Arts & Entertainment on The Bozeman Daily Bee

New downtown gallery explores concept of 'home' in space where Three studios used to be

Mon, 03 Aug 2026 10:18:08 +0000

The opening reception for Dwell Time at Aspen & Pine Gallery drew roughly two hundred people Thursday evening, most of them holding kombucha flights from the gallery’s new wellness bar. The exhibit features mixed-media pieces examining displacement and belonging in the Gallatin Valley, installed in a ground-floor retail unit that housed working artist studios until January.

Gallery owner Maren Hollowell, who relocated from Portland in 2021, described the show as “a necessary conversation about what it means to put down roots in a place that keeps changing underneath you.” She said this while standing on reclaimed Douglas fir flooring that was, until recently, the subfloor of a ceramics studio where three potters split rent for twelve years.

New gallery opens in former tire shop on North 7th, smells faintly of patchouli and rubber

Sun, 02 Aug 2026 12:36:07 +0000

The Bridger & Main Gallery held its soft opening last Thursday in the building that housed Dave’s Discount Tires for thirty-two years. The hydraulic lift is gone. The concrete floors have been sealed. A single exposed brick wall remains, which owner Mara Lindstrom calls “industrial warmth” and which her landlord calls “structural necessity.”

Lindstrom moved to Bozeman from Portland in 2019. She worked remotely for a tech company until the layoffs came last spring. “I realized I didn’t want to optimize anything anymore,” she said, adjusting a ceramic vessel priced at $480. “I wanted to curate. The universe provided this space.” The universe, in this case, was a three-year lease at $4,200 a month.

First Friday finds its rhythm amid construction dust and crystal intentions

Sun, 02 Aug 2026 10:06:29 +0000

The August First Friday art walk moved through downtown with the particular energy of a community trying to remember where it put its keys. Galleries along Main Street opened doors to the evening air, which carried notes of wildfire smoke, food truck cumin, and the particular ozone scent that precedes a Bridger storm.

At the newly renovated Willow & Grain building, where a four-story mixed-use development now rises beside a cottage that has held the same family since 1962, the ground-floor gallery space hosted “Transitions,” a group show featuring artists who have been priced out of Bozeman and artists who have not yet arrived. The irony was not lost on anyone, though no one mentioned it aloud.

First Friday attendees report profound grounding amid jackhammer sound bath

Sat, 01 Aug 2026 14:14:21 +0000

Downtown’s monthly art walk drew an estimated twelve hundred souls last Friday evening, each navigating the brick-lined corridors between gallery openings and pop-up kombucha stations with the focused breathwork of a meditation retreat. The air carried notes of sage, cold-pressed turmeric shots, and the percussive resonance of pile drivers breaking ground on the new luxury mixed-use development at Mendenhall and Babcock.

Mara Willowbrook, a mixed-media artist showing at the newly relocated Spirit & Stone Gallery on Main, described the construction rhythm as “an unexpected collaboration between the built environment and the subtle body.” Her installation, “Foundation Studies,” incorporates reclaimed barn wood, hand-harvested Montana quartz, and recorded audio of planning commission meetings played at sub-audible frequencies.

New gallery opens on Main with exhibit entirely made of things other people threw away

Sat, 01 Aug 2026 09:50:19 +0000

The Reclaimed Spirit Gallery held its grand opening this past First Friday, featuring work from twelve local artists who exclusively use materials diverted from the landfill. The space occupies the ground floor of the former Miller’s Hardware building, which sat vacant for three years before a developer from Missoula purchased it and converted the upper floors into luxury lofts starting at $2,800 a month.

Owner Maren Whitlock, who moved to Bozeman from Portland in 2019, said the gallery’s mission is to “honor the energetic imprint of discarded objects.” Her centerpiece installation, “Breath of the Valley,” consists of 400 used coffee cups collected from the Co-op over six months, suspended on hemp thread from reclaimed barn beams. The beams came from a dairy barn in Manhattan that was demolished to make room for a subdivision called Heritage Meadows.

First Friday crowd activates former transmission shop, contemplates impermanence over charcuterie

Wed, 29 Jul 2026 12:36:14 +0000

The former Al’s Transmission on North 7th held its grand reopening as Alchemy & Earth Gallery last Friday, drawing an estimated 200 attendees across the monthly art walk. The space retains its original concrete floors and hydraulic lift, now repurposed as a display platform for reclaimed barn wood sculptures. Owner Maya Hensley, who relocated from Portland in 2021, described the renovation as “honoring the industrial lineage while inviting feminine reclamation.”