GREAT FALLS — The Paris Gibson Square Museum of Art in Great Falls received distinction at the annual Museums Association of Montana Conference, taking home the 2024 Professional Accomplishment in New Exhibit Presentation for their exhibit, ‘WITHIN’.
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The exhibit was the result of a two-week residency by Blackfeet artists, Louis Still Smoking and John Isaiah Pepion. The pair approached the story of their tribe, through. Modern lens using various mediums including, sculpture, murals, painting, and more.
“We kind of dug within ourselves and our community, our own family histories, our community histories and included that to where we are now as a Blackfeet,” says award-winning artists, John Isaiah Pepion.
“It was a multilayered exhibition experience,” says Interim Museum Director and Chief Curator, Nicole Evans. “It was the first of its kind in Montana.”
The Square dedicates this accomplishment first and foremost to artists Louis Still Smoking and John Isaiah Pepion who commit themselves to art-making to teach the public about Blackfeet life ways and culture.
For Still Smoking, it’s not an award he was gearing up for.
“I mean, I was actually surprised. I wasn't expecting this. It kind of came out of the blue. I was like, oh, wow.”
A big draw for Still Smoking was the scale and creative freedom of the project, he says it reminded him of exhibits you’s normally see reserved for large metropolitan museums, like Chicago and New York. He says he hopes to continue his outreach with indigenous art to one day make an impact on the national and global scene.
In a news release, the museum acknowledged the dozens of people who made the exhibit a reality saying:
“The museum recognizes the importance of the supportive efforts needed to bring this exhibition to fruition. The artists’ creative genius and collaborative work with Nicole Maria Evans as well as the entire museum team, made the exhibition installation and presentation a success. The Square also acknowledges the important critically written works put forward by our guest lecturers and catalogue authors Sean Falcon Chandler EdD. and Jennifer Néso'eóó'e Woodcock-Medicine Horse, PhD. The photo essay created by photographer Jacob Cowgill and the catalogue designed by Eric Heidle serve as a permanent published record of the exhibition.”
The exhibit, ‘WITHIN’ made its home in the Paris Gibson Square from October 20, 2023 to March 17, 2024.
