Opens March 3  

Visceral: Verity is a new exhibition of work by contemporary artist Sonya Kelliher-Combs. Kelliher-Combs’ mixed-media installations combine natural and synthetic materials and evoke questions of authentic experience, truth, abuse, transparency, and credibility. She is one of only a few artists working with marine mammal gut.

Kelliher-Combs returns to the museum for the first time since her powerful 2001 solo exhibition, bringing the richness of her experience growing up in Nome, her career as an internationally recognized artist, her life in Anchorage, and her insights as a person of Inupiaq, Athabascan, and European heritage.

Visceral: Verity is the first in a series of three interrelated exhibitions opening at the State Museum. The Visceral trilogy is co-curated by Kelliher-Combs and explores contemporary and historical Alaska Native issues, spotlighting gut as a material used to express Indigenous voices.

Visceral: Legacy and Visceral: Identity open in May.

Image: Idiot Strings, Credible. Printed fabric, nylon thread, wool, steel wire. Sonya Kelliher-Combs 2022.

Saturday, March 4, 12-4 pm, APK 

Explore the idea of healing through the creation of art. Each student will sew a small pouch from natural gut or luxury textile, embellished with beads and natural materials such as fur, porcupine quills, and feathers. Students are invited to bring small personal items to incorporate into the artwork.

Space is limited and registration is encouraged. Reserve your spot.

This program is partially funded by the citizens of the City and Borough of Juneau through sales tax revenues and is sponsored by the Friends of the Alaska State Library, Archives, and Museum.

Saturday, March 18, 2023, 2 pm
APK Atrium

Juneau Brass and Friends of the Alaska State Library, Archives and Museum present a concert featuring a wide range of works, from Renaissance to modern. The program will include jazz, tango, ballad and spiritual pieces, as well as popular theme songs. Brass quintet players are Bill Paulick, Jack Hodges, Stephen Young, Jared Lear, and Alan Young. Donations accepted - proceeds go to FoSLAM and the artist.

February 3 - April 9, 2023
Alaska State Museum

Using found and recycled objects combined with hand-drawn and sculpted elements, Jannah Sexton Atkins assembles works that contemplate society’s connection to nature.

The Marker Series chronicles "humanity’s impact on Earth’s complex natural ecosystems by exponentially disrupting the elegant inter-relational web of organic life forms and their natural sustainable habitat critical for life itself.”

Each of the 20 Prayer Markers in the exhibition includes a portrait of an insect, bird, fish or plant. Sexton Atkins playfully combines these portraits with salvaged, societal waste. The resulting Markers encourage connection and responsibility to our planet.

Image credit: Jannah Sexton Atkins, Prayer Marker - Artifacts of Pollinator Networks, mixed media assemblage, found objects.  

January 14 - April 22, 2023
Sheldon Jackson Museum

Filling Empty Spaces – Attraction and Distraction is an exhibition of new works by Robert Hoffmann.

Through his carvings and paintings, Robert Hoffmann (Tlingit) explores cultural values and to what ends they drive us in a search for fulfillment.

Image credit: Introspection by Robert Hoffmann

Fridays, noon-1 pm, online

Cold Mountain Path by Tom Kizzia started Dec. 2

Story hours for kids are great, but why should they get all the fun?

We’re continuing to read Cold Mountain Path, a prequel, of sorts, to his bestselling Pilgrim’s Wilderness: a True Story of Faith and Madness on the Alaska Frontier. Cold Mountain Path digs into the history of the community of McCarthy, from the closure of the Kennecott Mine through the mass murder there in 1983. Along the way, we learn about this unique place – an active “ghost town” that brings up “ghost state” fears, preservation in a geologically dynamic location, and celebrating industry in a national park. Join us!