As part of ‘Western Art Week’ in Great Falls, the First People's Buffalo Jump State Park hosts an annual art show highlighting the Blackfeet culture.
Kqyn Kuka-Maguire, an artist and member of the Blackfeet tribe, expressed why she loves art and celebrating Western Art Week.
“My dad was a really prominent artist in the community and throughout the state,” Kuka-Maguire said. “He passed away 20 years ago, but he made it a very important message to his children to get an education, but always do your artwork. So here, we show dad’s artwork, [and we] also show each other’s.”
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“We do it in conjunction with Western Art Week, the big celebration of western art here in Great Falls, and we love having folks come out to check out our work with local artists here in Great Falls to kind of showcase their work here at the park and then also showcase the park at the same time,” said Clark Carlson-Thompson, recreation manager at First People’s Buffalo Jump State Park.
Western Art Week is a way for the community to see what artists in the area are creating and also a way for them to learn their stories through their artwork.
“We [had] the Kuka family out here, Blackfeet artists, they do a variety of different mediums, so they have all sorts of things on display out here at the park,” Carlson-Thompson said. “They've been doing this show now I think it’s been about eight or nine years.”
“It’s very important for us because we keep dad's art alive and we've all experimented with different kinds of mediums, and this has been an ongoing show out here. We just love being invited back by the park,” Kuka-Maguire said.
The Kuka family had on display their father, King Kuka’s artwork as well as their own, including original Kuka graphs, oil on canvas works, still pieces, beadwork, mugs and more.
