Anchorage Museum of History and Art
Encyclopedia
The Anchorage Museum at Rasmuson Center is a museum
Museum
A museum is an institution that cares for a collection of artifacts and other objects of scientific, artistic, cultural, or historical importance and makes them available for public viewing through exhibits that may be permanent or temporary. Most large museums are located in major cities...

 located in downtown Anchorage
Anchorage, Alaska
Anchorage is a unified home rule municipality in the southcentral part of the U.S. state of Alaska. It is the northernmost major city in the United States...

 in the U.S. state of Alaska
Alaska
Alaska is the largest state in the United States by area. It is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...

. Beginning as a public-private partnership
Public-private partnership
Public–private partnership describes a government service or private business venture which is funded and operated through a partnership of government and one or more private sector companies...

 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Alaska purchase
Alaska purchase
The Alaska Purchase was the acquisition of the Alaska territory by the United States from Russia in 1867 by a treaty ratified by the Senate. The purchase, made at the initiative of United States Secretary of State William H. Seward, gained of new United States territory...

, it opened in 1968 with an exhibition of 60 borrowed Alaska paintings and a collection of 2,500 historic and ethnographic objects loaned from the local historical society, and the museum has been enlarged several times since. Its official name is now Anchorage Museum at Rasmuson Center. The museum completed a $106-million addition and renovation project in May 2010.

Mission

The Anchorage Museum's mission is to share and connect Alaska with the world through art, history and science.

History

The museum opened in 1968 in a 10000 square feet (929 m²) building with an exhibition of 60 borrowed Alaska paintings, a collection of 2500 historic and ethnographic objects, and a staff of two. The museum has grown steadily and expanded three times since then, most recently in 2010, to its current size of 170000 square feet (15,793.5 m²) with a collection of 25,000 objects and 500,000 historic photographs, and a staff of more than 50. First accredited in 1973, the museum has maintained its accreditation since. In 1992, the museum became the home for the Alaska office of the Smithsonian's
Smithsonian Institution
The Smithsonian Institution is an educational and research institute and associated museum complex, administered and funded by the government of the United States and by funds from its endowment, contributions, and profits from its retail operations, concessions, licensing activities, and magazines...

 NMNH Arctic Studies Center, which supports the museum's mission through research, education, and exhibitions.

The museum is a member of the North American Reciprocal Museums
North American Reciprocal Museums
The North American Reciprocal Museums program is a consortium of museums in the United States, Canada, Bermuda, El Salvador and Mexico which offers benefits to museum membership holders in more than 530 institutions...

 program.

Service

The Anchorage Museum is "a world-class museum located in the heart of Alaska's largest city". It welcomes over 180,000 annual visitors from Alaska and from around the world and serves as a cultural center for the community. The museum is repeatedly ranked among Alaska's top ten visitor attractions. Each year it presents 16–20 changing exhibitions complemented by education programs and activities. In 2006, 20,993 students and 47,836 adults participated in education programs.

Permanent exhibits include an Alaska history gallery, Alaska art galleries, the Imaginarium Discovery Center science galleries and the Smithsonian Arctic Studies Center, which features Alaska Native artifacts on long-term loan from the Smithsonian Institution.

The museum's library/archives are in frequent demand by publishers, scholars, and other researchers for its information and images. Titles held in the Library are accessible to students, scholars and the public via interlibrary loan on the web.

The Smithsonian Institution's Arctic Studies Center conducts public programs and collaborative research programs to increase understanding of northern peoples, cultures and environments. It develops exhibitions and offers professional museum training workshops frequented by museum and cultural center personnel from across the state.

Geographic area served

The museum serves its statewide mission by organizing and presenting programs and exhibitions in Anchorage, as well as by traveling exhibitions throughout the state. Examples include exhibits shared with museums in Unalaska
Unalaska, Alaska
Unalaska is a city in the Aleutians West Census Area of the Unorganized Borough of the U.S. state of Alaska. Unalaska is located on Unalaska Island and neighboring Amaknak Island in the Aleutian Islands off of mainland Alaska....

