Montana Arts Council Announces Governor’s Arts Award Winners for 2024

• Eric Heidle
• September 19 2024

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Five distinguished Montanans working in the arts have been recognized with the state’s highest honor for those whose careers exemplify the visual, performing, literary, and traditional arts. The Governor’s Arts Awards, presented in the Governor’s name and administered by the Montana Arts Council, recognize outstanding Montana citizens and organizations whose achievements in the arts, or on behalf of the arts, benefit all Montanans. This year’s recipients will be honored in a ceremony at the State Capitol in Helena on December 5.

The 2024 Governor’s Arts Award recipients are:

Presented every two years, the Governor’s Arts Awards recognize achievement and artistic excellence, dedication to Montana, ongoing contributions to the cultural community, and worthiness of recognition.

Governor's Arts Award Medallion

“Through this award, we’re proud to recognize Montanans for their unique ability to showcase the beauty of our landscapes, mark moments in history, and represent the sights and sounds of our vibrant culture,” says Governor Greg Gianforte of the awards. “For generations, the Treasure State has stirred the creativity of writers, artists, and musicians, and we’re glad to honor these individuals for their talents.”

The 2024 Governor’s Arts Award recipients will be honored at a ceremony on Thursday, December 5 at 2pm in the Old Supreme Court Chamber of the Montana State Capitol in Helena. Lieutenant Governor Kristen Juras will be in attendance for the presentation of this year's awards, and the public is invited to attend the ceremony and a reception to follow with refreshments and hors d'oeuvres in the Capitol rotunda. The awards ceremony will also be broadcast on Television Montana (TVMT), the statewide government broadcasting service.

2024 Governor’s Arts Award Recipient Biographies

Jackie Larson Bread

Jackie Larson Bread of Great Falls is an endlessly innovative bead artist and culture carrier of the Piikuni Blackfeet nation. Her work blends traditional Blackfeet geometric and floral designs with stunning contemporary photorealism and painterly techniques. She uses traditional materials including brain-tanned buckskin, fur, brass bells and beads, and ribbons to tell a narrative and often personal story of the people, land, and animals of her homeland. Jackie uses a limited palette of colors to produce beaded pieces true to a specific time period. Using old stock beads – and sometimes modern reruns of old colors – she lends a feel of authenticity to all her works.

Bread has served as a consultant on Blackfeet traditional art for the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian. She has taught dozens of training classes for adults and children focusing on Blackfeet beadwork and material culture. She has shared her art and the Blackfeet culture in many venues, and throughout her career has collaborated with several notable artists. Over her fifty years of creating work, she has remained fascinated by the beauty, the construction, the meaning, the color, the tactile property, and the familial connection of these beaded pieces.

Jackie's beadwork has been recognized with awards from the prestigious Heard Museum Show, in Phoenix, Arizona; the Santa Fe Indian Market; and the Northern Plains Tribal Arts Show in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. She was the 2016 recipient of Native American Art Magazine’s award of excellence. She is the frequent blue-ribbon award recipient at the Santa Fe Indian Art Market, as well.

Jackie’s artworks are housed in many permanent and private collections, including the Smithsonian Institution Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C.; the C.M. Russell Museum in Great Falls; and the Museum of Art and Design, in New York.

Jim Dolan

Jim Dolan is a metal sculptor with a career spanning five decades. His portfolio includes over 170 large-scale public pieces world-wide and thousands of private pieces. Jim’s style of welding steel and other metals into realistic representations is unique among sculptors. His sculptures range from table-top size to a golden eagle with a 36-foot wingspan, installed in Osaka, Japan. Aside from large sculpture, he creates three-dimensional, heat-endured metal paintings as well as architectural design elements. Observing the beauty and complexity of nature, Jim seeks to inspire others to appreciate nature and pursue their own talents and passions.

Raised in California, Jim knew Montana would be his home. While studying agriculture at Montana State University (MSU), he petitioned to receive in-state tuition. His reasoning being he would make his life and living in Montana, contributing to the state throughout his life. True to his word, Jim has spent his career in Montana.

After graduating, he started making metal sculptures. Rather than continuing with a career in ag, Jim’s passion for art took over. He became a full-time metal sculptor, never looking back.

