Valentine’s Day in January? The glitter, the lace, the red, the pink. We’ve got it all! Bring the family and join with the Holter as we partner with Montana Supporting Soldiers to create unique valentines. Help us warm the hearts of Montana’s deployed men and women with your creativity. All cards will be sent to military men and women stationed abroad. Materials will be provided.
Giant puppets, international artists, thought-provoking conversations, the desire to learn new media… all these and much more attract people of all ages to education events at the Holter Museum. You are invited to explore the wonder of creativity by attending a workshop or an artist’s gallery talk. Help children express themselves and understand culture by volunteering as a docent. Whether you are intellectually curious, want to join a friendly gathering, or just feel like getting your hands into some colorful paint, we have opportunities for you to learn and have fun. Helena residents and visitors have discovered that a contemporary art museum is not just a great place to contemplate the meaning of today’s world, it is also a perfect place to bring children, meet friends, and expand your creativity. The Holter is your museum!
Each season, the Education department offers workshops, artists’ presentations, and hands-on activities that deepen visitors’ engagement with the ever-changing display of visual art. We know that people of all ages learn through making visual art as well as seeing and hearing about it. Involvement with art develops creative thinking skills, strengthens our ability to solve problems, and enhances our appreciation of our own and other cultures. As a regional leader in the field of art education, the museum partners with other organizations to provide programs for school and college students, families, adults, accomplished and aspiring artists. If you are looking for an opportunity or want to help create one for others, please contact us!
Sondra Hines, Curator of Education, (406) 442-6400 ext. 108, sondra@holtermuseum.org
The Holter’s ongoing Narratives of the Land series highlights Montana landscape and continues through September and October. Events are held in conjunction with Andy Cline: Cruise Control and David Swanson: Sweat & Steel. The series will end with a gallery talk by Jean Albus, whose exhibition Rapture on the Plains celebrates women and Montana’s landscape.
All events are free and open to the public. Call 442-6400 with questions.
Friday . September 9 . 5:30–8pm
Opening Reception . David Swanson: Sweat & Steel
Livingston artist David Swanson has collected railroad poetry, songs, and folklore that enhance the striking exhibition of paintings of Montana’s railroads and their workers. Special music performance at 6:30 featuring David on acoustic guitar and Bill Devine on dobro.
Saturday . September 10 . 10am | 11am
Gallery Talk | Historic Photographs
10am . Join David Swanson for a gallery talk on Sweat & Steel and the unique influences on his work.
11am . Steve Jackson, Curator of Photography at the Museum of the Rockies, illuminates the museum’s photographic collection of Ron V. Nixon, a nationally recognized railroad photographer, telegrapher and dispatcher for Northern Pacific and Burlington Northern.
Friday . September 16 . 6:30pm
Roadside Montana
Willem Volkersz, artist and professor emeritus of MSU, presents images of roadside art he’s collected throughout Montana. From neon signs to folk art sculpture, these works are worth a detour.
Saturday . September 17 . 10:30am
Montana’s Historical Highways
While not sweating over the state’s historic roads and bridges, historian Jon Axline conducts cultural resource surveys for MDT and writes interpretive markers on everything from dinosaurs to missile silos.
Friday . September 23 . 6pm
Night at the {silent} Movies: The Railroad Men (1923)
Experience the silent movies the way they were meant to be! Cheer the hero as he rescues the boss’s daughter and boo and hiss at the villain. Alex Swaney will improvise the music! Come in historic costume if you like. Popcorn provided!
Friday . September 30 . 6pm
Night at the Movies: Danger Lights (1930) and Union Depot (1932)
Danger Lights was a Hollywood hit and largely filmed along Montana’s railroad lines. Two railroaders fall in love with the same girl, but when the chips are down everyone joins together to save the day. Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and Joan Blondell star in the steamy Warner Bros. classic Union Depot. Popcorn provided!
Saturday . October 1 . 10:30 am
Rails to Gold and Silver: Montana’s Historic Railroads
Bill and Jan Taylor are the authors of several books and articles on Montana mining and railroad history. They have walked and photographed most every railroad line (including the abandoned ones) in western Montana and have served as on-board host-lecturers for the American Orient Express and the Montana Daylight train between Livingston and Sandpoint.
Saturday . October 8 . 10:00 am – 2:00 pm
Family Day: Everything Railroad!
Join us for a fun-filled railroad-themed day for the entire family. Model trains will take over the Museum’s Sherman Gallery against a backdrop of David Swanson’s railroad paintings as Ken Matthews from “Imagination Station” delights old and young alike with his gallery-sized modular railroad. Georgia Stinson (and other members of the Helena Rail Modeling Club) will give tips on model making. Enjoy railroad-themed art projects, food, and stories as we all get our “choo-choo” on.
Friday . October 14 . 5:30-8:00 pm
Jean Albus: Rapture on the Plains — Opening Reception (Bair Gallery Oct 14-Dec 31, 2011)
Jean is a feisty Montana native who now lives near Bridger, Montana. Her striking images have many layers of meaning relating to the history of the land, our connection to it and the human conditions of joy, transition and mortality.
Saturday . October 15 . 10:30 am
Jean Albus: Gallery Talk
Jean Albus will talk about her creative process and the importance of Montana landscape to her work.
Saturday . October 22 . 10:30 am
Helena’s Sixth Ward: History and Walking Tour
Learn about the importance of the Sixth Ward to the railroads in Montana and Helena’s history and about plans for its revitalization. Join Historian Ellen Baumler of the Montana Historical Society for a spirited walking tour — weather permitting. Call 442-6400 for details.
The Holter’s Speaker’s Series is made possible by grants from Humanities Montana, BNSF Railway, 
Montana Rail Link and MT AFL-CIO. Thank you!
