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Friday Bulletin - December 16, 2022
Alaska Department of Education & Early Development sent this bulletin at 12/16/2022 12:11 PM AKST
The Alaska State Museum will acquire This One by Fairbanks artist Sara Tabbert, consisting of two 20"x16" cradled panels, of natural and dyed veneer on carved panel, relief printing thanks to an Alaska Art Fund grant through Museums Alaska. The acquisition will fufill the museum’s goal of collecting a Tabbert piece, expanding their woodworking and relief carving collection, and enhancing their collection of artists outside of SE Alaska.
This One by Sara Tabbert. 20"x16" cradled panels of natural and dyed veneer on carved panel with relief printing
Elementary students view Alison Bremner solo exhibition at the State Museum
Third and Fourth graders from Harborview Elementary recently visited the museum to see Alison Bremner Nax̲shag̲eit's exhibition, Midnight at the Fireworks Stand.
Bremner is a Tlingit artist from Yakutat. In her solo show, she considers the ways in which western contact continues to shape Indigenous communities, from potlaches to the poverty-to-prison pipeline.
Students learned about the artist and exhibition, asked many thoughtful questions, and discussed what interested them most. After their visit, the trip continued to inspire discussion in and outside the classroom.
Alison Bremner Nax̲shag̲eit, Lil Baby with the Brass Knuckles. Wallpaper, 22kt gold leaf on wood board, 2022.
The Friends of Sheldon Jackson Museum are looking for Alaska Native artists to apply to the 2023 Native Artist Residency program.
Residencies are 21-22 days long and occur:
July 7-July 28
August 18-September 9
September 15-October 6
October 7-October 28
If you have questions about the program or application, please email Jacqueline.Fernandez-Hamberg@alaska.gov or call (907) 747-8904. Applications are due Dec. 22, 2022.
An unexpected find in a University of Alaska Fairbanks archive has revealed more information about the oft-debated April 1910 Sourdough Expedition climb of Denali, North America’s highest mountain.
Photographs found by UAF Geophysical Institute professor Matthew Sturm in the university’s Rasmuson Library archives in October show the climbing party at about 16,500 feet — far higher on the 20,310-foot mountain than previously seen.
“The photographs took my breath away. We have never seen pictures of these men climbing,” Sturm said. “This is photographic evidence that we’ve never had before.”
"Newly found photos shed light on 1910 Denali climb" by Rod Boyce, December 2, 2022. UAF Geophysical Institute News.
“Fissions of Native Identity” is the newest exhibit at the Kodiak History Museum – and the first to be chosen based on ideas from the public. The exhibition doesn’t take up a big space at the museum, but it asks two big questions: who is Native and who decides?
“The museum is making a decisive shift to identify the issues that are important to the community, rather than the things that we see as museum professionals that are historically significant,” said Sarah Harrington, the museum’s executive director.
It’s the latest shift the museum has undergone over the last few years aimed at inclusivity; it also changed its name from the Baranov Museum, which is rooted in Russia’s colonization of Alaska, to the Kodiak History Museum in 2019.
"Kodiak History Museum opens its first exhibition curated through a public call for proposals" by Kirsten Dobroth, December 1, 2022. KMXT.org.
Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI) is offering scholarships to students majoring in art and museum studies under a program operated in partnership with the University of Alaska Southeast (UAS) and the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) in New Mexico.
The program, which offers $1,000 to $5,000 per scholarship recipient, is part of a larger effort to support an Alaska Native arts associate degree or certificate at UAS and a studio arts and museum studies degree at IAIA.
As part of the program, SHI is offering scholarships for the 2023 academic year to undergraduate and graduate students who are pursuing arts and science degrees with a focus in studio arts, performing arts, cinematic arts and technology, or creative writing, and who incorporate Northwest Coast arts studies in their degree; or a degree with a concentration in museum studies.
The Alaska office of Smithsonian Arctic Studies Center (SASC-AK) is seeking applications from Alaska Natives for a Research Fellowship. The Fellowship will provide an Alaska Native educator or education student (informally or formally) an online opportunity to learn about and conduct Alaska-based research for a new inter-departmental project at the Smithsonian Institution (SI) based on collaborating with Alaska Natives to create a framework for museums to equitably engage in culturally responsive-sustaining education (CRSE) with Indigenous peoples and to co-produce CRSE materials for K-12 instruction with Alaska Native educators.
We're now accepting submissions for the 40th Annual Statewide UAA/Anchorage Daily News Creative Writing Contest...
