Located in Fairbanks, the University of Alaska Museum of the North (UAMN) holds an extensive research collection documenting the natural and human history of the polar North. The museum is a research and teaching institution. At the same time, it hosts exhibitions and public programs that help visitors explore the region’s past and present. Since 2013, NEH funding has helped the museum preserve its historical collections and make them accessible to the public.
Read More
Two preservation assistance grants, awarded in 2013 and 2017, helped the Museum of the North preserve its audiovisual collections, first supporting a preservation assessment of materials held by the Center for Documentary Film, and then by funding the purchase of storage supplies for vulnerable materials. These include thousands of prints, negatives, and cassettes that document the cultures of Native Alaskan communities. And another grant awarded in 2017 helped the museum renovate and reinstall its premiere exhibition, the Gallery of Alaska.
More recently, the NEH has supported improved access to parts of the Museum of the North’s collections. With one grant UAMN is hosting workshops focused on Indigenous watercraft that the museum holds. These include skin, bark, and wooden boats that have been on display and are in need of conservation. Through public workshops, UAMN is helping people understand the how artifacts are conserved. At the same time, the museum is connecting with the Native Alaskan communities who originally crafted the boats, bringing them into dialogue about the watercrafts’ ongoing care. And in 2020, an NEH CARES grant proved key to keeping staff employed while making it possible for the museum to make more of its materials available online.