The Yellowstone Art Museum Is Free for County Residents. Its Fall Shows Have Fewer Open Days Left Than You'd Think.

James Florio climbed the same hill 482 times over seven winters, carrying an 8x10 large format camera. At the top stands Inverted Portal, a 22-foot-tall sculpture by Ensamble Studio on the grounds of Tippet Rise Art Center. Thirty-six of the photographs he made there hang in a single grid at the Yellowstone Art Museum through January 9, 2027.

Two other exhibitions close the same day. One is a gallery of sculpture made partly from Billings-area materials. The other is an artist's first exhibition in Montana. Admission is free for Yellowstone County residents. The museum is open four days a week, so the eight and a half weeks between now and January 9 add up to only 35 open days before all three shows close.

Seven winters on one hill

Florio's show fills the museum's One Artwork Gallery format in the Northwest Projects Gallery. The idea is to slow down in front of one body of work instead of moving through a room. The museum's exhibition page quotes him on how the series came together:

"I climbed again and again, through snow and cold, in light and dark, in silence and in nature's deafening roar, to the top of the hill. Listening to the sound of the mountain and witnessing the land's infinite change, it was the wind that decided if an image would be made."

The sculpture works as both a shelter and a piece of art, and the grid follows how snow, light and weather change it from one visit to the next. November is a good month to see a show about winter weather. The best day this month is Friday, November 13, when Billings Symphony Cello Soundscapes performs a response to the photographs at 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. Tickets are $10.

That concert is the second of this season's pairings between the museum and the symphony. On October 23, a Billings Symphony chamber string trio performed in response to the exhibition in the Montana Gallery, which is about Billings itself.

A gallery built partly from Billings materials

Embedded in the Overlap is by Rebecca Hutchinson, an award-winning sculptor who has lived in Helena for three decades. She designed it for the museum's location in Billings. The museum says the work draws on the history of settlement along the Rimrocks, the industries that support local communities, and the dramatic, often unpredictable weather of the plains.

The materials come from the region: beet pulp, blue jeans, creek willow and regional clay. Hutchinson boils and pulps much of the organic and fibrous material, then pours it into large sheets of paper. She cuts the sheets, coats them in clay and coils them into vessel forms. She also uses printmaking. Her clay and paper training became a single practice during a residency at the Archie Bray Foundation in Helena.

Florio photographed the same Montana hill for seven winters, and Hutchinson made art partly out of Billings-area materials. Both shows are about one place over time, and they close on the same Saturday.

A first Montana exhibition, in the Charles M. Bair Gallery

Futuristic Time Keepers is Star WallowingBull's first exhibition in Montana. He is a White Earth Ojibwe and Arapaho artist. The show mixes Indigenous cultural references with American pop culture, autobiography and mechanical systems in colored pencil drawings and acrylic paintings.

Two mentors shaped the work. His father, artist Frank Big Bear, trained him in detailed colored pencil drawing. Pop artist James Rosenquist later pushed him toward large acrylic paintings. His work is in the collections of the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian and the British Museum. Recent group shows include the Detroit Institute of Arts and the National Gallery of Art. He was raised in the Twin Cities and is now based in Fargo, North Dakota. Until January 9, Billings is the place to see this work in Montana.

How many open days are left

Here are the three shows that close together:

The museum is open Wednesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., with Thursdays running to 8 p.m. It's closed Sunday through Tuesday, so it has no Sunday afternoon hours. On that weekly schedule, Thursday, November 12, through January 9 adds up to 35 open days. Nine of them are Thursdays with evening hours, and the Thursdays of November 26, December 24 and December 31 fall on holiday weeks.

Admission costs Yellowstone County residents nothing because of Art Bridges Foundation's Access for All program. Visitors from outside the county pay $8 for adults and $6 for seniors. Anyone 18 or under, and anyone with a student ID, gets in free. If relatives from out of state visit over the holidays, plan for their admission. Free county admission doesn't cover them.

Here are the windows that work around a weekday job:

1. Friday, November 13. Pair the Florio grid with the cello performance at 1 p.m. or 3 p.m.
2. Any regular Thursday evening. The galleries stay open until 8 p.m. The Thursdays in mid-November and mid-December have the fewest holiday conflicts.
3. Friday, December 4. It's a First Friday, so the museum stays open until 8 p.m. It's also the museum's busiest day of the season, covered in the next section.
4. Saturday, January 9. It's the last day for all three shows, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

December 4 is WinterFair and Holiday Stroll

The museum's annual WinterFair Arts & Crafts Market fills the building on Friday, December 4, from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Admission is free. Local artists and vendors sell handmade goods, and the day includes entertainment and holiday refreshments. From 4 p.m. to 8 p.m., it overlaps with the Holiday Stroll and December ArtWalk in downtown Billings.

All three closing shows are still up that night. For a slower visit, come before 4 p.m., while the market is running but the downtown crowd hasn't arrived yet.

Local makers who want a booth have until November 19 to apply, or less if the spaces fill first. The museum calls the space very limited. Musicians and other performers can contact Molly at [email protected] or 406.256.6804 x236 to book a time.

What's still up after January 9

The museum won't be empty in mid-January. Two shows run until Saturday, February 13, 2027. Of Neon & Bones shows works added to the permanent collection in the last five years, by artists including Tracy Linder, Willem Volkersz, Kristen Cliffel, Sandra Dal Poggetto and Frances Senska. Visions of America: The Spirit of Independence marks the nation's 250th anniversary with the 1974 Kent Spirit of Independence Bicentennial Portfolio, which commissioned work from 12 artists.

In A Nutshell runs through December 4, 2027, with collection works tied to the playful, experimental Funk and "Nut" Art movements of the 1960s and 1970s. Will James in Hollywood runs the longest, through May 6, 2028. It draws on the museum's Virginia Snook Collection to tell the story of the Billings artist and writer's horse-stunt work in early Hollywood. The Will James show will still be up for two more winters. The Florio grid, the Hutchinson vessels and the WallowingBull drawings are gone after January 9.

The Brosovich Real Estate Team keeps track of what's happening around Billings because the city's culture matters to the people who live here. If you're curious what your own home is worth this winter, request a free home valuation and we'll send you a straightforward local answer.