Around the Town: Helena-area arts and entertainment news published Sept. 15 | Local

Lewis & Clark Tap Room has scheduled the following upcoming event:

David & Deidre Casey Band take the stage on Thursday, Sept. 15 from 7 to 10 p.m.

For info on all shows: Lewis & Clark Tap Room, 1535 Dodge Ave., https://lctaproom.com/ or call 406-442-5960.

Dust off your horns and drums, blow out the cobwebs, and come join Helena New Horizons Concert Band. Practices are every Monday evening 7 to 8:30 p.m. in the choir rehearsal room at St. Paul’s United Methodist Church. The first rehearsal was Sept. 12, but feel free to join the group at any time.

The Helena band is affiliated with New Horizons International Music Association (http://newhorizonsmusic.org/), a worldwide organization dedicated to promoting music-making among adults. The band was started in February 2011 with 15 musicians. Now there are over 50 active players. Conductors for the band are Tom Mazanec, Jerry Sept, Jim Perkins and Larry Irwin.

Musical selections for the band include marches, medleys, show tunes, movie themes and classical favorites. Adult musicians of any skill level are welcome to join the band, and while there is no cost to join, the band does ask for a $10 monthly donation to help cover expenses.

Band members provide their own instruments and music stands for rehearsals. For more information please contact Jim Perkins at [email protected].

It’s been said of Shayna Steele that she “unleashes enough voltage to light up the West End” of London.

Find out Thursday, Sept. 22, as she lets loose on The Myrna Loy stage beginning at 7:30 p.m., making her Montana debut and launching The Myrna Loy’s 2022-23 season.

“I’ll be singing mostly new stuff from an album I have coming out next year,” she says, “but I always throw in things from past albums … to show the history of where I’ve evolved as a songwriter.”

Her latest songs she wrote during the pandemic and they deal with the human connection between people.

“I’m so grateful to be able to perform in front of an audience again and to use my music to heal,” she said. 

Steele’s been called “an R&B diva,” as well as being pegged a jazz, pseudo-jazz singer, but she calls herself “a soul singer who literally sings from the soul.”

She also sees herself as a multi-genre singer.

“I grew up on Motown and rhythm and blues,” but being exposed to jazz in New York City drastically changed her music. So have life experiences – from living through 9/11, to becoming a parent, to experiencing the pandemic.

Her distinctive and powerful voice can be heard singing background for Bette Midler, Rihanna, Moby and Kelly Clarkson. She’s also spent eight years as a Broadway ensemble member in “Rent” and “Hairspray” and sung on several movie soundtracks.

Steele’s third album, “Rise,” climbed to No. 3 on the U.S. iTunes jazz charts, and Snarky Puppy chose her and her hard-driving song, “Gone Under,” for the band’s Grammy-winning album, Family, Dinner, Volume 1.

Tickets are $25 and available at 15 N. Ewing St., https://themyrnaloy.com/. For more information, call 406-443-0287.

For the 235th Anniversary of the signing of the U.S. Constitution, all are welcome to gather in the Capitol rotunda on Monday, Sept. 19, at noon for an opening ceremony followed by remarks and presentation of the Governor’s Proclamation by Lt. Gov. Kristen Juras.

The program will include greetings from state society Daughters of the American Revolution Regent Jennifer Lee Buckley and state SAR President Don Reed.

Secretary of State Christi Jacobsen will speak on citizenship and announce details of the 2022 essay, music and poetry contest on What the Constitution Means to Me.

Superintendent of Public Instruction Elsie Arntzen will address advances in education civics and history. Kaylee Rose Lian, seventh grade student from Clancy Middle School, will sing “The National Anthem” and the Helena Xpress Singers directed by Barb Leland will perform “This is My Country” and lead attendees in “Happy Birthday Dear America” and “God Bless America.”

Oro Fino Chapter DAR Constitution Week chairman and honorary chapter regent Jane Lee Hamman will emcee the event, which is sponsored by the chapter.

Celebrate 50 years of the Montana Constitution with Carroll College’s annual Constitution Day lecture via Zoom at 7 p.m. Monday, Sept. 19. The special guest speaker is Montana political reporter Chuck Johnson.

Please register for the Zoom lecture at www.carroll.edu/constitution. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.

This event is open to the public.

The Montana Historical Society once again is offering a wide range of programs at its Helena facility, but you don’t have to attend most of them in person to enjoy history.

