Russell Museum Receives $100,000 Annenberg Grant

GREAT FALLS -- The Annenberg Foundation has awarded the C.M. Russell Museum $100,000 for support of the Museum’s new exhibition, The Bison: American Icon, Heart of Plains Indian Culture. Scheduled to open in fall 2008, the exhibition will use the subject of bison as a gateway to examine the culture of the Northern Plains through a survey of the interactions of people with bison from 1750 to present. Throughout four galleries, the nature of these interactions will be explored through different voices, objects, images and historical information. Recent scholarship, legendary histories, and primary resource materials will interweave the perspectives of American Indians, early explorers, settlers, miners, hunters, ranchers, artists, government entities, and their contemporaries today. These various insights will reveal how this great creature has continued to be a source of currency for so many – culturally, economically, and symbolically. Funds from the Annenberg Foundation will be used specifically for gallery renovation of one of the four galleries.

Established in 1989 by Walter H. Annenberg, the Annenberg Foundation provides funding and support to nonprofit organizations in the United States and globally through its headquarters in Radnor, Pennsylvania and offices in Los Angeles, California. Its major program areas are education and youth development; arts, culture and humanities; civic and community; health and human services; and animal services and the environment. In addition, the Foundation operates a number of initiatives which expand and complement these program areas. The Annenberg Foundation exists to advance the public well-being through improved communication. As the principal means of achieving this goal, the Foundation encourages the development of more effective ways to share ideas and knowledge.

Opened in 1953, the C.M. Russell Museum’s mission is to collect, preserve, research, interpret and educate on the art and life of Charles M. Russell. In addition, the Museum also focuses on the art and lives of Russell’s contemporaries, as well as art that depicts the culture, life, and country of Russell’s West.