“It's put there for the public to enjoy,” Orzech said. “It just makes the office more approachable. That's what the court is all about. It's the people's court.”
The oil painting, “Ermine,” has clung to the wall outside Justice Court chambers for several years. Donated in 1983 by artist Ron Jenkins, it is one of nearly 200 pieces that make up Missoula County's art collection.
Employees can call the Missoula Art Museum, which manages the collection, and request a painting, sculpture or statue for their office or lobby. It's been a very informal process, and not very well organized, said Ann Mary Dussault, the county's chief administrative officer.
Now the museum doesn't have the resources to handle the volume of requests, said Missoula Art Museum registrar Jennifer Reifsneider. So Reifsneider wants to take a more hands-on approach to displaying the county's art.
Right now, it's “piecemeal” placement, she said.
“It's gotten to be a large number of people doing it,” Dussault said. “It's not appropriate anymore for individuals to just call the museum and say, ‘Gee, I'd like some of the county's art.' ”
The county is crafting a policy to ensure that the art is located in pre-approved public spaces and not in someone's corner office. Pieces will be placed out of the way of spills, accidents or thievery, and rotated occasionally to protect the art from excessive sunlight, which can cause damage, Dussault said.
“We weren't curating them appropriately,” she said.
While governments have a tendency to acquire art without solicitation or reason, the county's art collection is one with purpose, and part of the Missoula Art Museum's history, said MAM executive director Laura Millin.
The Missoula Art Museum, formerly called the Missoula Museum of the Arts, was a county agency from the time it opened in 1975 until it became a nonprofit in 1995.
Art acquired during those two decades is considered county property. The museum has greatly expanded its own private collection since then, growing to about 900 pieces of artwork. But just less than a quarter of that is considered the county's.
The most valuable, of course, are the eight E.S. Paxson murals lining the courthouse's main entrance facing West Broadway.
When construction of the courthouse was completed in 1910, Missoula County commissioned Paxson to paint murals that depicted Montana pioneer life.
Other artwork in the collection is of equal grandeur, albeit less renown.
Last week, Reifsneider sifted through rows of beautiful artwork filed away in the basement of the museum. She pulled out an E.S. Paxson painting called “In the Enemies Country.”
Students at Hawthorne Elementary School raised money to commission that painting in 1905. More than 70 years later, the school donated the painting to the county.
Others include work by late ceramic artist Rudy Autio and paintings by Walter Hook and Gennie Deweese of Bozeman. Some of the collection involves lesser-known artists, such as paintings by prisoners who inhabited the old jail on the fourth floor of the courthouse before it was renovated into offices.
The collection is mostly contemporary art of the American West. But two things make it unique, Reifsneider said. First, many of the artists are from Montana. Second, its mix of traditional and abstract styles makes it diverse.
About half of the counties in Montana, as allowed by law, give money to the arts. Missoula County gives the museum $200,000 annually. Most of that pays for the museum to care for its collection.
Many museums tend also to find their home in old government buildings, Millin said.
The Custer County Art Center in Miles City is located in the city's 1914 waterworks building. The Yellowstone Art Museum is located inside the old county jail. The Missoula Art Museum's building used to house the city library.
But it's unknown whether another county government in Montana actually owns an art collection that can compare to Missoula County's.
“I've never given any thought to that topic before,” said Harold Blattie, director of the Montana Association of Counties. “A county is not going to buy art. Any collection would have been donated to them.”
Some local municipalities do, however.
The city of Missoula was the first to adopt a program similar to the state's, which uses 1 percent of the cost of a new building or expansion project to commission public art.
The city's art collection began in 1985 when Mayor John Toole established the Missoula Public Art Committee, but the adoption of a new ordinance five years ago has strengthened the collection. The committee is responsible for about a dozen artwork projects around town.
The most recent was dedicated Friday. It's a $6,000, 26-foot-long abstract painting titled “Ponder,” and hangs outside the Missoula City Council chambers.
Mayor John Engen has a painting from the museum's collection hanging in his office, and there is some artwork inside the council chambers.
“We want the collection to be as available as possible,” Reifsneider said.
The museum is toying with the idea of a traveling art exhibit, or grouping art in themes and displaying it in different government buildings. There are a lot of white, open walls in the courthouse, which Reifsneider wants to use as display space.
This is an opportunity, she said, because in the art world there's at least one simple fact: There is always more art than walls.
Reporter Chelsi Moy can be reached at 523-5260 or at Chelsi.Moy@Missoulian.com
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