Committee for Public Art in Central Montana

The MSUB Young Artists Award was established in 2018 through a donation from the Committee for Public Art in Central Montana. This award is given to a continuing and/or entering student from Central Montana who declares an MSUB Art Department major and who demonstrates potential for creative growth.

The Committee for Public Art in Central Montana was established in 2012 to foster the art environment and promote arts education in Central Montana. The Committee was comprised of a board of educators, arts professionals, and community members from the region including Dr. Leanne Gilbertson, Faculty member, MSUB Department of Art; Ms. Kathy Lear, former Director of Paris Gibson Square Museum of Art; Dr. Mike Lawler, educator and consultant, Lewistown; and Ms. Joanne Berry, faculty at Moore School. Over the past five years, the committee has mounted an exhibition of award winning student art loaned from the Montana Arts Council, and conducted a juried competition for high school student art. Winning submissions were installed on traffic signal boxes on Main Street in Lewistown. The Committee also conducted a call and juried public art for a park owned by the Fergus Credit Union. The winning submission, “Blue Dun on Water,” was created by Livingston sculptor Lori Olsen. Senator Jim Peterson, then President of the Montana State Senate, presided at the ribbon cutting ceremony during the dedication ceremony of this work. Lastly, the committee also co-sponsored with the Yellowstone Art Museum, the Montana premiere of the award-winning documentary, “Young Ancestors,” a film about the value and need for revitalizing Native culture though language education. The screening of this film was accompanied by a conversation between the filmmaker Aimée Barry Broustra and Dr. Richard Littlebear, president of Chief Dull Knife College in Lame Deer and coincided with an exhibition of Wendy Red Star’s work and associated programming at the Northcutt Steele Gallery, MSUB.

In January of 2018 the Committee voted to collaborate with the MSUB Art Department to support the education and artistic developments of students from the region by establishing the MSUB Young Artist Award, which is in keeping with the Committee’s initial mission statement and regional focus. The first scholarship will be awarded in academic year 2018-2019.