Most importantly, Jim believes in sharing his art. As a result, he is most proud of his public art around the United States and abroad. Above all, he has made good on his promise to contribute to Montana. Most noteworthy, as a gift to the people of the state of Montana, he created and donated the “Bleu Horses” in 2013. His largest installation, the herd of 39 blue horses are located on a hill off Highway 287 near Three Forks, Montana. Showing his gratitude to MSU, he has donated four sculptures to the campus. These include “Walt Whitman,” “Ludwig,” “Black Elk,” and “Abraham Lincoln.” His latest donation of Lincoln was unveiled for MSU’s 125th anniversary.

John Dunnigan

John Dunnigan moved to the Flathead Valley in 1978. He had been playing his guitar and singing to earn a living for several years and found the Montana valley a great place to live and work. Keeping busy he started a family and raised two sons through his music career. Over the course of finding places to perform, John started playing at fairs and festivals gaining a reputation as a great entertainer. Oftentimes when playing at a county fair somewhere in the Pacific Northwest, he would volunteer to play for local non-profit organizations. John continued performing throughout the Dakotas, Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, Oregon and Washington. Always returning to his home base of Whitefish, Montana. John has recorded many of his songs and made them available on CD. His sons grew and completed college, financed by John’s continuing performing schedule. John’s son Andy followed in his footsteps and is the leader of a nationally popular bluegrass band, The Little Smokies. John continues to contribute to his community playing for North Valley Music School fundraisers and other non-profits in the Flathead Valley. Wintertime finds him playing four nights a week at area venues drawing crowds of locals and visitors alike.

John Lowell

John Lowell has been performing in the Mountain West for the past 43 years. He’s toured the world with his bands Kane’s River, Growling Old Men, Wheel Hoss, and the John Lowell Band. John is a triple threat – songwriter, singer, and guitarist – and performs worldwide. He’s been featured on Garrison Keillor’s “Prairie Home Companion” and is the 2022 winner of the International Western Music Association’s Cowboy Song of the Year for a track from his release, “She’s Leaving Cheyenne” which was named Album of the Year by Wyoming Public Radio.

John teaches at music camps in the US, UK, Canada and Europe and serves on the IBMA songwriting committee. He’s recently performed at the Kerrville Folk Festival and the Lone Star Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Texas, the Crossroads Festival in Nottingham, UK and at the Finding Your Roots Festival in Ireland. He’ll perform in 2024 at the Cody Songwriters Festival and the Grand Targhee Bluegrass Festival, among other touring dates in Florida, Kansas, Montana and Texas. He did his 11th European tour last fall and has tours to the UK and Europe planned for 2024. John and his wife (and frequent musical partner) Joanne Gardner Lowell live in Livingston, MT.

Mary Gayle Shanahan

Montana artist Mary Gayle Shanahan has been painting portraits since she was eleven years old. She has spent her whole life in Montana, the majority of it in Helena. Gayle is a watercolorist, a pastel and pen-and-ink artist, and a book illustrator. She is best known for her portraiture, especially of children and distinguished Montanans. Mary Gayle's portraits hang in public and private collections all over the state and the country. She grew up in Billings and majored in art at Billings Senior High School and later earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Montana, where she was a student of Aden Arnold, James Dew, and Walter Hook. She continued her studies under renowned portrait and landscape painters in Europe, Canada, and Mexico as well as across the United States. She studied and taught portraiture for over sixty years. Her authentic and recognizable portraits hang in private and public collections throughout Montana and the United States.

Shanahan’s passion for Montana, its art and history led her to collaborate with historian Jean Baucus to create a guide to the historical mansions of Helena, which is a prized possession of many local residents. Her pen and ink drawings of notable buildings in Butte, Anaconda, Three Forks, Billings and Helena are testament to her love of historic architecture and technical skill as an artist.

About the Montana Arts Council

The state legislature created the Montana Arts Council in 1965 to develop the creative potential of all Montanans, advance education, spur economic vibrancy, and revitalize communities through involvement in the arts. Fifteen individuals appointed by the Governor oversee the Montana Arts Council. More information can be found at art.mt.gov

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