• David Burke, Butte-Anaconda National Historic Landmark, month of August, painting
• Kit Frost, Glacier National Park: GNP National Park Service, mid-August to mid-September, photography
• D.G. House, Traveler’s Rest National Historic Landmark, September/October, painting
• Lewis Williams, Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument, August, painting/woodcut prints
• Ben Bloch, Virginia City National Historic Landmark, mid-July through mid-August, painting
• Tim Holmes, artist-at-large who is visiting all sites to provide a unifying perspective, (July through October), painting

The project, “Reimagine Montana: National Parks, Historic Landmarks, Trails and Monuments Across Time” is funded by a $20,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts and National Park Service, both of which are celebrating anniversaries this year. The NEA marks 50 years and the NPS celebrates its 100th anniversary.

All five sites have national historic significance, said Chere Jiusto, executive director of MPA, who came up with the brainstorm.

The impetus for creating this project was an NEA call for proposal, Imagine Your Parks, said Jiusto. “It just put me in mind of the powerful artwork that had been done over time depicting Montana, the cultural and history here, the vast landscape -- it seemed like such a perfect fit.”

“It seemed a really beautiful way to commemorate these places that mean so much to all us and how they resonate with people.”

These contemporary artists-in-residence walk in the steps of such renowned artists as Karl Bodmer, Thomas Moran, Charlie Russell, Thomas Hart Benton, Gustav Sohon, John Fery and Native American traditional artists.

“It’s been just a tremendous success,” Jiusto said of the project. “Uniformly, the artists have just loved it. Creatively, the work they’ve produced is beyond what we had hoped for.”

“Every place that hosted them found the artist in tune with the history that took place there -- in particular.”

Some of the art is still in progress.