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Friday Bulletin - September 15, 2023 |
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News from the division
Alaska Positive 2023
Now in its 53rd year, Alaska Positive continues to encourage photography as an art form in Alaska.
Alaska Positive opens at the Alaska State Museum on December 1, 2023 and runs through March 9, 2024. The exhibition will then travel to museums throughout Alaska.
The call for submissions closes October 13, 2023 at 9:59 p.m. Alaska Time.
Solo Artist Exhibition Series
Five Alaska artists will be selected for the solo artist exhibition series, which runs fall of 2024 through spring of 2026. Applications are due September 23, 202 by 9:59 PM Alaska Time. Selected artists will be announced after October 2023.
Left: Stranded Icebergs Detail II, Cape Bird, Antarctica, December 25, 2006
Right: Alaska Positive guest juror Camille Seaman
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News from L.A.M.S in Alaska
The Alaska Native Heritage Center received the Museum Institutional Excellence award.
The Association of Tribal Archives, Libraries, and Museums (ATALM) today announced the recipients of the 2023 Guardians of Culture and Lifeways Awards. Awardees will be honored during the International Conference of Indigenous Archives, Libraries, and Museums on October 25, 2023, at the Omni Oklahoma City Hotel in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
Image credit: experienceology
September 13, 2023. Red Lake Nation News.
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The knowledge work and art of Indigenous healers and medicine people in Alaska is being featured at the Anchorage Museum. Good Medicine is a multidisciplinary exhibit and includes paintings, illustrations, a medicine wheel, a women’s house, and a men’s house–which are traditionally used for healing, teaching, and meetings.
Meda DeWitt, whose Lingít names are Khaat kłaat and Tśa Tsée Naakw, is a Lingít healer and curator of the exhibit. She said the show is both about healing and is healing in itself, holding space for traditional healers to be seen and to speak. That’s in contrast to colonization’s attempts to erase Alaska Native culture and traditional healing practices. DeWitt said healers were targeted during colonization because of the ways they protected people.
“You have to remove the medicine people, the spiritual leaders and the traditional healers,” said DeWitt. “And so, many folks were sent to insane asylums, or penitentiaries, or they were just taken out into the woods and just went missing, never came back, or out into the ocean.”
Rachel Cassandra, September 7, 2023. Alaska Public Media.
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On September 28th there are several scheduled events celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the UAA/APU Consortium Library. The events are co-sponsored by the Alaska Quarterly Review and feature the poet Jane Hirshfield...
At Noon Jane Hirshfield will be in Library 307 to talk with UAA and APU students about poetry and the creative writing process. Bring your questions and share some pizza.
At 4pm in Library 307 there will be a Panel Conversation: “Ways of Knowing: Poetry, Science, and the Environment.” The panelists are: Poet Jane Hirshfield, Stephanie Holthaus (Climate Action Advisor for The Nature Conservancy Alaska and founder of the Women on Climate Initiative of TNC North America), Nancy Lord (Former Alaska Writer Laureate, Homer), and Marie Tozier (Alaska Native poet, Nome).
At 7pm in the auditorium of the Anchorage Museum Jane Hirshfield will read her poetry and sign copies of her latest publication, THE ASKING (Knopf, September 12, 2023) which will be available for sale.
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After three years of operating without a director, the Sheldon Museum has finally filled the position. Brandon Wilks, who has degrees in english and history and worked as an education coordinator at the Haines Borough Library, will begin onboarding as the new director on Sept. 5.
Helen Alten was the most recent director of the museum, and had served in her position from 2014 to 2020, when the borough drastically cut funds to the museum as a response to a 50% reduction in sales tax revenue during the pandemic.
In 2021, the museum experienced institutional changes as its staff transitioned from being borough employees to being managed by the museum board of directors. Funding for the museum also shifted to include assembly appropriations.
Nakeshia Diop, August 31, 2023. Chilkat Valley News.
Related: KHNS newscast September 5, 2023
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The 2023 summer reading programs at the Petersburg Public Library ended in July after six weeks of participants flipping pages, learning instruments, and math-ing their way through an escape room. Across three programs, 270 people of all ages took part in this story, with 65 completing their program cover to cover.
Kari Peterson, Program Coordinator for the Petersburg Public Library, said "It went really well, this summer."
Olivia Rose, September 7, 2023. Petersburg Pilot.
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Friends of the Homer Public Library is one of 62 organizations nationwide selected to receive a 2023-2024 NEA Big Read grant.
A grant of $11,450 will support a community reading program in January and February 2024 focusing on “The Cold Millions” by Jess Walter. An initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with Arts Midwest, the NEA Big Read broadens our understanding of our world, our communities, and ourselves through the power of a shared reading experience.
The Friends of the Homer Library and Homer Public Library will host a dynamic community read of the novel “The Cold Millions.”
Cheryl Illg, September 13, 2023. Homer News.
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Earlier this summer, the Talkeetna Historical Society Museum got a new manager.
For Autumn Merritt, running the Talkeetna Historical Society’s museum is the culmination of an earlier career goal that she thought she had left behind when moving to Talkeetna.
“I went to school in the hopes of working in a museum. It’s what I wanted to do. Directly after I graduated, I came here for the summer, and I never left. I pretty much figured that I would not end up doing what I had gone to school for. My grandfather is over the moon about it. So, when this came available, I definitely hemmed and hawed about it. I had a good job before, and I enjoyed it, but I’m so excited to be here.”
Phillip Manning, September 6, 2023. KTNA.org.
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[Gary] Wolf, Laura Reed, also of Wolf Architecture, and Angie Brose, a library consultant, have been soliciting questions from the community starting with a display in the temporary Palmer library. “We’re asking what people think the library space would look like? What should a library experience be like?” Brose told the city council.
Question boards and other displays, including visuals of possible indoor spaces, were featured at the last Palmer “Friday Fling,” the weekly community event held at Friday mid-day during the summer. To date the group has received between 1,000 and 1,500 responses to questions and comments, Brose said.
The group also met with small focus groups in the community for more in-depth discussions, including staff at the library. “We wanted to hear their ideas about how the workspace should be configured,” she said.
Tim Bradner, September 14, 2023. Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman.
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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. |
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