, Bethel
Bethel, Alaska
Bethel is a city located near the west coast of the U.S. state of Alaska, west of Anchorage. Accessible only by air and river, Bethel is the main port on the Kuskokwim River and is an administrative and transportation hub for the 56 villages in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta.Bethel is the largest...

, Homer
Homer, Alaska
Homer is a city located in Kenai Peninsula Borough in the U.S. state of Alaska. According to 2005 Census Bureau estimates, the population was 5,364. One of Homer's nicknames is "the cosmic hamlet by the sea"; another is "the end of the road"...

, Ketchikan
Ketchikan, Alaska
Ketchikan is a city in Ketchikan Gateway Borough, Alaska, United States, the southeasternmost sizable city in that state. With an estimated population of 7,368 in 2010 within the city limits, it is the fifth most populous city in the state....

, Kenai
Kenai, Alaska
Kenai is a city in Kenai Peninsula Borough in the U.S. state of Alaska. According to 2005 Census Bureau estimates, the population of the city is 7,464...

, Fairbanks
Fairbanks, Alaska
Fairbanks is a home rule city in and the borough seat of the Fairbanks North Star Borough in the U.S. state of Alaska.Fairbanks is the largest city in the Interior region of Alaska, and second largest in the state behind Anchorage...

, Kodiak
Kodiak, Alaska
Kodiak is one of 7 communities and the main city on Kodiak Island, Kodiak Island Borough, in the U.S. state of Alaska. All commercial transportation between the entire island and the outside world goes through this city either via ferryboat or airline...

, and Juneau
Juneau, Alaska
The City and Borough of Juneau is a unified municipality located on the Gastineau Channel in the panhandle of the U.S. state of Alaska. It has been the capital of Alaska since 1906, when the government of the then-District of Alaska was moved from Sitka as dictated by the U.S. Congress in 1900...

.

The museum provides professional recommendations on collections, exhibitions, education, archival organization and conservation to other Alaska museums, cultural centers and the public.

Permanent collection

The Anchorage Museum has over 40000 square feet (3,716.1 m²) devoted to its permanent collection with a focus on Alaska history, Art of the North and Ethnography.

Alaska Gallery

This gallery is devoted to Alaska's rich history from the native fauna through the time of the first early migrations to the present. The Alaska Gallery exhibits more than 1,000 objects and is one of the most complete presentations of Alaskan history and ethnology. Full-scale and miniature dioramas give insight into the lifestyles of Alaska's Native peoples, exploration and settlement by the Russians, the gold rush era, World War II and statehood in 1959.

Art of the North

The permanent art collection represents the vast range of art from Alaska and the circumpolar North. Seven galleries on the museum's ground floor are devoted to this collection. Exhibits include landscape paintings, drawings from early European expeditions to Alaska, works by contemporary artists, and an entire gallery of paintings by Sydney Laurence
Sydney Laurence
Sydney Mortimer Laurence was an American Romantic landscape painter and is widely considered one of Alaska's most important historical artists.-Early life:...

, perhaps Alaska's best known artist.

Exhibitions and programs

Exhibitions include juried shows, interpretive exhibitions and traveling exhibitions from other museums. The museum provides a substantial range of exhibits and programs that acquaint Alaskans with the art, culture, history and science of other peoples and places. In recent years, the museum has presented "Wrapped in Pride: Ghanaian Kente and African American Identity", "Tibet: Mountains and Valleys, Castles and Tents", "Woven Treasure: The Coverlets of Norway", and several exhibitions of Korea
Korea
Korea ) is an East Asian geographic region that is currently divided into two separate sovereign states — North Korea and South Korea. Located on the Korean Peninsula, Korea is bordered by the People's Republic of China to the northwest, Russia to the northeast, and is separated from Japan to the...

n and Japanese ceramics. The museum also seeks to ensure that its Alaska-focused programming and exhibitions represent the diversity of immigrant heritages in Alaska and the Far North. Public programs include lectures, classes, workshops, films, public and school tours, and special events.

