Missoula, MT
Cradled in a Rocky Mountain valley where five rivers meet, Missoula's mural scene is as layered as its landscape. The University of Montana's creative energy runs through downtown's independent blocks and the beloved Hip Strip along South Higgins, where murals celebrate wilderness, Salish heritage, the Clark Fork River, and the particular Montana combination of intellectual independence and outdoor devotion.
Featured Artists
All artists →Lena Bearstooth
University of Montana MFA graduate whose Clark Fork River series translates field ecology into large-scale public painting. Bearstooth's Higgins Avenue mural — a spring-flood Clark Fork in high detail, cutthroat trout visible through the silted current — is the result of a year of river walks, water samples, and scientific illustration studies.
Cole Trahan
Self-described "mountain painter" whose Hip Strip mural took three summers to complete — one peak, one valley, one full western sky per year. Trahan's Bitterroot Range is technically a triptych rendered as a continuous panorama, and it changes in a meaningful way as the light on the actual Bitterroot to the south shifts through the day.
Nora Takes Gun
Enrolled member of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes whose murals map the traditional ecological calendar of the Salish people across the four seasons of western Montana. Her downtown Missoula piece was commissioned by the City's public art program in partnership with the CSKT Cultural Committee.