An hour of learning over lunch.
The Bellman Brown Bag Series is a monthly humanities program exploring ideas, history, literature, art, and culture, presented the second Wednesday of each month from noon to 1:00pm. BYOB: bring your own bite to eat.
Lunch, Meet Learning
Second Wednesday, Monthly
Every program runs noon to 1:00pm, designed to begin and end within the lunch hour.
BYOB: Bring Your Own Bite
Bring your lunch if you like, or simply enjoy an hour of learning and entertainment.
Ideas Worth an Hour
History, literature, art, and culture: insight into themes that touch our daily lives and our community.
This Year’s Talks
Presentation on Spearfish Museum
Rosalie Aslesen and Johanna Meier Della Vecchia
What stories should a Spearfish Museum tell – and what role could it play in our community? Rosalie Aslesen and Johanna Meier Della Vecchia will share their vision for a future Spearfish Museum, including its mission, community significance, and potential to preserve and celebrate the historic, cultural, and innovative spirit of Spearfish and its people.
Ghost Stories
The Black Hills Story Tellers
Get ready for an hour of haunting, hilarious, and spellbinding stories with storyteller Stacey Stoddard and the Black Hills Storytellers! Known for captivating audiences at libraries, schools, cultural festivals, and community events throughout Rapid City, Spearfish, Deadwood, Custer, Sturgis, and beyond, the Black Hills Storytellers are bringing their seasonal chills to The Matthews stage for an hour over lunch. Bring your own bite to eat and be ready to sink your teeth into some great stories!
Love and Sacrifice: The Journey of Running with Purpose
Mai Richards
What began as a single 22-mile Memorial Day run to honor America’s fallen grew into a journey of remembrance, service, and giving back. In Love and Sacrifice: The Journey of Running with Purpose, Mai Richards shares the story behind her annual Memorial Day Honor Run and the creation of Miles of Honor, a 450-mile run across South Dakota in May 2026. Through stories of the fallen heroes she carried with her, the veterans and communities she met along the way, and the experiences that shaped her own understanding of sacrifice, Mai explores how love can inspire service, how gratitude can become action, and how each of us can use what we have to make a difference.
Piano Duets
Spearfish Piano Duets Club
(Always a full house – get here early!)
Earlier in 2026
National Blood Donor Month
Jennifer Ash
National Organ Donor Day
Staff of Fidler-Isburg Funeral Home
America 250: South Dakota’s Story (bonus Bellman)
Karen Holzer
National Invest in Vets Week
Kevin Bowen
Library Workers & National Library Day
Amber Wilde
Mother’s Day: Having a Baby in the 1920’s
Mary Chantry Nelson
Who Was Dr. Bellman?
The Brown Bag program was developed in the 1990s by Dr. Stewart Bellman, a professor of English at Black Hills State University whose teaching career spanned thirty years. Recognizing the Matthews Opera House as an ideal venue for the exploration of humanities topics, he engaged a line-up of speakers to present programs on a range of subjects each month.
Dr. Bellman retired from BHSU and passed away in November 2002. The series that carries his name keeps doing exactly what he built it to do: gathering the community over lunch for an hour of ideas.
Upcoming Bellmans
Events
List of events in Photo View
More Than Lunch?
The Bellman Series is one of many ways to learn at The Matthews, from community workshops taught by local artists to youth theater and the NEA Big Read.
