Helping the Anchorage Museum Reach Alaskans

The Cloud Chamber and Wezup at the Anchorage Museum. Image courtesy of the Anchorage Museum.

The Anchorage Museum brings together history, culture, art, science, and design to provide rich and multifaceted exhibitions, programs, and initiatives to visitors. While the museum attracts large numbers of tourists who visit Anchorage, it also focuses on bringing educational opportunities to Alaskan people. Since 1994, NEH funding has helped the Anchorage Museum work with Native Alaskan peoples to illuminate their cultural heritage, as well as showcase the art, history, and built environment of Alaska more broadly. Recently, funding from the NEH—including an NEH CARES grant—has helped the Anchorage Museum reach a broader public.

An introduction to the Anchorage Museum's central exhibition space, The Alaska Gallery. Video courtesy of the Anchorage Museum.

Most recently, NEH funding has helped the Anchorage Museum broaden its geographic reach. The museum’s exhibition, Arctic Ambitions: Captain Cook and the Northwest Passage, funded with a 2015 grant, traveled to the Washington State Historical Society in Tacoma after being shown in Anchorage. A media projects grant is helping the Anchorage Museum, in partnership with Steeplechase Films, produce a documentary on the state.

Indigenous land acknowledgment on Anchorage Museum facade. Photo courtesy of Anchorage Museum.

NEH funding has also helped the Anchorage Museum significantly expand its digital presence. The museum is producing an open-source digital textbook on Alaska’s history: the final product will feature a range of media and a rich variety of Alaskan perspectives. In 2020, the NEH awarded the museum an NEH CARES grant to build its capacity and help it navigate the financial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition to helping the museum retain staff, the grant is supporting the digitization of some of the museum’s historical resources. Cumulatively, this move toward a substantive digital presence will help the museum reach a bigger portion of the state.