FAM at the YAM: Tracing Tracks with Beth Korth from Tippet Rise Art Center

Join Beth Korth from Tippet Rise Art Center for FAM at the YAM May 2nd from 4 – 6 PM! We will be “Tracing Tracks” and using mixed media to create a work of art focusing on the springtime animals that are coming back from hibernation or migrating to Montana for the summer.

FAM at the YAM is for every type of family. Bring yourself, children, friends, grandparents, and more. Create art together with a professional artist and learn about their process. It’s a great way to kick off your First Friday evening. All ages welcome | 4 – 6 PM at the YAM Free! No advanced registration required.

  • Posted on: April 28, 2025

“Around the World Wine Tasting” at the Moss Mansion

The Moss Mansion is excited to invite you to our “Around the World” Wine Tasting event! Enjoy the tastes of four different wines from regions around the world. Each wine is paired with a delicious appetizer. A local sommelier will explain the different varietals you are experiencing, all while wandering through the gorgeous Moss Mansion.

Your tasting will end outside on our beautiful grounds, where you will have the opportunity to sit back and relax while enjoying a glass of your favorite wine from the evening.

There will be three tour times to choose from, one at 5:00, 6:00, and 7:00, so be sure to get your ticket while availability lasts!

Please bring a form of ID to show you are over 21. Reservations are not eligible for a refund but may be transferred by calling 406-256-5100.

Don’t wait! Reserve your spots now at bookeo.com/mossmansion!

*Proceeds from Moss Mansion activities fund all daily operations and preservation work at the museum. *

  • Posted on: April 16, 2025

Featured: Downtown art installation rescued by the owners of a downtown small business

Featured news

rain soul studio

A Space to Place art installation, “Fractured Light”, by artist Brooke Moore has been mounted on the back of the Rockman building since 2018. The Rockman building is located on the corner of N. 27th Street and 2nd Avenue N. The building itself is about to be demolished in preparation for a new downtown hotel project. The demolition of the building left many wondering what the future held for this art installation. Moore was considering letting the piece go the way of the building but fellow artists, Krista and Mike Pasini, offered to become stewards of the piece and intend to mount it in the outdoor space connected to their new downtown studio they are relocating to. The Pasinis own Rain Soul Studio, a bespoke wellness studio that offers; movement and mindfulness classes and workshops, nutrition advocacy, coaching and mentoring, performative events, and more. They opened originally in the Grand Building above Jake’s Downtown but are relocating to a larger studio space but have not yet publicly shared the location of their new downtown studio space while they work on transforming the space.

The Pasini team worked together with the Artist Brooke Moore, the Rockman building owners, the Big Sky Economic Development folks and the owners of their location to acquire and relocate the artwork. They have safely brought down each of the four foot sections and have all 10 stored until later this summer when they will begin work on the outdoor area of the new studio.

Fractionated Light was installed in 2018 with the help of her late father, Dan Sayer. Sayer is pictured installing the piece in this Billings Gazette Article More art installations are cropping up in downtown Billings (Aug 2018).

Follow Rain Soul Studio on facebook and Instagram.

Sandstone Gallery Art Walk

For the April ArtWalk, Sandstone Gallery will showcase beautiful watercolors on canvas by Dick Cottrill, as well as acrylic and watercolor paintings and urban sketches by John Kennedy. Our 2025 Spring Art Challenge features 6 x 8 miniature masterpieces created by various artists, available for purchase. The Billings Art Association will highlight the work of Lindsey Huntley and Dorene Amber for the months of April and May.

Join us for an artists’ reception with light refreshments from 5-9 PM. Many of our 14 featured artists will be present to display their work and discuss their artistic process. We invite you to come enjoy a lively evening in downtown Billings!

