Lee Steen’s “Tree People” the Focus of Upcoming Talk with John Armstrong at The Square
Contact: Nicole Maria Evans, Chief Curator/Director of Curatorial Affairs, Paris Gibson Square Museum of Art, nicole@the-square.org, (406) 727-8255
Great Falls, Mont. (Nov. 17, 2025) — Paris Gibson Square Museum of Art (The Square) invites the public to attend a special guest presentation, “John Armstrong and the Lee Steen Tree People: A Journey to Their Home at Paris Gibson Square Museum of Art” Friday, Nov. 21, at 5:30 p.m. This event is free and open to the public.
About this Event:
John Armstrong will share the remarkable chain of events that made Paris Gibson Square Museum of Art (The Square) the permanent home of the beloved Tree People, whimsical sculptures created by self-taught artist Lee Steen and long adored by visitors to The Square. Born and raised in Laurel, Mont., John Albert Armstrong is a master printer, artist, exhibition designer, fine-art framer, and co-founder of Armstrong-Prior, Inc. His connection to the Tree People began in his youth with a chance stop in Roundup, Montana where Steen’s enchanting forest of figures first captured his imagination. Years later, as director of the Yellowstone Art Center (now Yellowstone Art Museum), Armstrong returned to rescue the sculptures after Steen, in failing health, entered a nursing home in 1972. When Steen died in 1975, Armstrong safeguarded roughly 250 sculptures, first through an exhibition, then in an improvised chicken-coop storage facility. In 1976, John, joined by Paris Gibson Square Museum of Art board members, artists, community members, and art advocates, including noted Montana artists Jean Price, Jim Poor, and James Todd, transported the collection to The Square, ensuring its preservation and future.
Underscoring the significance and timeliness of Armstrong's upcoming lecture, Nicole Maria Evans, Chief Curator and Director of Curatorial Affairs, is working closely with him to integrate newly donated objects and documentation on Lee Steen into the museum’s exhibition and archives. These materials, including items recently donated by James Todd, will play a vital role in shaping a forthcoming museum publication on the Lee Steen collection, now actively in development and adding essential context to this important moment.
About the Lee Steen: A Montana Original Exhibition:
Lee Steen: A Montana Original is a permanent installation in the Outsider Gallery of The Square. After their arrival to the museum in 1976, the Tree People sculptures were stored in the museum’s attic for years until conservation, cataloging, and exhibition design began in 1999 with support from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the Montana Cultural Trust, and the E.L. Wiegand Foundation. Along with Armstrong’s foundational donation of more than 150 Tree People, Steen’s former neighbors, Virginia and Dean Howell, contributed an additional 10 sculptures. In September 2001, after decades of anticipation, the museum proudly opened Lee Steen: A Montana Original to the public, bringing Steen’s imaginative world to life for generations to come. Born in 1887, Steen transformed cottonwood branches into unforgettable characters using coffee cans, bottle caps, flowerpots, and scavenged odds and ends. Though he refused to exhibit them during his lifetime, his Tree People—now preserved in a museum rather than the Montana landscape that inspired them—continue to spark awe and imagination more than 50 years after his passing.