Upcoming Exhibitions at MAM
Alaina Buffalo Spirit, Through a Cheyenne Woman's Eyes
July 1-September 28, First Friday August 1
The Missoula Art Museum is proud to present the work of Alaina Buffalo Spirit, a senior member of the So’taa’ee band of the Northern Cheyenne Nation and a nationally acclaimed artist. Alaina brings her unique perspective to life through the tradition of ledger art, reimagined with modern techniques on canvas.
Ledger art, originating in the mid-1800s, began as a creative outlet for Cheyenne and Kiowa warriors imprisoned at Ft. Marion, Florida. While early pieces were created on paper or cloth, the form evolved to incorporate accounting sheets and sheet music. Alaina’s work is inspired by the history of this art form and the untold stories of women who were overlooked in its early narratives.
Our Story: Fifty Years of Contemporary Art at MAM
July 25-Dec 13, 2025
This exhibition commemorates MAM’s first decades as seen through the collection, archival material, and ephemera. However, history is more than the sum of a series of milestones. An institution’s history encompasses a rich and complex variety of events, ideas, experiences, and people, extending beyond significant dates and highlights. The objects selected for display in this exhibition represent only a very few of the 2,500 pieces that comprise MAM’s Collection or the additional thousands that have been exhibited over the years.
Museum collections are often considered synonymous with institutional identities. MAM’s Collection is no exception. The Collection has a storied history of its own, but throughout it all, it has been cared for and made accessible for the benefit of the community. Without exception, every gift, transfer, commission, and purchase throughout the museum’s fifty years was made with the public in mind. Within it are vestiges of directions and interests that were previously considered important. Collections grow and change, while retaining remnants of their former selves—oddities that no longer relevant to the institution. When speaking about the Collection, MAM has been eschewing words like ‘permanent, vault, and treasures,’ opting instead for ‘access, transparency, and activation.’
MAM’s Collection includes pieces purchased out of exhibitions, art that was presented in the annual auction, Sunday flower paintings, Western artworks by notables like Edgar S. Paxson, commissioned tapestries for architectural details that no longer exist, and a handful of internationally known artists who aren’t connected to Montana in any significant way, but at its heart is a great collection of contemporary art, including a core of contemporary Native art that has helped amplify MAM’s presence nationally. Still, these objects reveal something about the museum—its history, the development of contemporary art in Montana, and the role of collections and museums more generally.
MAM is grateful to the generosity of our many friends for making MAM the museum it is and enhancing the depth of the collection. We extend heartfelt gratitude to the artists, donors, members, visitors, board, and staff throughout the years who have all endeavored to make the Missoula Art Museum what it is today—and to recognize the outstanding contributions of outgoing director Laura J. Millin, who has guided the institution for the last 35!
This anniversary should be an opportunity for self-reflection on the part of the Missoula community. We’ve had a good fifty years, where do we want to go from here? 
Rearranging Stars: Jennifer Leutzinger, Brittney Denham-Whisonant, and Delia Touché
August 12- December 13, 2025
J.M. Cooper: Adel Sheep Shearing
Aresty Gallery at the Missoula Art Museum
October 3, 2025-February 21, 2026
This series of photographs focuses on the annual sheep shearing at the Sieben Live Stock Company in Adel near Cascade, Montana. Cooper photographed the event over three separate years. The ranch was founded in 1868 by Henry Sieben, subject of a new book to be published in tandem with the exhibition by Farcountry Press and the Foundation for Montana History.
Cooper began photographing in the 1970s, and was a student of Lee Nye, the infamous black & white photographer from Missoula, MT. “When Lee walked into the classroom wearing aviator sunglasses, I knew I was going to be a photographer,” he says.
Cooper recently retired as archival photographer for the Montana Historical Society. He has documented spring shearing and branding, and Montana architecture including the Archie Bray Foundation, Deer Lodge Prison, and Helena’s Last Chance Gulch. His photos are published in Dark Spaces: Montana’s Historic Penitentiary at Deer Lodge in collaboration with Ellen Baulmer.
Stella Nall
Oct 3- Dec 27, 2025