Click on the links above for more details about our featured artists and to view samples of their work.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Shop Local – Shop Small

  • Posted on: March 17, 2025

Never Really Cowboys: New Work by Gordon McConnell Exhibition Opening Reception

Exhibition Dates: April 4 – May 24, 2025

Kirks’ Grocery is proud to present Never Really Cowboys: New Work by Gordon McConnell. Gordon McConnell has always looked at and thought about the mythical Old West through the lens of a contemporary artist. He is influenced by the postmodernism of his generational peers, the “Pictures” group, and, more recently, the stylistics of early 1960s Pop Art. Like artists of that era, McConnell treats mass-produced imagery as readymade material. His sources are frames from movies, promotional stills, advertising graphics and comic books. Lately, he has been reprocessing images from some of his own earlier monochromatic paintings and painted over old canvases, sacrificing the old for something new.

In 2024, Gordon McConnell manipulated images digitally before referencing and interpreting them on canvas, using varied techniques and formal strategies to serve the needs of each composition. The experience of making each piece informed the process and decision-making for the next. Masculinity is a theme—in poses and action, and varied styles. Stagecoaches and the excitable draft animals pulling them are shown in a posterized rendering and in comic book style-made-large with bold colors, pronounced texture and surface variation.

The Western Horseman paintings in this exhibition derive from 1980s Marlboro magazine ads. Western Horseman #2, with the yellow slicker, comes from the edition of Newsweek that contained Mark Stevens’ landmark article on the Montana art scene—featuring Theodore Waddell and Patrick Zentz among others, themselves looking like Marlboro men posed on their ranches.

Despite appearances, the riders are never really cowboys: they are actors playing lawmen and outlaws, stuntmen driving teams, handsome models (sometimes real ranchers) in stylized Western gear pushing cigarettes, and comic book characters drawn by New York illustrators.

  • Posted on: March 13, 2025

PREVIEW EVENT: Never Really Cowboys: New Work by Gordon McConnell Exhibition

Join us for a special preview event for the Never Really Cowboys: New Work by Gordon McConnell exhibition.

Exhibition Dates: April 4 – May 24, 2025
Opening reception: Friday, April 4, 5–9 pm (during ArtWalk) with delicious bites by Chef Ashley Woodward.

Kirks’ Grocery is proud to present Never Really Cowboys: New Work by Gordon McConnell. Gordon McConnell has always looked at and thought about the mythical Old West through the lens of a contemporary artist. He is influenced by the postmodernism of his generational peers, the “Pictures” group, and, more recently, the stylistics of early 1960s Pop Art. Like artists of that era, McConnell treats mass-produced imagery as readymade material. His sources are frames from movies, promotional stills, advertising graphics and comic books. Lately, he has been reprocessing images from some of his own earlier monochromatic paintings and painted over old canvases, sacrificing the old for something new.

In 2024, Gordon McConnell manipulated images digitally before referencing and interpreting them on canvas, using varied techniques and formal strategies to serve the needs of each composition. The experience of making each piece informed the process and decision-making for the next. Masculinity is a theme—in poses and action, and varied styles. Stagecoaches and the excitable draft animals pulling them are shown in a posterized rendering and in comic book style-made-large with bold colors, pronounced texture and surface variation.

The Western Horseman paintings in this exhibition derive from 1980s Marlboro magazine ads. Western Horseman #2, with the yellow slicker, comes from the edition of Newsweek that contained Mark Stevens’ landmark article on the Montana art scene—featuring Theodore Waddell and Patrick Zentz among others, themselves looking like Marlboro men posed on their ranches.

Despite appearances, the riders are never really cowboys: they are actors playing lawmen and outlaws, stuntmen driving teams, handsome models (sometimes real ranchers) in stylized Western gear pushing cigarettes, and comic book characters drawn by New York illustrators.

  • Posted on: March 13, 2025

Featured: New art gallery opening on N. Broadway this March

Featured news

Seth Royal Kroft Photographer

Local photographer, Seth Royal Kroft is opening his own art gallery on Saturday, March 15th at 207 N. Broadway in the former street level location of Lil Market Grocery. For the past 12 to 18 months, Kroft had a smaller gallery space inside of Aspinwall Mountain Wear‘s downtown retail shop at 103 N. Broadway. Currently, Kroft is working hard on the buildout of the new gallery space and is aiming to have inventory set up by end of February.

