Choose a date to find upcoming events.
|
Plenty of fine art to view at First Friday
Some local art galleries are closed for the holidays and others are saving January's openings for next week.
Bridal fairs offer plenty of ideas for big day
The New Year has back-to-back wedding-planning weekends for couples starting their journey to happily ever after in 2009.
Exhibition of Cawdrey's silk painting opens at the Russell Museum
Nancy Dunlop Cawdrey has taken the ancient art of Chinese silk painting and made it her own, telling stories with each stroke, color and border legend.
Take journey back to Ice Age in Malta
The Great Plains Dinosaur Museum and the Boys & Girls Club of Malta step back in time on Jan. 10 to provide an opportunity for kids and adults to experience the climate, the hunting technology and the difficulties of life in 10,000 B.C.
Guild to put on class on history of Roc Day
In many European cultural traditions, women resumed their household chores after the 12 days of Christmas. The distaff, or rock, used in spinning was the medieval symbol of women's work.
Hit play 'Nunsense' stops in Billings on Monday
Wacky, delightful, high-spirited "Nunsense" fun is coming to the Alberta Bair Theater in Billings on Monday.
Brush up British accent to audition for 'Blithe Spirit' in Stevensville
The Stevensville Playhouse in Stevensville holds auditions for the Noel Coward play, "Blithe Spirit," on Jan. 8-9 at 7 p.m.
Photographer showcases her work in Lewistown
The Wilkins Gallery at the Lewistown Art Center features a photography exhibit by Helena native Marilyn McKibben from Jan. 6-31.
UM to 'dispel myths' with lecture series
Six University of Montana professors will present everything from journalism to Montana history and geography during UM's 11th annual lecture series, "Hidden Montana: Dispelling Myths," which will run Tuesdays from 7 to 8:30 p.m. Feb. 17 through March 24.
The Arts
|
Paris Gibson Square Museum of Art
|
The Buffalo Hunt, an auction of 26 fiberglass buffalo, plus four calves, turned into a very successful fundraiser last fall for the C.M. Russell Museum.
The 76,000-square-foot art museum features the work of Charles M. Russell, the “cowboy artist” who created some of the nation’s best-known Western art in Great Falls a century ago.
The buffalo, painted with imaginative verve by volunteer artists, were sold for more than $500,000 and raised more than $250,000 for the museum.
“And a lot of the buffalo ended up staying in town, which was really nice because we all get to see them,” said museum CEO Anne Morand.
Every year, some 50,000 visitors from all over the world stop at the Great Falls museum, a complex that includes the artist’s original log studio and home, which have been preserved.
Born in St. Louis, Mo., in 1864, Russell created an estimated 4,000 to 4,500 pieces of art, ranging from paintings, sculpture, illustrated letters and pen-and-ink drawings, during his lifetime.
The museum has some 2,000 Russell artworks, personal objects and artifacts in its 11,000-piece permanent collection.
Funds from the Buffalo Hunt were designated for art acquisition, and the museum was able to use some of that money to buy a Russell letter to “Friend Pike.”
“It shows an Indian standing on a horse painting a pictograph,” Morand said. “And that’s the same icon that Tim Joyner painted on the buffalo that the museum bought.”
Completed in 2000, the third expansion of the museum doubled the exhibit space.
The museum opened in 1953 to display the collection of Josephine Trigg, a friend and neighbor of the Russells who had amassed a highly personal collection of letters and gifts from the artist.
Among other things, the new space includes the Trail’s End Gallery to display the restored, horse-drawn hearse that carried Russell’s body to his grave in Highland Cemetery in 1926.
Also on display is the original back bar from the Mint Saloon, where Russell and his friends relaxed after work. The saloon provided the prolific artist the first public gallery for his works.
The new museum retains the Trigg Gallery in its original location and that original collection still is on display.
Other attractions include the O.C. Seltzer Gallery, which features the paintings of the highly regarded artist who shared Russell’s interest in the West, and the Good Medicine Gallery of artifacts and artwork that interpret the life and culture of Plains Indians.
Right beside the museum is Russell’s Log Studio, built in 1903. The artifacts in it belonged to Russell and were used for reference in his artwork.
The Russell Home next door was built in 1900 under the supervision of his wife, Nancy. Open from May through September, it is furnished with period furniture and offers visitors a glimpse of life around 1900.
|
