AUGUST AT THE APK & SJM
Saturday, August 9 at 1 pm
APK Lecture Hall
In honor of the upcoming commissioning of the new U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Storis in Juneau, the Alaska State Library, Archives, and Museum will host a free screening of the documentary film STORIS: The Galloping Ghost of the Alaskan Coast with filmmaker (and Alaska State Library archivist) Damon Stuebner.
From the fjords of Greenland to the fabled Northwest Passage to the stormy waters of the Bering Sea, this 100-minute documentary chronicles the 64-year history of the original USCGC Storis and examines the roles the ship played during World War II, the Cold War, and in Alaskan history.
For more information, please contact Damon Stuebner at (907) 465-2565 or damon.stuebner@alaska.gov.
Artist Talk with Shirley Hootch (Yup’ik)
Friday, August 1 at 2 pm
Sheldon Jackson Museum and on Zoom
Hootch will give a talk entitled "How I Started." She shares:
I was raised in a small remote Alaskan village where wood is used for many things: tools, heat, housing, etc. My grandfather built wooden boats and decorative masks throughout my childhood. I ended up in Hawaii because my daughter moved here to attend a Hawaiian school. It started with a gift. My mom loved it so i started my jewelry business here. The island makes me feel closer to home.
Zoom Details
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81504063597?pwd=hGAzyK8SPrTPdQioNx0doyHHuQYLqd.1
Meeting ID: 815 0406 3597
Passcode: Shirley
Shirley Hootch is a Yup'ik jewelry maker specializing in baleen, walrus ivory, and wood. She is the SJM Native Artist-in-Residence from July 16–August 1, 2025.
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Ravenstail Finger Twining Workshop with Sydney Akagi
August 22, 11:00 am–4:00 pm
Sheldon Jackson Museum
Artist-in-residence Sydney Akagi (Tlingit, Kiks.ádi) will teach a class on ravenstail weaving using the finger-twining technique. Students will learn finger-twining in this 4-hour workshop and apply the technique to make a keychain. There is an hour lunch break at noon.
Limited to 6 students, open to ages 7+.
To register, call (907) 747-8981 or stop by the museum. There is no workshop fee, but there is a $25 materials fee. Please bring a check made out to the artist when you sign up. And bring a pair of sharp scissors to the workshop to cut yarn!
Sydney Akagi is a Tlingit, Kiks.ádi weaver. She is the SJM Native Artist-in-Residence August 18–29.
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Artist Talk with Sydney Akagi (Lingít, Kiks.ádi): 'My SJM Experience'
August 29, 2–3 pm
Sheldon Jackson Museum and Zoom
Sydney Akagi (Lingít, Kiks.ádi) will give a presentation about her experience as an artist-in-residence and the art she created while in Sitka. Her cousin Michaela Goade (Tlingit), an award-winning illustrator and collaborator, may join Akagi. They will highlight Akagi’s work in progress, a transboundary river salmon protector robe, a robe designed to draw attention to issues of salmon protection and the threat to salmon posed by mining projects in transboundary rivers.
Zoom details
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82846526068?pwd=2b3bv0qZ5sTyyfaI5QznA3qehrwAWz.1
Meeting ID: 828 4652 6068
Passcode: Recap
Sydney Akagi is a Tlingit, Kiks.ádi weaver. She is the SJM Native Artist-in-Residence August 18–29.
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In a Time of Change: Boreal Forest Stories
May 2–October 18, 2025
Alaska State Museum
Forming an emerald ring around the circumpolar North, the boreal forest is the world’s largest land-based biome. Also known as taiga, it accounts for approximately one third of Earth’s total forest area and covers the majority of Interior Alaska.
Boreal Forest Stories is a cross-disciplinary collaborative project examining change in the boreal forest through narrative. For over a year and a half, 44 creators, including artists, writers, environmental educators, and humanities scholars, exchanged knowledge and perspectives on the boreal forest with scientists and explored narrative as it applies across the disciplines. Through their original works, participants relate stories rooted in the boreal forest, including its ecology, its inhabitants, and their interactions.
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Ongoing at the Alaska State Museum
Juneau-based qayaq (kayak) maker Lou Logan is constructing an open-sea qayaq at the Alaska State Museum. Logan is making his first skin-on-frame qayaq in the tradition of his Iñupiaq ancestors from Wales, Alaska. His journey to making kayaks began in 2014 while working as a photographer at the museum. The kayaks he saw there inspired him to research Iñupiaq qayat as a way to expand his knowledge about his heritage. Logan’s grandmother was from Kingigin (Wales), Alaska, one of the oldest communities in the Bering Strait region.
A qayaq frame from King Island is on display in the gallery where Logan is working. Logan is studying this frame while constructing his own qayaq.
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XX: Twenty Years of Alaskan Art
Ongoing at the Alaska State Museum
XX: Twenty Years of Alaskan Art features the work of contemporary Alaskan artists.
The museum acquired these pieces over the last twenty years though the generosity of the Rasmuson Foundation’s Alaska Art Fund.
Initiated in 2003, the Alaska Art Fund provides grants for Alaska museums to purchase current work by practicing Alaskan artists.
Thanks to the Fund, the Alaska State Museum has brought over 200 works of art valued at nearly half a million dollars into its permanent collection—the most significant donation over time, in terms of dollar value, in the museum’s 124-year history.
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Current read: Arctic Traverse by Michael Engelhard
A graduate of and sometime instructor at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, where he got a Master’s degree in cultural anthropology, Engelhard has worked for 25 years as a wilderness guide, outdoor instructor, and award-winning author of some beautiful books. In her review of Arctic Traverse in the Anchorage Daily News, Nancy Lord calls it “an exceedingly well-crafted work... With his significant knowledge of the region from both guiding and anthropological work and with impressive observational skills, research and insight, Engelhard has fashioned a text that should appeal to multitudes of readers.”
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