The programs range from information on the reality of childbearing in the old West to the MTHS director’s vision for the new Montana Heritage Center. The programs are at the MTHS auditorium at 225 N. Roberts St., and livestreamed on the MTHS YouTube channel unless otherwise noted.

• Sept. 21, noon – Vision of the New Montana Heritage Center. Join Molly Kruckenberg, director of the Montana Historical Society, as she updates the community regarding the new Heritage Center and shares her vision for this awe-inspiring building. Kruckenberg also will discuss the importance of preserving the objects that tell our stories, some of which date back to the Ice Age, as MTHS prepares to transfer them into the new facility, which will open in 2025.
• Sept. 22, 4:30 p.m. – “East of the East Side.” A talk and book signing with Christy Leskovar. Two world wars shook the lives of a Slovenian peasant boy who became a concert bassoonist and had to flee Paris when the First World War began; a Viennese kitchen maid who received money from a mysterious benefactor and moved to America; a scrappy undaunted saloon owner (the old Rock Hut in East Helena) who faced off against one of the most powerful men in Montana; and an outrageous girl who grew up in a Wild West saloon.
• Sept. 29, 4:30 p.m. – “Mothers and Midwives in the Rockies and Plains.” A talk and book signing with Jennifer Hill. In Montana, the Dakotas, and Wyoming childbirth had historically high rates of maternal and infant death. Often miles away from physicians, women turned to other women, fellow mothers, and midwives, to help deliver their babies. Hill will explore how women exercised control over their own health and wellbeing and how they lost that power as physicians claimed more authority over reproductive health.

The Carroll College Career and Graduate School Fair is scheduled for Sept. 21, 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., in the Lower Campus Center.

This is an opportunity for Helena-area job seekers to search for part-time, full-time, or seasonal employment and internship opportunities. Engage with business, governmental, and non-profit organizations; along with a number of various graduate programs (medical and health sciences, law, business, education, and other higher education fields).

Please contact Laurie Rodriguez in Carroll College’s Career Services with any questions at [email protected] or 406-447-5465.

This event is open to Carroll College and Helena College students, veterans, and community members. 

“Stephen Hunt and John Knight: Proximal Works In Situ” is on view through Oct. 22 at the Montana Artist Refuge Gallery, 101 Basin St. in Basin.

The gallery is open every Saturday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and by appointment. To schedule an appointment, call or text 406-422-9338 or email [email protected]. Artist talks will be scheduled for the closing celebration on Saturday, Oct. 22. 

Stephen Hunt is Blackfeet (Amskapii Pikaanii), Nez Perce (Nimipuu), Sioux (Sisseton), Pend d’Oreille (Ql’ispé), Chippewa Cree (Ne Hiyawak), and was raised on the Flathead Indian Reservation. Hunt currently works for the Tribal Defenders Office of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes as a Coordinator for Morning Star: a Permanent Supportive Housing project.

John Knight is a Montana-based conceptual artist and independent curator. His work is site-specific and concerned with the intersection of architecture, design, and class.

The exhibition, in two adjacent spaces – a repurposed 19th century bank and an abandoned stone-walled jail – offers visual perspectives on our exterior and interior worlds. The identity of the exhibition spaces dialogues with the work of each artist, and with one another.

Montana native Paul LaVigne, who calls himself “an evolving artist,” is showing his original landscape paintings at Queen City Framing & Art Supplies during September.

LaVigne said he has drawn since childhood and has explored watercolor, pen and ink and acrylics. But his passion is oil painting, which has allowed him to create more realistic waters and skies. LaVigne is inspired by the beauty of the natural landscapes all around us. His goal is to capture a moment in nature to be able to share it with others. He is largely self-taught but has enjoyed receiving inspiration and instruction by Helena artists Lauren Kovich, Dale Livezey, and the late Carolyn Caldwell.

“Art has been very good to me – not only is it a creative outlet, but I met my lovely wife in watercolor class!” he said.

See his work all month at Queen City Framing & Art Supplies, 400 Euclid Avenue in the Lundy Center. For more information, call 406-442-2760. 

760 Great Northern, 406-442-4225, cinemark.com

• Barbarian, R
• Lifemark, PG-13
• Bullet Train, R
• DC League of Super-Pets, PG
• The Invitation, PG-13
• Top Gun: Maverick, PG-13
• Spider-Man: No Way Home, PG-13
• Where the Crawdads Sing, PG-13
• Minions: The Rise of Gru, PG
• Medieval, R

15 N. Ewing, 406-443-0287, myrnaloycenter.com

• God’s Country, R
• The Silent Twins, R