Since 2011, the Alaska Center for the Book has served as the coordinating partner, providing hundreds of volunteer hours to manage entries, judging, and contacting winners—the best part of all.
Categories include fiction, non-fiction, and poetry with age divisions for kindergarten through adult.
The Kodiak Public Library buzzed with excitement Saturday afternoon as Alaska wildlife photographer and author Seth Kantner took to the podium, conducting his first-ever writers' workshop.
The event drew many local writers, who were appreciative of Kantner's candid, refreshing narrative. He spoke openly about work, life and money. He also talked about the craft of writing while promoting his new book, "A Thousand Trails Home: Living with the Caribou."
"Author’s Kodiak workshop focuses on tenacity" by Phyllis Moraitis, December 12, 2022.
[Craig City Administrator Brian] Templin said the city has conducted a series of surveys over the past decade to find out what residents want from their library — and it’s a long list.
“And the strategic plan in those surveys include any number of uses, from fairly typical library uses … like the collection of books and videos and those things, program space for reading programs and storytime, that sort of thing,” Templin said. “Having both children’s and adult space in a library for reading and activities. And the strategic plan also included some other potential activities like community meeting space, and individual study space, those sorts of things.”
The analysis will be just the first of many steps. Templin said after it’s done — which he hopes is by February — it’ll be time to look at next steps.
"City of Craig takes a small step toward library changes" by Raegan Miller, December 7, 2022. KRBD.org.
A scholarship opportunity for Alaskan residents enrolled in or currently studying for a Master's in Library and Information studies is now open. Every year AkLA offers two types of scholarships, one for general library studies and one for students focused on school librarianship. Scholarships are open to Alaskan residents who are willing to work in an Alaska library for one year after graduation. The scholarship award is $4,000 and applications are due by January 15, 2023. For more information and the application, visit the AKLA scholarship page. For questions, contact Kate at kate.enge@alaska.gov.
The University of Alaska Fairbanks’ (UAF) Elmer E. Rasmuson Library marks a century of service to GPO and the Federal Government. The library became part of the Federal Depository Library Progam (FDLP) on December 6, 1922. The library serves the university community, as well as interior Alaska and the Fairbanks North Star Borough. Its collection includes materials from the U.S. Departments of Agriculture, Defense, Interior, and Justice, as well as materials from the Census Bureau, Forest Service, NASA, and more.
"Alaska Library Celebrates 100 Years in GPO's Federal Depository Library Program." GPO News.
This week on State of Art we’re hearing from local artist and the mastermind behind the Alaska BookMobile, Jimmy Riordan. His current work is focused on digitizing analogue Alaska music. He got his start working in Bethel and preserving recordings found around the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, but has branched out to more of a statewide focus. We hear about how he got started, what he’s found along the way and what comes next.
"State of Art: Preserving Alaska’s music with Jimmy Riordan" by Ammon Swenson,
A Sitka-based author has taken a detour into young adult fiction, and the diversion has paid off with a national award.
Brendan Jones received the “Green Earth Book Award” in a virtual ceremony on December 7th from Delaware. The award has been presented for the last 18 years by the nonprofit Nature Generation, for exceptional work in a genre now called “Eco-Lit,” or literature which explores ecological issues.
Jones’ new novel Whispering Alaska, was published last year by Penguin/Random House. Jones says the story about twin girls who move to an island in Alaska wasn’t his idea; rather, it was suggested to him by an editor at Random House. However, the novel didn’t come together until Jones was living in the Russian Far East on a Fulbright scholarship.
"A coming-of-age story in the Tongass, ‘Whispering Alaska’ wins a prestigious award for Eco-Lit" by Robert Woolsey, December 5, 2022. KCAW.org.
In addition to these ways of knowing, for more than two decades another approach to research with Indigenous communities has been practiced by researchers working inside and outside of the university. This approach, what I and others have come to call Collaborative Indigenous Research, is a deliberate challenge to the harmful ways university-based researchers have engaged with Indigenous communities.
"Collaborative Indigenous Research is a way to repair the legacy of harmful research practices" by Eve Tuck, November 23, 2022. The Conversation, republished by KTOO.
For the first time, the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District is holding an Indigenous language film festival — part of a greater push to highlight Indigenous languages in the district.
The February festival will showcase short, locally made films that feature Alaska Native languages like Dena’ina. Those films will later be stored for future use by tribal organizations and schools.
"Indigenous languages will get the spotlight at Kenai schools’ February film fest" by Sabine Poux, December 15, 2022. Alaska Public Media.
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