Designing for the Future is an interactive workshop that will guide participants on how social and behavioral changes from the pandemic will affect the future design and operation of libraries and other public institutions.
Children's Librarian James Adcox and the Teen Advisory board at Kenai Community Library have created a video for kids showing why you don't want to miss out on this thing called "book."
The pole, representing the Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian cultures, will be dedicated June 8
“It’s the fourth one that I know of on the whole Northwest Coast. They’re pretty rare, done within decades of each other. It was the biggest challenge of our career. There’s just so much that goes into the actual carving, the moving, the rolling back and forth. It was a lot more work than I anticipated,” Haida artist Sgwaayaans (TJ Young) said during an interview on Friday.
He and his brother Gidaawaan (Joe Young) carved the Sealaska Cultural Values pole, which was erected May 26, at the entrance of the plaza at Sealaska Heritage Institute’s arts campus in the middle of Downtown Juneau.
The arts campus is phase two of Sealaska Heritage Institute’s vision to make Juneau the Northwest Coast arts capital; the construction of the adjacent Walter Soboleff Building in 2015 was phase one. Phase three will be Kootéeyaa Deiyí (Totem Pole Trail) along the downtown Juneau waterfront. Sealaska Heritage has secured funding for 10 totem poles – Sgwaayaans and his brother will be carving two of them.
"First 360-degree totem pole in Alaska was recently installed in Juneau" by Lisa Phu, June 1, 2022. Alaska Beacon.
With a $3,400 grant from GCI Gives, the Alutiiq Museum has created video tutorials on Alutiiq stitching techniques.
The three-part series teaches viewers three basic stitches used in skin sewing—a blanket stitch, a running stitch, and a laced running stitch.
Alutiiq artist and award-winning skin sewer Susan Malutin demonstrates the stitches and narrates the videos, sharing information about her life and work.
The tutorials are accompanied by a set of written instructions with a template for making a small felt pouch.
Svaja Worthington was only five years old in 1944 when her family walked away from their Lithuanian home in the face of Russian brutality. During World War II, Lithuania had been occupied first by the Soviet Union and then by Nazi Germany. Towards the end of the war in 1944, as the Germans were retreating, the Soviet Union reoccupied Lithuania. And, as with events in Ukraine today, there was active resistance...
Today, Svaya curates a tiny museum celebrating Lithuanian history and culture located in the hills of Chugiak.
"Hometown Alaska: Tiny museum in Chugiak honors Lithuania’s fierce independence" by Kathleen McCoy, June 2, 2022 Alaska Public Media..
As tourists today disembark the cruise ships that dock near the murals, they simultaneously witness a story of settlement and a story of resistance, of White families who colonized Áak’w Kwáan territory—an area that includes much of present-day Juneau—following the establishment of a local gold mining industry in the 1880s, and of the Tlingit activist who fought to protect Alaska Native rights just decades later in the 1940s...
Her work fits within a growing body of public art in the U.S. that seeks to push back against the overwhelming presence of White or colonialist figures that often visually overtake the landscape. As Crystal Worl affirms, “This is time for me to stand up and make artwork that will be seen and that will tell people—tell our nation—that I’m an Indigenous woman, I’m here, I exist, and I’m here to uplift this icon figure that represents who I am and a community where I come from.”
This summer in Anchorage, Worl is partnering with the Alaska Mural Project, the Anchorage Museum, and local artist James Temte to install a countermural she designed that responds to a preexisting mural of the city’s history, one that gives scant attention to the Dena’ina and other Native peoples in the area.
"Crystal Worl’s Countermural Tells a Different History of Alaska" by Ben Bridges, Sapiens.
This spring, a high school senior became the first graduate from Toksook Bay to earn a prestigious language certification. It’s called a Seal of Biliteracy. The seal certifies that a student is proficient in speaking and writing in two languages, in this case, Yugtun and English.
The certification has already provided Asuluk with a job opportunity. This summer, she will work for the Nunakauyarmuit Tribal Council in Toksook Bay to interview Elders, record their conversations, and translate and transcribe the Yugtun conversations into English.
"A high school senior became the first Toksook Bay graduate to earn a prestigious language certification" by Elyssa Loughlin, May 26, 2022. KYUK.
Archives will be transferred to Royal B.C. Museum and some will be digitized
Archives from the Sisters of Saint Ann, which include information about day schools, residential schools, hospitals and more, will be transferred to the museum. The religious group will also fully fund an archivist at the museum to manage those archives.
The museum says they also plan to digitize the records — or at least those that can be digitized. Some of the content date back to as far as 1858 and may be too delicate to handle...
The Sisters of Saint Ann was founded in Quebec in 1850, and moved to the west eight years later. They staffed over 30 residential schools and opened 10 hospitals in B.C., Yukon and Alaska...
"Catholic order that staffed some residential schools in B.C. to hand over archives to museum" by Courtney Dickson,
Do you have an online event or news to share? Email us!
This newsletter contains links to information created and maintained by other public and private organizations. These links are provided for the reader’s convenience. Alaska State Libraries, Archives, and Museums does not control or guarantee the accuracy, relevance, timeliness, or completeness of this outside information. Furthermore, the inclusion of links is not intended to reflect their importance, nor is it intended to endorse any views expressed, or products or services offered, on these sites, or the organizations sponsoring the sites.