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NARRATIVES OF THE LAND LECTURE SERIESPresented in conjunction with Humanities Montana, join us for our new speaker’s series inspired by the Winter-Spring 2011 exhibitions at the Holter Museum.
Jan 29 – “Historical Overview of Landscape Photography in Montana.”
Steven Jackson, curator of art and photography at the Museum of the Rockies, Montana State University–Bozeman
Feb 5 – “Montana Prairie Ecosystem and The Wide Open”
Scott Laird, director of field operations at the American Prairie Foundation
Feb 12 – “Homestead Dreams: From High Hopes to Lingering Legacy”
Hal Stearns, historian, will talk about how the “honyocker” or homesteader has left its mark on the landscape.
Feb 19 – Prairie Days Family Day
Bill Rossiter, a retired instructor of folklore at Flathead Valley Community College, will play guitar, banjo, autoharp and harmonic as part of a musical presentation on the humor and tragedies unique to building a life in the rural West.
Feb 26 – “Montana Place Names: From Alzada to Zortman”
Brian Shovers, librarian at the Montana Historical Society, unravels the mysteries behind the names like Loma, Alzada or Zortman in this lively presentation.
March 3- “A Montana Love Story:Together on the Prairie”
Paulette Etchart of Helena will present A Montana Love Story: Together on the Prairie, with an introduction and comments by writer Rick Newby. Nearly a century ago, Etchart’s grandparents, John and Catherine, traveled from the Basque Country of Southern France to make a life on the Northeastern Montana prairie. They located their home ranch, the “Stone House”, fifty miles south of Glasgow, Montana. Theirs was a Montana Love Story.
March 5 - “Women, Quilts, and Montana History”
Mary Murphy, Michael P. Malone Professor of History at Montana State University-Bozeman, details the history of the quilts as bearers of remembrance. These include quilts from Native American communities, quilts that document the battle over the state capital, and quilts that depict individual journeys West.
March 19- “Penny Postcards — Homesteading Women”
Phil Burgess, Missoula poet and writer, tells the story of six young Norwegian sisters moving from a small rural community in northern Minnesota around 1910 into the greater world. Two of the sisters, Burgess’s grandmother, Anna Lee, and his great‐aunt Dikka Lee, both homesteaded in eastern Montana. Burgess discovered nearly three hundred post cards that had been sent, mostly by Minnesotan sisters and cousins, to Anna and Dikka Lee as they prepared for and made their move to Montana.
April 1- “The Literary Prairie I”
Special Event: Friday, 6:30 pm
Join us for an evening of readings and discussion inspired by the exhibition The Wide Open: author Judy Blunt (Breaking Clean), poet Mandy Smoker Broaddus (Another Attempt at Rescue), and memoirist Ruth McLaughlin (Bound Like Grass), with an introduction by Caroline Patterson. These writers explore Montana’s High Plains in their work. Ruth McLaughlin is the winner of the 2010 Montana Book Award.
Saturday, April 2 – 10:00 am: Coffee with Judy Blunt: Members of the Narratives of the Land Book Club have been reading Judy Blunt’s Breaking Clean. Join the author for coffee and discussion.
Saturday April 23- Metis Music and Heritage
10 a.m. Music by the Fox Family
Fiddle players Jamie and Vince Fox will be joined by their father Jim, on guitar, as they celebrate the culture of the Metis through music. Mother, Krystal, will share stories on how music has shaped Metis culture.
11:30 a.m. Nicholas Vrooman – Montana’s Metis: Sillhouettes and Shadows
The morning’s discussion will continue with Northern Folklife Resources folklorist and leading scholar on plains tribal culture, Nicholas Vrooman.
April 29- “The Literary Prairie II”
Special Event: Friday, 6:30-8:30 pm.
The Holter is pleased to present Montana’s Poet Laureate Henry Real Bird and poet Joe McGeshick. Real Bird, a member of the Crow Nation and an educator, and Joe McGeshick, a poet and teacher raised in Wolf Point, will read and discuss their works, which draw inspiration from eastern Montana, its history and landscape. The evening promises to be lively as the two poets exchange stories and experiences.
April 30- Donna Loos Artist Talk
10 a.m. High Gallery
March 23- Narratives of the Land Book Club Discussion
Special Event: Wednesday, 6:30pm
In conjunction with the Lewis & Clark Library, join Holter staff and members in reading and a discussion of Judy Blunt’s Breaking Clean. Judy Blunt will be part of the evening event “Literary Prairie” on April 1, and stay to discuss Breaking Clean with the book club members on April 2. Call 442‐6400 to sign up.
April 2- “Literary Prairie- Judy Blunt’s Breaking Clean”
Saturday, 10am
Author Judy Blunt (Breaking Clean) will discuss Breaking Clean with the Narratives of the Land book club.
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Magic Carpets Meet the Antique Road Show
Rug Appreciation Day
with Turabi Topal
Saturday, March 20, 2010, 11am-4pm
Ever wondered about Great-Aunt Mary’s oriental rug you inherited? Or the bargain you found at a yard sale? Where and how was it made? How much is it really worth?
In conjunction with the Holter’s stunning Magic Carpets exhibition, rug master Turabi Topal is flying in from Seattle for a Rug Appreciation Day. Mr. Topal, business partner of Helena’s own Ersun Ozer of Anatolia Oriental Rug Gallery, began working with carpets when he was 12 years old in Turkey. He is considered a magician of weaving and intricate repair, and his extensive knowledge comes from decades of hands-on experience. He will discuss the history and technique of carpet weaving from 11am to noon and will give pointers on how to distinguish carpet types, their origins, and what makes a carpet valuable. From noon until 4pm he will examine your carpets with you and answer questions. If your carpet is too large to carry, please consider bringing photographs.
