WHAT’S ON VIEW IN THE ANCHORAGE MUSEUM DURING SUMMER 2020

THE MUSEUM BEGINS PHASED REOPENING JUNE 5

June 08, 2020

ANCHORAGE, ALASKA – The Anchorage Museum begins its phased reopening plan June 5 with several new exhibitions on view, including a few that debuted online. The museum will be open to the public Wednesday-Saturday June 5-27 with online advance-purchase, timed-entry tickets. Entry times are 9-11 a.m., 11 a.m.-1 p.m., 2-4 p.m. and 4-6 p.m. The museum will be closed Sunday-Tuesday. For the safety of visitors and employees, please review and follow museum reopening guidelines.

Note, the Discovery Center, including the planetarium and Co-Lab, as well as Muse restaurant will remain closed for the month of June. Programs (Urban Harvest, Mending Workshops, Summer Camps, Listen Up Live Concerts and First Friday) will remain online, schedules at anchoragemuseum.org/calendar. Hours in July and beyond will be announced later in June.

Aesthetics of Hanging Laundry

East Wing, Level 3

Andreas Hoffmann’s ongoing photography project of images from the Disko Bay area of Northwest Greenland, Aesthetics of Hanging Laundry is about “discovering the beauty of sculptures consisting of stiff, frozen sheets and towels. It is a call to enjoy dependence on weather.” This exhibition is viewable at the Anchorage Museum and online.

Bore Tide Surfers: Catching Alaska’s Longest Wave

West Wing, Level 2

For the past four years, Alaska photographer Kerry Tasker has followed Alaska surfers out onto the silty waters of Turnagain Arm to document their idiosyncratic lifestyle. He has witnessed the growth of a community and a culture, composed around a sole purpose—surfing the Turnagain Arm bore tide. The Bore Tide Surfers: Catching Alaska’s Longest Wave exhibition debuted online during the COVID-19 closure; it is on view digitally and in the museum. Bore Tide Surfers is part of the Anchorage Museum’s Aperture project that brings multiple exhibitions and artists together for a year-long series that testifies to the power of images. The exhibition is on view at the Anchorage Museum and online.

To Become a Person

West Wing, Level 4

Photojournalist Ash Adams and Iñupiaq writer Laureli Ivanoff examine Indigenous coming of age in rural Alaska. The cultural resilience and tenacity of Indigenous children coming of age in a transformative time are revealed in Adams’ images of everyday life in Utqiagvik, Arctic Village, Kivalina, the Pribilof Islands, Newtok and Sitka. The exhibition To Become a Person is part of the Anchorage Museum’s Aperture project that brings multiple exhibitions and artists together for a year-long series that testifies to the power of images.

Nkenaghch’: Good Words to Never Forget

East Wing, Atrium

View illustrations by Anchorage-based artist Ted Kim from the Anchorage Museum’s Dena’ina language book, Nkenaghch’: Good Words to Never Forget. Spoken in Southcentral Alaska for at least the past 1,000 years, Dena’ina, like all Alaska Indigenous languages, was communicated orally until an alphabet was developed in the 1970s. Since then, many Dena’ina elders from the four Dena’ina dialects have worked closely with linguists to record the language for the future. The goal is to see their language spoken again by both Dena’ina peoples as well as people who have moved into their homeland over the past century.

Circumpolar Cinema: Amanda Strong Films

East Wing, Level 2

A pivotal art form of the last 100 years, film is a powerful medium for telling stories of people and place. The Northern Narratives gallery is transformed into four black box-style theaters for viewing films, which change periodically. Screening summer 2020 are Amanda Strong owner and director of Spotted Fawn Production films. Strong is an Indigenous (Michif) media artist and stop-motion director currently working as a guest on the unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) and sə̓lílwətaʔɬ (Tsleil-Waututh). With a cross-discipline focus, common themes in her work include the reclamation of Indigenous histories, lineage, language and culture. Strong’s films are viewable at the Anchorage Museum and online.

Aperture: Cameras from the Collection

East Wing, Level 2

Cameras have been used in Alaska for more than 120 years. From documenting and surveying to artistic production and tourism, photographs have shaped our collective impressions of Alaska. Photographic images inform the way we imagine and experience our sense of place. The archival photographs and camera equipment in this collection spanning the 20th century show how photographic technologies have changed and shaped the way we create and consume pictures and how we view Alaska’s history and its future. Cameras from the Collection are part of the Anchorage Museum’s Aperture project that brings multiple exhibitions and artists together for a year-long series that testifies to the power of images.

Houseless

East Wing, Galleries 1-4

With evictions a serious issue nationally and extreme weather events displacing thousands, houselessness is one of society’s biggest challenges. Through the project Houseless, the Anchorage Museum invites visitors to consider ways design can contribute to solutions. Design thinking helps break down complex problems and integrate new information and opinions, while acknowledging there is no one right answer. Houseless brings together the National Building Museum’s exhibition Evicted, a presentation of the micro-dwelling housing initiative from Portland State University’s Center for Public Interest Design, and WE ARE ALL HOMELESS, a long-term project by designer Willie Baronet.

Snow Flyers

West Wing, Level 3

Fatties, boondockers, freestylers, ditchbangers, freeriding, jibbing, shredding, telemarking. Slang, sub-culture and clever examples of innovative equipment are all part of the Snow Flyers exhibition about how we “go” on snow. Snow Flyers celebrates the ways we recreate and travel on snow and showcases how Northern ingenuity has for centuries inspired people to adapt winter gear, equipment and machinery for survival, sport and transportation.

Art of the North

East Wing, Level 3

The North is revealed through the work of artists from 20th century Romantic landscape paintings to contemporary works, including works by Indigenous artist in the Art of the North galleries.

Alaska Exhibition

East Wing, Level 2

The Alaska exhibition tells the true story of Alaska – a land of contrasts and extremes, adaptations and survival – through multiple voices and perspectives.

Living Our Cultures, Sharing Our Heritage: The First Peoples of Alaska

West Wing, Level 2

More than 600 cultural and historical treasure from the Smithsonian Institution’s collections are on view in the Smithsonian Arctic Studies Center in the Anchorage Museum. The objects were selected and interpreted with help from Alaska Native advisers. Touch screens, multimedia installations and a 3-D sound installation. In addition to its gallery space, the 10,000-square-foot center encourages research about Alaska Native cultures through an archaeology laboratory and a community room where Alaska Native elders, artists and scholars can study heritage objects up close.

Anchorage Museum From Home

Online at www.anchoragemuseum.org/from-home

The creative, virtual way to enjoy the Anchorage Museum from home during the COVID-19 closures and hunker-down orders continues with podcasts, virtual concerts, online exhibitions, videos, and educational resources for parents, students and teachers.

ABOUT THE ANCHORAGE MUSEUM

The Anchorage Museum brings the true story of Alaska and the North to life through art, design, history, culture and science. Learn more at anchoragemuseum.org.