Northcutt Steele Gallery
Neil Chaput de Saintonge & Keith Graham
Chasing Time: Montana’s One Room Schools
February 16–March 30, 2017
Reception Thursday, March 23 from 5:00pm–8:00pm
(Artist Talk by Chaput de Saintonge begins at 6:30pm in LI148, the lecture hall next to the gallery)
Lecture on Photographic Equipment by Neil Chaput de Saintonge
Friday, March 24 at 10:30am
Library Room 148 (next to Northcutt Steele Gallery, 1st floor of Liberal Arts Building)
*Free & Open to All. No Reservations Necessary.*
In the early 1990s there were nearly 200,000 one-room schoolhouses scattered across the rural U.S. Today fewer than 200 remain. Montana is home to approximately 60, more than any other state.
In 2013 and 2014 Missoula photographer Chaput de Saintonge and photojournalism professor Graham teamed up to visit and document all of Montana’s remaining one-room schools. The result of their labors is a moving, revealing photo-essay entitled Chasing Time.
The exhibition, Chasing Time, which opens at MSUB’s Northcutt Steele Gallery on February 16 and remains on view through March 30 is comprised of roughly 30 photographs selected from more than 200 images the duo took during their travels. Each of the thoughtfully-composed photographs is filled with candid, poignant details. Alone each is a testament to the uniqueness of each individual teaching and learning in these schools. Together the photographs suggest common, human themes that might unite the dispersed experiences had in the one-room schools serving remote populations across our state and our nation.
Neil Chaput de Saintonge founded Missoula’s Rocky Mountain School of Photography with his wife Jeanne in 1989. He has been teaching photography for over 40 years. Keith Graham is Associate Professor of photojournalism at University of Montana.
On Thursday, March 23 there will be a catered reception for the exhibition that is free and open to the public beginning at the gallery at 5pm. At 6:30pm that evening, Neil Chaput de Saintonge will present an hour-long overview of the photo-essay project in LI148, the lecture hall next to the gallery.
On Friday, March 24 at 10:30am Chaput de Saintonge will also offer a free presentation on recent trends in digital photographic equipment in the lecture hall next to the gallery. The presentation is open to the public and no reservations are necessary.
This exhibition is sponsored by the Montana Art Gallery Directors Association and supported in part by the Montana Arts Council, the Coal Tax Trust Fund for Cultural and Aesthetic Projects, and the National Endowment for the Arts.
The Nothcutt Steele Gallery is located on the 1st floor of the Liberal Arts Building on MSUB campus and is open Monday–Friday from 8am to 4pm, and by appointment. The gallery is supported in part by student fees governed by the Associated Students of MSUB (ASMSUB).
For media inquiries and additional images contact Dr. Leanne Gilbertson, Director of Northcutt Steele Gallery, leanne.gilbertson@msubillings.edu; (406) 657-2903.
