Hopes high for this year's Western Art Week

Organizers of art shows and sales are feeling bullish about Western Art Week in Great Falls this year. The events begin Wednesday and will spread to a variety of locations around the city through the weekend.

The shows and auctions this week are expected to sell as much as a combined $6 million worth of art in Great Falls.

Several officials with some of the bigger Great Falls shows and auctions say there is a general feeling that the economy in Montana — and the country — is improving. There also is a sense among some artists and galleries that they may be over the hump from the 2008-2009 nationwide recession and its aftermath.

"In general sense, I have seen actual results trending upwards," said Sarah Burt, chief curator at the C.M. Russell Museum in Great Falls, which will hold The Russell: The Sale to Benefit the C.M. Russell Museum this week. "It's rebounding from the terrible times of 2008 and 2009. I think it's pretty good right now."

Prices for work by one of the masters of Western art, Charlie Russell, "are pretty strong right now," Burt added.

On Saturday, 21 of Russell's works will be in The Russell Live Auction at the Best Western Heritage Inn — the final museum event of the week.

"It's fantastic," Burt said of the museum's Russell offerings, including three watercolors that may fetch $230,000 or more each.

Russell works also will be offered for sale at other locations around the city, including the March in Montana show.

Bigfork's Steve Cawdrey, who helps run the Western Masters Art Show and Sale at the Heritage Inn, said he believes the economy is looking up.

"We've seen a change the last six months," Cawdrey said. "People are buying art. My sense is the mood in the country is more positive, and our artists have been very upbeat."

Burt noted that there were "really strong" prices at last year's Reno, Nev., and Jackson Hole, Wyo., art auctions, which took place after Western Art Week in Great Falls. The July Coeur d'Alene Art Auction in Reno sold more than 300 works for about $17 million, up from $9.2 million in sales in 2010, and $11.7 million in 2009, but less than the $37 million in sales it had in 2008 — before the recession hit.

Meanwhile, the fifth-annual Jackson Hole Art Auction sold a record $9 million worth of art in September.

Great Falls' results from a year ago did not produce chump change, either.

The C.M. Russell Museum's three events grossed $1,499,690 in 2011, edging out the March in Montana auctions, which sold $1,451,400 at its pair of events.

"It's going to be much better this year," predicted Cheyenne's Bob Nelson, owner of Manitou Galleries, which teams with the Coeur d'Alene Art Auction to run the March in Montana show.

Nelson is less bullish on the national economy, which he calls "problematic." But he said art buyers with oil interests or rising stock market holdings have helped bring the Western art market around closer to where it was before the recession. Some art buffs have decided to part with their money even if the economy in general "isn't that good," Nelson said.

Manitou has galleries in Wyoming and Santa Fe, N.M. He said the art market in New Mexico remains slightly depressed, although his shops are seeing improved sales.

"We were cut in half in 2008," Nelson said. But even with improvements in sales the last two years, "we're still not back to where we were."

However, Western Art Week in Great Falls has a specific market, one that comes to the events to buy, and Nelson said he believes the week "is going to be great."

"The Russell has got some nice Russell material for sale," he said.

Nelson said March in Montana has fine pieces, too, particularly a large number of bronzes by living and deceased sculptors, as well as paintings and Western collectibles. Nelson said Great Falls art buffs may be especially interested in works by late artists Joe Abbrescia and Arlene Hooker Fay.

Nelson also praised the support area residents give Western Art Week.

"I think they're very involved," he said. "We have tremendous numbers of people walking through our show."

In addition to Western Art Week's two big auction events, which grossed about $3 million combined last year, Cawdrey said the Western Masters Art Show and Sale sold about $1.5 million worth of art in exhibition rooms and through the Western Master's Off the Wall Auction and related events.

That's nearly $5 million generated by three major Western Art Week shows, not to mention other popular shows, including the Western Heritage Artists Show at the Holiday Inn, the Jay Contway & Friends Art Show at Montana ExpoPark, the Wild Bunch Art Show at the Hampton Inn, and several other shows selling antiques, guns and collectibles.