year include Brandon Reintjes and Alison Reintjes; Willem Volkersz; Jim Madden and Cindy Owings; Bruce Tapola and Melba Price; Eva Isaksen and Solveig Landa; Selisa Rausch; Josh DeWeese; and Chris Autio. The gallery is open on Saturdays and Sundays from 1 to 4 p.m. and by appointment. This stop is worth the drive, and sales benefit the artists directly.

North-central Montana

Paris Gibson Square Museum of Art in Great Falls is housed in the city’s oldest landmark and has been a center for learning and growth for more than 100 years. The grand sandstone structure was completed in 1896 and served students for nearly 80 years as a high school and junior high before closing its doors in 1975. In 1977, renovated and renewed, the historic building reopened as a museum, providing contemporary art, classes, lectures, and a wonderful outdoor sculpture collection.

Also located in Great Falls, the C.M. Russell Museum opened in 1953 to keep the artwork and legacy of Charlie Russell in the state. Since then, the Russell has collected more than 3,000 pieces of iconic Western art in a building that boasts 16 exhibition galleries, a dedicated research center, and an outdoor sculpture garden.

West-central Montana

The Missoula Art Museum (MAM) opened in 1975 and recently expanded its offerings with an Art Park that opened in 2017. This summer the MAM presents several shows and exhibitions, including a retrospective Terry Karson: Human/Nature; a solo show by Cid Wolstein; a group exhibition focused on missing or murdered Indigenous relatives; feminist prints by Christa Carleton and Tonja Torgerson; a glacier drawing project by MaryAnn Bonjorni and Jonathan Marquis; and additional exhibits by BT Livermore and Jane Ash Poitras.

Michele Corriel, freelance art writer, author, and curator, earned her master’s degree in art history and a Ph.D. in American art. Her most recent book is The Montana Modernists: Shifting Perspectives on Western Art; michelecorriel.com.

Set out on an art-focused tour of Montana, visiting these and other unique venues.

Archie Bray Foundation for the Ceramic Arts

Helena; archiebraygallery.org

Aunt Dofe’s Gallery

Willow Creek; auntdofegallery.com

Bigfork Art and Cultural Center

Bigfork; baccbigfork.org

Blackfoot Pathways: Sculpture in the Wild

Lincoln; sculptureinthewild.com

Bozeman Art Museum

Bozeman; bozemanartmuseum.org

C.M. Russell Museum

Great Falls; cmrussell.org

Carbon County Arts Guild & Depot Gallery

Red Lodge; carboncountydepotgallery.org

The Carle Gallery at the Butte-Silver Bow Public Library

Butte; buttepubliclibrary.info

Copper Village Museum & Art Center

Anaconda; cvmac.org

Danforth Museum

Livingston; thedanforth.org

Emerson Center for the Arts & Culture

Bozeman; theemerson.org

Helen E. Copeland Gallery

Montana State University, Bozeman; art.montana.edu/copeland-gallery

Gallery of Visual Arts

University of Montana, Missoula; umt.edu/art/galleries/gva

Hockaday Museum of Art

Kalispell; hockadaymuseum.com

Holter Museum of Art

Helena; holtermuseum.org

Lewistown Art Center

Lewistown, lewistownartcenter.net

Livingston Center for Art & Culture

Livingston; livingstoncenter.org

Livingston Depot Center

Livingston; livingstondepot.org

Missoula Art Museum

Missoula; missoulaartmuseum.org

MonDak Heritage Center

Sidney; mondakheritagecenter.org

Montana Artists Refuge

Basin; montanaartistsrefuge.com

The Montana Historical Society

Helena; mhs.mt.gov

Montana Museum of Art & Culture

University of Montana, Missoula; umt.edu/montana-museum

Museum of the Rockies

Bozeman; museumoftherockies.org

Northcutt Steele Gallery

Montana State University, Billings; msubillings.edu/gallery

Omerta Arts

Helena; omertaarts.org

Paris Gibson Square Museum of Art

Great Falls; the-square.org

Red Lodge Clay Center

Red Lodge; redlodgeclaycenter.com

The Robert & Gennie DeWeese Gallery at Bozeman High School

Bozeman; facebook.com/deweesegallery.com

Roosevelt Center

Red Lodge; rooseveltcenterredlodge.org

Ryniker-Morrison Gallery at Rocky Mountain College of Art & Design

Billings; rocky.edu/gallery

Tinworks Art

Bozeman; tinworksart.org

Tippet Rise

Fishtail; tippetrise.org

Wanda Hollensteiner Art Gallery at Flathead Valley Community College

Kalispell; fvcc.edu

Waterworks Art Museum

Miles City; wtrworks.org

Yellowstone Art Museum

Billings; artmuseum.org

Zootown Arts Community Center

Missoula; zootownarts.org