Qualla: Paris Gibson Square Museum of Art

Paris Gibson Square Museum of Art: Introduction

Mon, 26 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Montanabw, CC BY-SA 3.0. Just before Paris Gibson Square Museum of Art opened its doors in 1977, a portion of the building exploded. The blast was not an accident but a favor. Producers of the Charles Bronson film Telefon needed to blow something up, and the city of Great Falls needed to demolish a brick annex marring the historic structure. The filmmakers rigged a prop Jeep to ram the 1913 addition and detonate it, saving the city $23,000 in demolition costs. The explosion hurled flaming debris onto nearby rooftops, but the museum emerged unscathed, ready to begin its unlikely second act as Montana's premier contemporary art space.

Image: Montanabw | CC BY-SA 3.0

Paris Gibson Square Museum of Art: Four Girls and a Schoolhouse

Mon, 26 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Montanabw, CC BY-SA 3.0. The grey sandstone Romanesque Revival building was constructed in 1896 to house Great Falls High School, which had been founded in 1890 when four teenage girls, newly arrived in the city, asked to receive a public high school education. Those four young women constituted the firs...

Image: Montanabw | CC BY-SA 3.0

Paris Gibson Square Museum of Art: From Abandonment to Andy Warhol

Mon, 26 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Montanabw, CC BY-SA 3.0. After the junior high departed in June 1975, the building sat vacant for a year. Vandalism and weather took their toll on a structure already worn from decades of public school use. There was genuine fear the historic building might be demolished. But in 1977, Paris Gibson Square...

Image: Montanabw | CC BY-SA 3.0

Paris Gibson Square Museum of Art: Sculptures in the Garden

Mon, 26 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Montanabw, CC BY-SA 3.0. The outdoor sculpture garden inaugurated in 1993 tells its own story of Montana creativity. Robert Harrison's "Gibson Gateway," a blue-painted brick archway framed by freestanding walls, won a statewide competition to become the garden's first piece. Richard Swanson's "Prairie To...

Image: Montanabw | CC BY-SA 3.0

Paris Gibson Square Museum of Art: Budget Wars and Boiler Failures

Mon, 26 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Montanabw, CC BY-SA 3.0. The museum's history reads like a primer on small-city cultural survival. In 1993, Cascade County agreed to provide $66,000 annually for building maintenance plus a mill levy split with the local historical society. But in 2003, when PPL Montana challenged property taxes on Black...

Image: Montanabw | CC BY-SA 3.0

Paris Gibson Square Museum of Art: Ghosts and Gray Sandstone

Mon, 26 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Jonathunder, Public domain. Seven galleries spread across the first and second floors display folk art, abstract work, postmodern pieces, and functional artwork like jewelry. Former classrooms from the school era remain on the second floor, now part of the exhibition space. The basement houses the Education...

Image: Jonathunder | Public domain