By Jessie Wilber
Sponsored by Holter Museum of Art
Tour Schedule
- GLACIER ART MUSEUM May 22 – September 20, 2025
- BOB & GENNIE DEWEESE GALLERY- BOZEMAN HIGH SCHOOL October 22 – December 10, 2025
- MONDAK HERITAGE CENTER January 12 – March 28, 2026
- DANFORTH MUSEUM OF ART April 15 – June 15, 2026
- THE ART MUSEUM OF EASTERN IDAHO September 15, 2026 – January 2, 2027
- CARBON COUNTY ARTS GUILD & DEPOT GALLERY May 1 – May 31, 2027
Exhibit Details
- 16 prints in various styles
- Size range: 4″ x 3″ – 17″ x 40″ approx.
- Crates: 2 crates, largest – 60″ x 52″ x 6″
- Available: May 2025 – December 2027
- Rental Fee: up to 6-weeks $400/ 7 – 12-weeks $600
The Holter Museum of Art is fortunate enough to be home to an extensive collection of Montana artist Jessie Wilber’s work. While exploring her catalog, one can easily observe the artist’s love of animals; her depictions of cats, birds, raccoons, and more make up a large part of the collection. For this exhibit, Holter staff have curated a selection of sixteen prints, each featuring Wilber’s expressive depiction of an animal (or animals). This exhibition will be on display at The Holter from February 28th through April 1st, 2025. After that, this exhibit will be available to travel around the state of Montana.
About the Artist
Jessie Wilber (1912-1989), known best for her printmaking work during the “Montana Modernist” period (the 1940s and 1950s) can be credited in part for re-defining Western Art in the state of Montana. Wilber, her longtime partner, ceramicist Frances Senska, and Robert and Gennie DeWeese comprised the “Montana Modernist” founding group, as referenced in Michele Corriel’s publication Montana Modernists. This group not only created work in a Modernist style but also educated numerous budding artists on the philosophy and technique of the movement.
Wilber, who passed away in 1989, explored many different printmaking techniques throughout her career. Serigraph, lithograph, and woodcut were among her frequently used techniques. Like her Modernist colleagues, Wilber often depicted scenes from everyday life that highlighted snippets of her daily routines and memories. While Wilber’s work is not necessarily conceptually challenging, the care with which she depicts her subject matter gives the viewer the privilege of peeking into her complex inner world.
Educational Programming
The Holter believes that museums are fundamentally educational spaces. Throughout the year, the museum runs fine arts and SEL-informed summer camps, after-school classes, workshops for adults and professional artists, and tours for a wide range of demographics. The Holter considers itself a safe space for all people to engage in the power of art. Our proposed educational programming to accompany this exhibition is as follows:
Interpretation signage: signage will accompany the prints. This signage will display “fun facts” about the animals depicted and will describe Wilber’s various printmaking processes in an accessible, child-friendly manner.
FREE family-friendly printmaking class: a workshop on woodblock printing will be offered. Under the guidance of a teaching artist, participants will observe Wilber’s work and create their own woodblock print of an animal that inspires them.
A portable printing press will be purchased and available for use during this workshop. It will then be available for use in other printmaking workshops.
The Holter teaches in many public school districts across Montana. The printmaking curriculum developed for this exhibit will be taught across Montana, bringing a portable press, the work of Jessie Wilber, and this important art-making process to 5,000 students, in mostly rural and reservation schools.
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