The Helena Public Art Committee (HPAC) was created when Becky Eiker, a Helena resident and artist, expressed her desire in 1998 to donate a statue to the city entitled Extra! Extra!, a bronze statue of a newsboy. City officials accepted the gift and realized that others might be interested in making art donations. The City Commission passed Resolution No. 11316 and appointed an advisory committee comprised of artists, citizens at large and art administrators as the Helena Public Art Committee, reflecting a variety of visual and performing arts specialities found throughout the area.

In 2011 the City Commission began a pilot project to integrate four citizen advisory committees, including the HPAC, with the Helena Citizens Council (HCC). The 6-month project will determine whether or not the integration enhances both groups in meeting their goals.

The mission of the Helena Public Art Committee is to promote public art works in the Helena community and to inform residents and visitors about the many pieces available to the public for their enjoyment.

We hope you will use the links provided on this site to locate public art throughout the Helena area, find out how you can help the committee with new projects, where you can find additional information about public art, who the committee members are and more about our current projects.

The Helena Public Art Committee (HPAC) hosted its third annual Open Studios Tour of working artist studios in the Helena area on September 10, 2011.  The Tour is intended to give the public a wonderful opportunity to visit artists at work in their studios, allowing the viewer to learn more about the creative process of art.

Artists demonstrated their work as they created jewelry, beads, fiber arts, painting, sculpture, ceramics, pottery, gourds, doll-making, basket-making, metal work, graphic design, architecture and more.

Tickets for this fundraiser support public art.  Ticket purchasers were eligible for a special prize drawing. 

This year's prizes included:

- a Ukrainian egg by Jo Lee Hawkins won by Barb Evilsizer;
- oval serving dish by Jim Gilman won by Lucy Morell-Gengler
- Montana Star Quilts book by Linda Parker won by Theresa Meek;
- gift certificate from Linda Parker won by Leslie Smith;
- Cathedral print by Jim Stevens won by Fred and Celeste Pfister;
- a one-year membership to the Holter Museum won by Jill Larson.

You can see photos from the 2011 Tour!

 For more information, please call (406) 447-8491.

A mural series, "Palimpsest,"  featuring Helena's history were installed on the Trolley Block arches on Helena's Downtown Walking Mall in 2011.   Located in a part of downtown that historically had Chinese businesses, the painted murals tell the stories of Chinese with a symbolic dragon and a memory wall.  According to artist Lance Foster:

In Chinese art, dragons are typically portrayed as long, scaled, serpentine creatures with four legs. In yin and yang terminology, a dragon is yang and complements a yin fenghuang "Chinese phoenix."

In contrast to European dragons, which are considered evil, Chinese dragons traditionally symbolize potent and auspicious powers, particularly control over water, rainfall, hurricane, and floods. The dragon is also a symbol of power, strength, and good luck.

Other walls in the series feature Big Dorothy and urban renewal. 

You can follow the artist's work on the murals at Lance's blog.