Her Stories: Women of the West in Art and History is a free presentation and panel discussion at the Hockaday Museum of Art open to the public. Moderated by Executive Director Alyssa Cordova, it features Montana visual artists Amy Brakeman Livezey, Jessica Glenn, and Tessa Heck, and guest speakers Margaret Davis, Director of the Northwest Montana History Museum and artist/storyteller Valentina Lapier (Blackfeet Nation) speaking on their work, background, stories of notable
Montana women, and ending with a timely roundtable discussion on women’s history, gender issues, and art history.

Following the panel discussion, participants will also have the opportunity to view the current art exhibitions of the artists work in the galleries.

Her Stories: Women of the West in Art and History focuses on art as an expression of ideas and emotions and provides a direct, in-person, physical experience for the public to engage with the visual arts with a broader
context of history, culture, philosophy, psychology and even politics. This will help deepen their understanding and appreciation for the visual arts and the unique perspectives shared by these pioneering women artists and leaders by combining the experiences of the various arts.

Bios:
Alyssa Cordova, Executive Director, Hockaday Museum of Art, has spent the last twenty years working in galleries & museums organizing and curating art exhibitions and publications. She is an artist, writer, curator, hiker, & educator with an emphasis on emerging artists, museum collections, research, arts education, community partnerships, & interdisciplinary collaborations. She received her BFA in sculpture & MFA in Exhibition Design & Museum Studies. In 2009, she formed a curating collective, Sixpack Projects whose mission is to support emerging artists through exhibitions & programs in unconventional spaces.

Margaret E. Davis. Executive Director, Northwest Montana History Museum studied at Scripps College, majoring in philosophy & English, with a minor in studio art. Her work experience involves all aspects of publishing, from
writing & editing to production & bookbinding. She has taught, lectured, & exhibited. As a longtime journalist & art critic with magazines & newspapers, she writes & reviews stories about women artists & themes played out across various media. In her work as a book artist, she explores questions of identity, gender, & representation.

Jessica Glenn, based in Missoula MT, grew up drawing & painting in Pennsylvania & earned her B.F.A. from Kendall College of Art & Design. Her paintings are an homage to the people, architecture, flora, & fauna of the Old & the New West. She explores Montana’s back roads & mountain trails, gathering inspiration from
historic places, rusty trucks, & native wildflowers. Jessica is a signature member of the Montana Watercolor Society & exhibits her award-winning work in shows at HMA & other National juried shows.

Amy Brakeman Livezey worked her way from the Midwest to the
western states. She began her creative career with a focus on independent filmmaking, which allowed her to explore a full range of interests: history, language, visual art, & music. Amy has become known throughout the
region for her depictions of historic subjects in abstract expressionist fields. Using paint, subtraction tools, bits of ephemera, & photo transfer techniques, Livezey expresses in a modern form her interest in western history, feminism, the human form, & portraiture. Her studio in Helena, MT is adjacent to that of her husband, landscape artist Dale Livezey.

Tessa Heck is a Kalispell, MT based visual artist and mother working in painting on paper and wood panel. Heck’s work plays with narratives around contemporary landscapes, motherhood, & often draws a hard line between beauty & grotesque in her portraiture. Heck received her BFA from Pacific Lutheran University & her MFA in Visual Studies from Pacific Northwest College of Art. Heck has shown in the Northwest at many art galleries & has served in residencies.

Artist and Storyteller Valentina LaPier was born in Browning, Montana and is an enrolled member of the Blackfeet Tribe. Raised in various places throughout the western United States, Valentina moved back to the Blackfeet Reservation in 2000. Currently, she splits her time between East Glacier and Kalispell, Montana. LaPier is an artist who shares the landscape of her heart through her painted images, weaving together her life as a 21st Century artist, her Blackfeet heritage and personal narrative. LaPier’s work is contemporary, constructed from historical Native images, like those found in the traditional art of the Blackfeet people. Her artwork has become a vehicle, by which she educates both Native and non-native people on the history of the different tribal images used in her work.

Location: 302 2nd Avenue East, Kalispell, MT, MT 59901

For more information:  Alyssa Cordova, director@hockadaymuseum.com, 406- 675-5526