Renovations bringing Hockaday into 'digital age'

The first sign that the Hockaday Museum of Art was ready for a technological upgrade came from the children.

“We did have an old computer and I had it set to play slideshows,” Kathy Martin, the Hockaday’s director of education, said. “The kids would come up to this screen on the computer and try to touch it and make it do things.

“I said, ‘oh, this is where they’re at.’”

So a year later, as part of a broader mission to engage touch-screen savvy youngsters, the more than four-decade-old museum housed in a century-old historic building is turning the page and embracing modern technology.

The Discovery Gallery at the base of the stairs on the museum’s lower level is getting a new coat of paint, a brand new carpet and, most significantly, the first of what staff members hope will be several touch-screen, interactive kiosks aimed specifically at the next generation of art patrons.

“We started with the fact that we were not in the digital age,” Martin said. “Everything was real hands-on, old-school.”

“It’s a first step for us,” said Tracy Johnson, executive director of the Hockaday. “It allows us to have a lot more reach, digitally, and with people that can’t go to the museum, as well.”

Johnson said the future includes plans to update the Hockaday’s website, but for now the kiosk gives guests a chance to connect with the museum’s art in a new way. The portable display — built by Digital Design Services, a company specializing in interactive exhibits — is bringing a portion of the Hockaday’s artwork to (virtual) life. Pictures from the permanent collection are loaded into the kiosk, some inside digital art books that allow users to flip through the content. One of the more interactive features is a “coloring book page,” where artist Kevin Deen’s “Carnegie in Bold Colors” has been outlined and users can drag swaths of color to fill in the image to their liking.

The kiosks also feature a collection of Blackfeet Indian art that incorporates the Blackfeet language, voiced by Browning native Mary Ellen Little Mustache, a member of the Blackfeet Tribe.

“We had everything in the English language without talking about how you would say this in Blackfeet,” Martin said. “We got a grant from Humanities Montana to connect with Blackfeet elders to find out how you say things in the Blackfeet language.”

There will still be some “old-school” aspects to the Discovery Gallery after the renovation is completed, including new furniture and art tables for kids to use, and a new activity table recreating Glacier National Park’s iconic Going to the Sun Road.

“You can build Going to the Sun Road with rocks and trees and animals,” Martin said. “I am painting a red bus right now and I’ve bought little wooden cars and am re-painting them so they are Glacier Park appropriate.”

The Discovery Gallery project is expected to be completed in the next week and was made possible by private donations and additional grants from the Cadeau Foundation and the Applied Materials Foundation. The museum first began fundraising for the project in late 2015.

More information on the Hockaday Museum of Art, its mission and its current exhibitions, is available at www.hockadaymuseum.org.

Entertainment editor Andy Viano can be reached at 758-4439 or ThisWeek@dailyinterlake.com.