The first 50: Kalispell's Hockaday Museum of Art celebrates five decades

At the intersection of Second Avenue East and Third Street East is a door that opens to another world.

Once visitors cross the threshold of the iconic brick building they’ll discover walls filled with color, expression and intrigue.

On them are visions of Montana — its people, its animals and its landscapes.

The place we all call home is celebrated here at the Hockaday Museum of Art, but this year the museum will be doing some celebrating of its own.

The Kalispell gem known for supporting local artists and hosting the annual summer art fair, Arts in the Park, will ring in 50 years this fall. The museum’s legacy isn’t confined to its standing as a Montana-made art venue: the Hockaday also is responsible for creating opportunities for local artists, making a variety of art accessible to the community and educating the next generation through classes, critiques and tours.

What is now a well-established cultural center was born out of a truly grassroots effort. The six founders credited with starting the museum are Ed Bailey, Corinne Lundgren, Anne McLeod, Greta Sliter, and Janet and William Bierrum. In 1967 they learned that the Carnegie Library Building, where the Hockaday is now, was to be vacated once the local post office was remodeled into a new library.

They knew that the distinctive brick building would make a perfect home for an art museum.

Bierrum, Lundgren and others began knocking on doors along main street to drum up support.

They wanted a space for Montana art and artists to be featured, and also to educate local children.

And the need was there.

In previous years, Kalispell hosted traveling exhibits curated by the Montana Institute of the Arts renting the odd, vacant storefront and even displaying art along the Linderman School, which they decorated with lilacs to spruce it up.

“We wanted the Hockaday to be a grassroots museum and encompass the tradespeople and individuals who weren’t knowledgeable in the arts,” Bierrum said. “We wanted to encourage them to come in and feel comfortable and learn from the exhibits.”

The Flathead County Commissioners got on board and instated a mill levy to help support the museum in its infancy. The Kalispell City Council did their part, too.

“The city council leased us this building for $1 a year and we thought that was quite reasonable,” Bierrum recalled with a laugh. The Beaux Arts Ball, a formal dance fundraiser, also brought in money in the early years and was quite the social affair, to boot. The inaugural dance brought in nearly $7,000 — equivalent to about $50,000 in today’s dollars.

On Oct. 31, 1968 the Hockaday Center for the Arts was founded and in February of ’69, the center opened its doors. It was named after Lakeside commercial artist Hugh Hockaday, although other titles for the facility were in the running such as the Flathead Valley Art Center or the Huck Hockaday Museum to commemorate local watercolorist Robert Huck. It wasn’t until 1998 that the center changed its name to the Hockaday Museum of Art to reflect its new focus as a museum.

One of the focuses of the early founders was to bring exhibits outside the Western art field.

“There was a lot of interest by students and some adults in the community in abstract art so we were excited to exhibit some of that - surrealism, expressionism ….they had never been exhibited locally,” Bierrum said. “We had traveled and seen a lot of different exhibits, not just in Montana, so we knew the excitement and joy of experiencing these genres of art.”

“We wanted to bring in a variety — and we did that,” Lundgren added. “Some of these exhibits cost money and we didn’t have much, but I was exhibits chairman for two or three years and I found quite a few inexpensive, quality, traveling shows.”

Today, in addition to rotating shows, the museum houses a permanent collection of Montana-made art along with a permanent exhibit celebrating Glacier National Park, dubbed “Crown of the Continent.”

They soon began hosting student shows, which helped the museum grow as many of those young artists’ parents became members. Membership today is still one of the primary fund sources for the Hockaday, which currently has between 750 and 760 members.

“We would love to hit 1,000 members for our 50th,” said museum director Tracy Johnson. “There are so many new people moving to the valley — grab your neighbor bring them in, get them a membership.”

Before they can focus on the next 50 years, the Hockaday will be paying homage to their first five decades in the coming weeks and months.

In celebration of the museum’s 50-year anniversary, the Hockaday is unveiling a series of pop-up exhibits: small shows that will rotate every few months, each focusing on a different aspect of the museum’s history. Open now through July 21 is “From Library to Museum” a collection of images of the building itself and artifacts from its days as a library. On Aug. 1, they’ll launch “Hockaday Center of the Arts Beginnings” featuring work from the museum’s early shows followed by “Artist Highlight: Ace Powell” from Nov. 3-Jan. 5, 2019.

The Hockaday’s official anniversary celebration will be held Aug. 12. “A Timeless Legacy: Peace Park” will include works by both American and Canadian artists of Waterton Glacier International Peace Park and a birthday party will follow in February.

For at least two of the original founders, they’re most proud of having a hand in creating the museum and in making the arts available to young people.

“The legacy of beginning this endeavour,” Bierrum said when asked what she was most proud of, “the excitement that people have shown in terms of being able to see diverse genres of art — that’s been very exciting.”

“These high school kids and grade school kids really would have had very little connection and exposure whatsoever,” Lundgren went on to say. “The Hockaday afforded them the opportunity to view a broad spectrum of the arts. And that is, I think, quite significant.”