Upcoming exhibitions include "Andy Warhol: Manufactured" (November 2010-January 2011) curated by the Anchorage Museum via The Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, and "Mammoths and Mastodons: Titans of the Ice Age" from The Field Museum in Chicago (March–October 2011).

Governance

The museum is operated by the Anchorage Museum Association, a private non-profit organization under a long term contract with the Municipality of Anchorage. Its annual budget comes from earned income, fundraising and grants, and from the municipality. The municipality owns the museum facility and collections. The Anchorage Museum Foundation, a 501(c)(3) functionally integrated supporting organization, manages the permanent endowment and oversees the expansion project.

Staff

There are about 50 FTE staff members and they are organized into the following departments: Administration, Enterprise, Education, Exhibitions, Library/Archives, and Collections. The onsite personnel for the Smithsonian's Arctic Studies Center include an archeologist and an anthropologist. The museum relies on a robust volunteer program. Over 300 volunteers work as docents, in the shop, and in education, collections, exhibits and library/archives.

Facilities

The museum's 170000 square feet (15,793.5 m²) include galleries for interpretive exhibitions of its permanent collection and galleries for changing exhibitions. A large atrium, two classrooms and a 230-seat auditorium host a wide variety of programs, classes and special events. Back-of-house includes exhibit prep workshops, collections storage, and workspace, including a conservation laboratory.

Expansion

The new wing features the Smithsonian Institution's Arctic
Arctic
The Arctic is a region located at the northern-most part of the Earth. The Arctic consists of the Arctic Ocean and parts of Canada, Russia, Greenland, the United States, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Iceland. The Arctic region consists of a vast, ice-covered ocean, surrounded by treeless permafrost...

 Studies Center, through which 600 Alaskan Native artifacts have returned to Alaska from the National Museum of Natural History
National Museum of Natural History
The National Museum of Natural History is a natural history museum administered by the Smithsonian Institution, located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., United States. Admission is free and the museum is open 364 days a year....

 and the National Museum of the American Indian
National Museum of the American Indian
The National Museum of the American Indian is a museum operated under the auspices of the Smithsonian Institution that is dedicated to the life, languages, literature, history, and arts of the native Americans of the Western Hemisphere...

 for a long-term installation. There also are new galleries for changing exhibitions, an expanded library/archives, and improved visitor services, including Muse restaurant and a gift shop.

The new extension to the museum was planned by David Chipperfield
David Chipperfield
Sir David Alan Chipperfield CBE, RA, RDI, RIBA is a British architect, born in London. He has offices in London, Berlin and Milan, and a representative office in Shanghai...

 Architects Ltd., London. It created a new entrance and appearance for the whole museum by implementing a highly unique façade and building set-up. The façade was custom designed and supplied by Overgaard Ltd., Hong Kong to Architectural Wall Systems of West Des Moines, Iowa, a speciality glazing contractor. The scope of materials for this one-of-a-kind façade includes approx. 5900 m² of custom insulated fritted glass
Frit
Frit is a ceramic composition that has been fused in a special fusing oven, quenched to form a glass, and granulated. Frits form an important part of the batches used in compounding enamels and ceramic glazes; the purpose of this pre-fusion is to render any soluble and/or toxic components insoluble...

. This glazing type and pattern has never before been used and was specially developed for the project by both Architectural Wall Systems and Overgaard Ltd. To meet the extreme environmental conditions the insulated glass units are 24 mm thick. The outside sheet is tempered 6 mm low-iron sheer with a silver mirror frit. The inside sheet is 6 mm low-iron clear sheet. The frit is silver reflective on one side and metallic on the other. All glass units have been pre-assembled prior to shipping to allow for easy installation.

External links

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