Three free admission events to enjoy for October 8 Second Saturday!
1:00pm, John Kunz Presents: Journey to Freedom, The Flight of a Polish Family to America
Join us in the Ozark Club at The History Museum at 1pm on October 8 and experience the fascinating saga of the Journey to Freedom: The Flight of a Polish Family to America. Community member John Kunz was born in a Nazi concentration camp. He and his parents survived imprisonment in Germany and arrived in the United States of America as refugees after the war. Kunz was just 6 years old at the time. With the support and sponsorship of a family through the Catholic Church in Fairfield, MT the Kunz family was able to make Great Falls home. After graduating from Central Catholic High School in 1962 he enlisted in the US Marine Corps. Upon discharge as a Sergeant, he lived in New Jersey tending bar at his brother’s Polish tavern. He also studied at Rutgers University. Kunz returned to Great Falls in 1972 where he spent many years in auto sales and management before switching to a career in Real Estate in 1995. Retiring after selling his real estate business in 2016, John and wife Colleen enjoy vacationing and their vacation house on Flathead Lake, but Great Falls is always home.
3:00pm, “Once Upon a Time…” Fantasy Pieces from the Romantic and Modern Eras
At 3pm, Harlequin Trio, Wesley Ducote, piano, Nicholas Davies, clarinet, and Alyssa Roggow, viola, will perform “Once Upon a Time…” a selection of fantasy pieces from the Romantic and modern eras. Daives and Ruggow are principal musicians in the Great Falls Symphony and bring with them accomplished pianist Ducote for this special recital in the Ozark Club at the Museum. Free will offering encouraged.
12:00pm-5:00pm, New Exhibition: The Bodner Collection
A new collection of artwork will grace The History Museum Exhibition Hall for October’s Second Saturday thanks to a donation from the family. After retiring from an engineering career in Kansas City, Andrew Bodner (1904-2005) returned to his Montana home and began painting historic scenes and from his memory of growing up in Raynesford, Belt, and Judith Basin. During his childhood the region was agriculturally rich and poised to boom with the arrival of railroads. Andrew’s parents Michael and Anna Bodner immigrated to the United States from Slovakia and Austria, learning English as they settled in the “New World,” and working the land. They were not alone, many of the homesteaders in the region came to the United States for a better opportunity. Cascade County Historical Society houses naturalization records that illuminate the journey of settlers such as the Bodners. This series of paintings offers a first hand perspective of life on the ranch/farm in Central Montana.