His grand opening is timed well with the first large downtown event of the year, the Downtown St. Patrick’s Day celebration. Kroft invites all who come downtown on Saturday, March 15 to also come step inside his new gallery and explore his work that consists of mountain landscapes, wildlife, and outdoor adventures such as hunting, fishing, hiking, and ski/snowboard. Much of his work features some of his favorite Montana locations: Yellowstone National Park, the Tetons, Glacier National Parks, and the Beartooth Mountain Range.

Follow his gallery and adventures on facebook and Instagram.

Featured: The Yellowstone Art Museum’s 57th Annual Art Auction

Featured news

Yellowstone Art Museum

The Yellowstone Art Museum (YAM) 57th Annual Art Auction begins Friday, February 7th . During the Downtown Billings ArtWalk, the museum will host an opening celebration and exhibition, which is open to the public, and this event marks the official kick-off for all auction programming. The Annual Art Auction is the YAM’s largest fundraiser and raises crucial support for educational programs and exhibitions.

Throughout the month of February, museum guests can look forward to Artist Talks with Manette Rene Bradford (2/13), Elizabeth Korth (2/20), and Mya Cluff (2/27). Education events, for adult learners and families, will welcome artists Jennette Rasch (2/7), Maggy Rozycki Hiltner (2/15), and Michelle Dyk (3/7), as they lead interactive workshops detailing their individual creative processes.
The auction will conclude with The Night: Gala & Live Auction, a local-favorite event that welcomes artists, museum supporters, and guests from our community and region, on March 8th . This ticketed event will provide time for final in-person bids on Silent Auction works, a dinner, and the Live Auction hosted by Kevin Doyle of Jackson Hole Art Auction.

Please contact Molly Schiltz, Special Events Coordinator, if there are any questions regarding the 57th Annual Art Auction.
Ticket information, further details about specific events, speaker bios, and the digital auction catalog can be found at artmuseum.org/engage/yellowstone-art-auction/.

While certain Art Auction events will require an RSVP, exhibited works can be viewed and enjoyed during the museum’s normal operating hours from February 7th – March 8th. Admission is free thanks to Art Bridge’s “Access for All” Grant Program.

‘Thank you’ to the Auction Sponsors:
Lead Sponsor
Lornel Baker

Premium Sponsors
Joel Anderson
Deborah Anspach & John Hanson
Jennifer & Steve Corning
Eide Bailly LLP
First Interstate Bank
Bess Lovec
Larry & Ruth Martin
Red Lodge Clay Center
Linda Shelhamer & Stephen Haraden
Stockman Bank
Susan Sullivan & Steve Zabawa

Community Sponsors
Billings Clinic
Montague’s Jewelers
Riversage Inns

The nationally accredited Yellowstone Art Museum is the region’s largest contemporary art museum offering changing exhibitions, adult and children’s art education, café, museum store, and the Visible Vault, housing the YAM’s permanent art collection. Museum hours are 10 a.m.–5 p.m. Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday & Sunday; 10 a.m.–8 p.m. Thursday; and
Closed Monday. Please check the museum’s website, www.artmuseum.org , to learn about other exhibitions, events, and classes. Find them on Facebook and Instagram

Art Preview: Kathryn Schmidt Paintings & Jennifer Eli Indreland Mini Assemblages & Paintings

Come out for a preview of our new exhibition which features paintings on paper by Kathryn Schmidt and miniature assemblages and paintings by Jennifer Eli Indreland.
Kathryn Schmidt and Jennifer Indreland will both be at this event. It is a great chance to enjoy a laid back evening with fellow art enthusiasts before our opening on Friday for ArtWalk.
Food by Chef Ashley Woodward.

Thanks to Riversage Billings inn for making this event possible!
FREE EVENT

  • Posted on: February 4, 2025