Jay Contway sets up Scholarship Fund

Jay Contway spent the formative years of his life working ranches pinched between Malta and the Canadian border, learning the lay of the land from his elders and thusly has entitled his latest bronze sculpture Grandfather's Wisdom.

Contway is a 1953 Malta High School graduate, member of both the Montana Cowboy Hall of Fame & Western Heritage Center and the Montana Pro Rodeoa Hall of Fame and world-renowned artists. Lynn Contway, Jay's wife of 21 years, said Jay is always willing to offer advice to young people - whether life lessons or tips on art - and the couple has decided another way to assist the younger generation and pass on 'grandfather's wisdom' is to set up the Jay Contway Scholarship Fund.

"Jay loves history and he loves that community where he grew up," Lynn said. "He grew up happy there so helping the museum is something that he likes to do because it preserves the history of the area."

To fund the scholarship, $325 of each Grandfather's Wisdom piece sold will go to the Jay Contway Scholarship Fund for the benefit of the Phillips County Museum and Historical Society. Museum Curator Lori Taylor said some of the scholarship monies are being tentatively earmarked to go toward a summer internship at the museum. The benefactor of the internship would need to be a junior or senior attending school in Phillips County, but nothing has been set in stone and more information will follow.

"He has always been a great benefactor to the museum," Taylor said. "Over the years he has given us sculptures, has given us a sheep wagon, a chuck wagon and many other miscellaneous, small items."

Two of the men who Jay learned a lot from during his childhood were his father, Pat, and Isadore Ellery, AKA, "The Old Indian." Lynn said that Jay found inspiration from many elders in creating Grandfather's Wisdom, and Ellery heads the list. Lynn said that Ellery and Charlie Stuart were a few of the men Jay enjoyed following and learning from as a youth (Stuart was the inspiration of Jay's Old Patch Eye in 2015.)

"They just passed on so much wisdom," Lynn said. "The whole idea is that there are wise, older people in our lives and they teach us. I think that what is most important in Jay's world is that (the scholarship fund) will somehow benefit children in a way that they will look at the history that they come from. That is really important to him."

Lynn said with wise elders in mind, Jay traveled through his imagination to come up with Grandfather's Wisdom, taking a "chunk" of clay on the first day before working it, over and over, until he had a piece of art which tells a story.

Grandfather's Wisdom - which is a limited edition of 100 - will be officially unveiled at the Jay Contway and Friends Art Show in Great Falls, which starts Thursday, March 16 and runs through Saturday, March 18 at the Hilton Garden Inn in Great Falls. The show will feature 15 Montana artists whose works range in the mediums of Acrylic paint to oil and pastels, and from bronze sculptors to rawhide and horsehair.

"We are really looking forward to the show and seeing everyone," Lynn said.

For more information about the show or Jay's works, visit http://www.jaycontway.com.