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The Bison: American Icon, Heart of Plains Indian Culture Exhibition at CM Russell Museum in Great Falls
August 27, 2008
The C.M. Russell Museum, Great Falls, Montana, presents a new, permanent installation, The Bison: American Icon, Heart of Plains Indian Culture, with a grand opening and unveiling December 5, 2008. The exhibition presents the C.M. Russell Museum’s substantial collection of Plains Indian cultural artifacts for the very first time. The Bison features over 500 objects, including Northern Plains Indian artifacts such as clothing, regalia, tools, and weapons with a wide variety of objects crafted from bison and works of art utilizing bison imagery. Two and three-dimensional artwork by Charles M. Russell, as well as contemporary works of art can also be seen in the exhibition. This comprehensive exhibition addresses the crucial historical and cultural role of bison, for all people, in the Northern Plains between 1800 and 2008. It also examines the ways in which this impressive animal has emerged as an American icon. The exhibition will open for public viewing December 6, 2008.
The Bison has been made possible through landmark grants totaling 1.5 million dollars from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Endowment for the Arts, the M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust, the Annenberg Foundation and the Institute of Museum and Library Services, along with additional funding from private foundations, groups, and individuals. These grants represent the largest amount of money received by the C.M. Russell Museum for any exhibition. To be installed in three gallery spaces, The Bison is a permanent exhibition that will serve as a dynamic, ongoing resource for visitors.
An 18-member project team of advisors including scholars, artists, tribal representatives, archeologists, art historians, biologists, historians, anthropologists, and curators from across the nation has helped to shape this remarkable exhibition. The Bison is an exciting and interactive exhibition that incorporates recent research on the topic and is designed to engage visitors of all ages. Created for “family learning,” the exhibition is experiential in nature with hands-on interactive visual displays. Audio tours will soon be available.
The importance of the bison is a critical part of the rich shared cultural heritage in Montana and the region. This exhibition examines the bison’s importance not only in the lives of Plains Indians, but to a growing 19th-century economy; addressing the animal’s sudden decimation and eventual resurgence. With regard to the Northern Plains, the exhibition traces the bison’s transformation from everyday resource to iconic symbol, a shift that began to gain strength during the early reservation period in the late 19th-century. The exhibition traces a period of intense “consumption” of bison as a natural resource by new and growing populations, as well as a conservation movement, and development of the bison as a symbol of North America.
The Bison cultivates a greater understanding of the history of Montana and the region. By broadening the visitor’s informational base, the story of the bison deepens opportunities for respect between cultures and encourages greater cooperation amongst all those who have a shared interest in the ongoing presence of bison in the American West.
About the C.M. Russell Museum
Two years after Charles M. Russell’s death in 1926, the City of Great Falls purchased the Russell Home and Log Cabin Studio (Nancy Cooper Russell and son Jack returned to their winter home in Pasadena, CA), and started the Russell Memorial in 1930. When longtime Russell family friend Josephine Trigg died in 1951, she left behind a number of Russell pictures, models, sketches, illustrated letters, and other works of art. She stipulated that, “The Trigg Collection” should be held in permanent trust “for the purpose of perpetuating the name of Charles M. Russell…” Later that year, Articles of Incorporation were prepared for the Trigg-C.M. Russell Foundation, Inc., a Montana non-profit corporation designed not only to acquire and house The Trigg Collection, but other works of art. The logical plan was to acquire the original lot where the Trigg home stood, adjacent to the Russell’s Home and Log Studio, and erect a museum there. In 1953, the Trigg-Russell Memorial Gallery was opened to the public. The original gallery was small and comprised of only “The Trigg Collection.” Five years later, over 80,000 people had visited the gallery, which was later referred to as the C.M. Russell Gallery, and finally renamed the C.M. Russell Museum in 1972. The collections, exhibitions, staff, and supporters have grown commensurately. The C.M. Russell Museum now includes 16 galleries, a large gift shop, an extensive library, and spans over 76,000 square feet. The C.M. Russell Museum complex includes the original Russell Home and Log Cabin Studio, which occupy a full city block. The C.M. Russell Museum has an average of 50,000 visitors a year, and the permanent collection exceeds 12,000 works of art, Indian artifacts, rare books and documents.
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