August 18-September 8
Most weekdays, 9 am-12 pm and 2-4 pm
Sheldon Jackson Museum

The Sheldon Jackson Museum is pleased to announce the second artist-in-residence of 2023, David John Angaiak ( Yup’ik/Unangan). Angaiak is a contemporary Alaskan Native visual artist who creates functional Yup’ik Story Masks and Dance Fans. He likes to incorporate traditional and modern elements in his work. Inspiration for his art comes from his love of heritage, and the desire to keep this expression alive for future generations.

For more information on when Angaiak is working at the museum or details about the Alaska Native Artist Residency Program, see the August calendar or call (907) 747-8981.

Alaska State Museum
through October 2023

Three interrelated exhibitions co-curated by artist Sonya Kelliher-Combs explore contemporary and historical Alaska Native issues and spotlight gut as a conduit for Indigenous voices.

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

Visceral: Legacy expands Kelliher-Combs’s solo exhibition themes through a selection of objects from the museum’s permanent collection.

Visceral: Identity features gut parkas from across Alaska to highlight technical and historical aspects of this remarkable material in cross-cultural perspective.

Fridays, noon-1 pm, online

Story hours for kids are great but why should they get all the fun? All are welcome to listen to live readings of grown-up books about Alaska or Alaskans. Discussion is welcome but not required.  Attendance is free with required registration.

Currently reading Good Company: a Mining Family in Fairbanks, Alaska. See our Virtual Alaska Story Hour for Adults page for information on the next book, which we will likely start in late August or early September.

From the book jacket: Good Company is a vivid and compelling story of life in early twentieth-century Alaska. During the lean years of the depression through World War II and Vietnam, Sarah Isto's family made a home in "company housing" in the small mining town of Fairbanks. With a wry sense of humor and an eye for detail, Isto tells of the courtship and marriage of her parents and her own Fairbanks childhood, weaving rich descriptions of daily life and northern living into her story. Good Company celebrates the joys and challenges of family life on the Alaska frontier.