MonDak Heritage Center To Host Community St. Patrick's Day Celebration on Saturday, March 16

The MonDak Heritage Center is celebrating St. Patrick's Day and Irish history Saturday, March 16 from 1-4 p.m. with a free event for the entire family.

The day will begin at 1 p.m. with a walk-in ceramics workshop. There are numerous ceramics pieces to choose from including many new spring related items. Each ceramics piece will be $15 and available on a first come first serve basis. This is a great opportunity to create a unique work of ceramic art while listening to Irish melodies. At 2 p.m., artist, historian, and musical talent Stephen Glueckert will begin a free performance of Irish themed music and share the story of the famous Irish immigrant Thomas Francis Meagher.

Glueckert's art exhibition "The Odyssey of Montana's Thomas Francis Meagher" is currently on display in the MDHC's Center Gallery. As you spend time with Stephen Glueckert's expressive oil pastel drawings you will feel the danger, energy, and emotion of Meagher's odyssey. Glueckert's 24 colorful vignettes are filled with the celestial, earthly, and man-made symbols that governed Meagher's life: His birth and privileged upbringing in Waterford City, Ireland in 1823. His leadership in the Young Irelander Rebellion of 1848. His imprisonment in Van Diemen's land and escape to the United States in 1852. As a commander on the bloody battlefields of the American Civil War. And finally, his mysterious and tragic death at Fort Benton, MT, in the churning waters of the Missouri River in 1867. Though Meagher's time in Montana was short, he remains a source of Irish pride in our state and his story continues to capture the imaginations of Montanans of all types.

At the Community St. Patrick's Day Celebration, Glueckert will explain his exhibition in an artist talk and perform Irish themed music, songs related to Meagher's life, and melodies of Irish history in Montana during this interactive artist lecture and performance.

Throughout the day, soup and snack refreshments will be available for people to enjoy as they listen to Stephen Glueckert's Hurday Gurday instrumentals, guitar melodies, and original Irish tunes.

Doors open at 1 p.m. and this event is free, family friendly and open to the public!

The MonDak Heritage Center is open Tuesday-Friday from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. and Saturday from 1-4. p.m. Admission is free. For more information call 406 433-3500 or e-mail [email protected]. Visit us online at http://www.mondakheritagecenter.org.