Houston Harmon
A mural depicting Hitler and Einstein was painted by 1991 Senior High graduate Mark King, one of the artists still being sought by a committee working to preserve the murals.
If you’re interested in the effort to preserve and restore the 100-some murals painted on the walls of Billings Senior High School, mark March 16 on your calendar.
That’s the night the “Save Our Murals” volunteer committee is having an open house at Senior High. There will be music, guided tours, treats and the chance to speak with many of the artists responsible for the murals.
And don’t think the open house is just for current and former students of Senior High.
“I want everybody in Billings to be invited,” said Kristeen Keup, a member of the committee and a retired Senior teacher. “I just want it to be a fun, festive night.”
The committee formed in connection with the 75th anniversary of Senior High, completed in 1940. Its main project is publishing a book commemorating all the murals and the artists who made them, then using proceeds from book sales to restore and preserve the artwork.
About 100 murals are still visible. Some were lost over the years to construction or remodeling, some were painted over. Amazingly, murals are still being discovered, hidden in closets, found in odd corners of classrooms or just hiding in plain sight.
Houston Harmon
This mural was painted by Kelly Skjeret, whose graduation year is unknown.
“One even looks like a bulletin board when you first walk in” one classroom, Keup said. Seven previously uncataloged murals were found just in the past couple of weeks.
One intriguing mural is apparently covered over with wood paneling. It was brought to the committee’s attention by Senior High graduate Shawn Harkins, who said the mural was painted by his father, James Harkin, and fellow ’74 graduate John Dahl.
He said in an email to Keup that his father was named one of the top artists to come out of Senior High on the occasion of the school’s 50th anniversary. Dahl, for his part, is one of Senior’s more prominent graduates, having gone on to a career in Hollywood. He directed “Rounders,” “Red Rock West” and several episodes of “Breaking Bad,” among other projects.
Shawn Harkins said his father and Dahl painted a mural in the back of the school, in the main stairwell to the second floor. “After they completed it,” he wrote, “it was knifed, and subsequently covered in paneling.”
Keup agreed that it would make a good candidate for restoration. In addition to raising money for such work, she said the committee has been encouraging the artists themselves to come back and help preserve their work.
Meanwhile, in advance of the March 16 event, the committee is looking for 25 muralists it has not yet made contact with. If anyone knows how to get ahold of the following artists, write to Keup at kristeen.keup@fulbrightmail.org. They are listed by name and the year (in some cases questionable) they graduated:
Wes Bagley, 1984
Brad Bernhart, 1995
Brooke Bertelson, 1996
Doug Blair 1984, or ’85
Loretta Boucher, 1980 or ’81
Jason Cates, 1984
Dawn Driscoll, 1980 or ’81
Rob Hedrick, 1984
Mark King, 1991
Pete Kranz, 1988
Blake Kober, 1988
Robin Lind , 1980 or ’81
Beate Lochhaas, 1984 (from Germany)
Joris Lukke, 1996
Cody and Cory Matteucci, 1989-91
Danita Myers, 1980 or ’81
Tyler Reichert, 1988
Jodie Russell, 1984
Ginger Schreiber, 1962 or 1982
Monte Selbe, 1984
Kelly Skjeret, unknown
Jason Carter, 1992
J. Earles, 1976
Raya Golden, 1998
The March 16 event will feature all kinds of art displays, including works by former Senior High art teachers, music, wandering minstrels, poetry readings and more.
The committee will also be taking pre-orders for the book, which it hopes to publish next fall. The original plan was to publish it this spring, but there was too much work to be done and, as stated, murals are still being found. Keup said they wanted to make sure they had everything before going to press.
Much of the work has been done by Hannah Lose, who graduates from Senior this spring and took on the book as her Platinum Project. Photographs for the book were taken by Houston Harmon, who teaches photography at Senior.
“It was a very very long process getting those photos,” Harmon said in an email. “It took me three months to get through them all and I am sure there are some that I missed in a few classrooms. I would take them at night when the building was empty so I could have my lights and equipment out without being disrupted with people in the hallways.”
He then put the pictures in Photoshop to “rebuild” the ones that were partly covered by renovations or were too long to capture without stitching them together.
Keup said the cost of publishing the first 1,000 books has been pegged at $12,395, of which the committee has raised about half.
