Phil Korell, “Character Sketch of Sego Ridge,” 1974, pen and ink on paper.

Panelists Peter Koch, Russell Maret, and  Aaron Parrett

Upcoming Events

To learn more about our Current Exhibitions please visit our events page HERE.

Opening: Fiesta De Santos: Latin American Festival and Devotional Arts

July 15 to October 1, 2022 at the Meloy Gallery  in the PARTV Center

This stunning exhibition features inspired folk and fine art from Mexico to Peru. The works include festival masks, sculpted saints, and brightly colored textiles and graphic arts that reveal the popular piety and aesthetic sensibilities of diverse communities across Latin America. In this show, we welcome the Hoyt family back to MMAC as they continue to share their remarkable collections with our community.

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The MMAC is working on it's Fall 2022 Exhibitions, please check back for updates.

For information about educational programming or about scheduling tours for groups over 10 people, please contact Ashley Rickman at 406-243-2019 or by email at: ashley.rickman@umontana.edu

Recent Events

An Authentic Voice: The Architecture and Art of Phil Korell

For over 60 years, Montana architect Phil Korell has created buildings of exceptional beauty and integrity of design. Raised on a ranch outside Utica and educated at the University of Washington in traditional methods of design, Korell learned how to shape buildings in harmony with Montana’s distinctive Western landscapes and traditional culture. Korell created some of the state’s most distinctive buildings in the second half of the 20th and early 21st centuries.

The exhibition features photographs, drawings and plans for Korell’s signature buildings, as well as examples of his fine art drawings and paintings.

Please join us for the opening reception, April 15, 5:30pm-7:30pm at the Performing Arts and Radio/Television Center at UM.

April 15 – June 25, 2022 in the Paxson Gallery of UM’s Performing Arts and Radio/Television Center.

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Books as Works of Art: a Panel Discussion

 Wednesday, June 15, 4:00 pm-5:30 pm at Missoula Public Library

In a joint program with the Missoula Public Library, MMAC Director Rafael Chacón moderated a panel discussion discussing the exciting field of artists’ books with panelists Peter Koch, Russell Maret and Aaron Parrett.

Peter Koch is a Montana-born artist and distinguished publisher, printer and bibliophile. Russell Maret is one of the leading book artists in America today. Aaron Parrett is a professor of English at the University of Providence and founder of the Territorial Press in Helena. The panelists will present their latest work in the context of a conversation about the exploding global interest in artists’ books.

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Imagining the West: Selections from the Stan and Donna Goodbar Collection of Western Art

The MMAC recently received a significant art collection of 125 Western works of art from Stan and Donna Goodbar in 2021. This collection reveals how artists interpreted the west during the 20th century. MMAC is proud to present a selection of these works featuring artists who made a living primarily as illustrators, both shaping and reinforcing quintessential myths about the West’s important archetypes, its settlers, cowboys and Indigenous inhabitants.

 The exhibition highlights artists who demonstrated the illustrative traditions of Western art and includes celebrated Montana artists Ace Powell, Elizabeth Lochrie, John Clarke, Jo De Yong, C.M. Russell, and O.C. Seltzer among others. The collection also contains works from artists of other western states such as California's Edward Borein, Will James and Olaf Wieghorst and modernists Frances Senska and Peter Voulkos.

For more information and the full press release follow this link.

February 4 to May 28, 2022 at the Meloy Gallery

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The Montana Museum of Art and Culture opened 2 new exhibitions with avian themes in 2021-22. The first, “Avis marvelous: Ornithology in 19th Century Art and Science" opened on Friday, September 24, and ran through January 8, 2022 in the Paxson Gallery of UM’s Performing Arts and Radio/TV Center.

This exhibition, about one of the most popular and fertile areas of study in the 19th century, explored the convergent interests of artists and scientists. It combined prints from the Lee Silliman Collection and specimens from the University of Montana’s Philip L. Wright Zoological Museum.

“This exhibition presents the ways artists and scientists analyzed, documented, and celebrated avian life in the 19th century and explores the various strategies employed by artists and scholars of the natural sciences to create visual representations for works of art, publications and other printed works. It also recreates museum displays meant to educate and enlighten the public about bird life in the Americas,” said H. Rafael Chacón, the museum director.  

“Evidence of Flight: Contemporary Art from the Tim Speyer Collection” opened on October 15 and ran until January 8, 2022 in the MMAC’s Meloy Gallery in the PARTV Center. Helena-based collector Tim Speyer shared a selection of works of art from his collection focused on human interactions with birds. According to MMAC director Chacón, “Speyer’s collection reveals a penchant for the surreal, enigmatic, and poetic among contemporary artists from around the world. Much of the work is figurative and focused on the complex ways humans share this planet with our fellow creatures.”

Educational programming included a lecture by collector Lee Silliman on September 28 and a panel discussion with artists Barbara Michelman and Bishop Storrs, authors Marc Beaudin and Charles Finn, and biologists Angela Hornsby and Zac Cheviron on October 21, 2022.