ARCHIVED NEWS
MEMBERSHIP NEWS
The Anchorage Museum's admission and membership rates will modestly increase in January 2010. In the upcoming year, the museum will open the new Imaginarium Discovery Center, Thomas Planetarium and Smithsonian Arctic Studies Center. The new prices reflect an expanded Anchorage Museum that includes, essentially, three museums in one.
Now is the time to lock in current membership rates for one more year. To renew your membership today, please contact the membership department at 929-9228 or membership@anchoragemuseum.org.
New rates for basic memberships, effective Jan. 1, 2010:
$60 Individual Adult
This option is for one adult only; it does not include general admission for children. When the Imaginarium Discovery Center opens May 2010, museum general admission for children will be $7.
$40 for Senior/Military/Student Individual/Individual Associate
An Individual Associate membership is for individual members who live more than 200 miles away from the museum. As with the Individual Adult membership, this option does not include general admission for children.
$90 Family
A Family membership includes general admission for adults and children in the same household. If a family of four visits the museum just three times a year, the membership has paid for itself.
$60 Senior Family/Military Family/ Family Associate
A Family membership includes general admission for adults and children in the same household. A Family Associate membership is for families who live more than 200 miles away from the museum.
New rates for general admission, effective Jan. 1, 2010:
Member: Free
Adult: $10
Senior/Student/Military: $8
Ages 3 to 12: $7 (effective May 2010)
Ages 2 and younger: Free
ART STRIKES A CHORD WITH COMPOSER
The Anchorage Museum’s permanent collection inspired a new musical work commissioned by the Anchorage Symphony Orchestra’s commissioning club, Musica Nova. The symphony premieres Exposition on the Anchorage Museum as part of its Pride of Alaska concert at 8 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 16 in Atwood Concert Hall.
Commissioning seven works in as many years, Musica Nova is a group of donors committed to advancing the symphonic art form. “For our newest commission I thought of our wonderful and newly expanded museum here in Anchorage and decided we’d commission our own piece celebrating our Anchorage Museum,” said ASO Music Director Randall Craig Fleischer.
When film and television composer Gregory Prechel was first engaged to write the work, his objective was to choose a few pieces of art and then write a movement on each, much like Modest Mussorgsky’s famed Pictures at an Exhibition. Upon touring the museum with Collections Department Director Walter Van Horn, Prechel quickly found his task impossible. “It became clear to me that I wouldn’t be able to represent the Anchorage Museum with just a few pieces (of art),” he said.
Instead, he created a four-movement musical montage based on many works in the permanent collection. The first movement is a fanfare inspired by depictions of Mt. McKinley, including paintings by Sydney Laurence.
The second movement is based on wildlife art, including work by Fred Machetanz and Eustace Ziegler. The movement culminates in a musical theme based on the colored pencil drawing Cannery Life by Carolyn Reed. Artwork depicting Alaska Native culture dominates the third movement, while landscapes are the subject of the finale. In concert, video projections of the art will accompany the music it inspired. Learn more about Exposition on the Anchorage Museum at the symphony’s Web site www.anchoragesymphony.org.
Discount for museum members
The Anchorage Symphony Orchestra offers museum members 10 percent off adult tickets to its Jan. 16 concert. To obtain this discount, present your museum membership card when you place your order at the Alaska Center for the Performing Arts box office. For more information, call CenterTix at 263-2787
WISHES GRANTED
The Anchorage Museum received a $147,736 grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, a federal agency, to develop an exhibition and catalog on Dena'ina culture and history. The exhibition is scheduled to open summer 2011.
About 60 percent of Alaska's population lives within traditional Dena'ina territory, yet there is little public awareness of Dena'ina people and their history. This exhibition of more than 200 objects will bring to Alaska many early Dena'ina artifacts and help fill that knowledge gap. Many of these ancestral objects now reside in European museums, far away from their culture of origin and those who would benefit most from their legacy.
The museum is working with a Dena'ina advisory committee and partnering with the Alaska Native Heritage Center on this exhibition, believed to be the first on Dena'ina history and culture.
The Alaska Community Foundation awarded $50,000 to the Anchorage Museum to process and scan 25 percent of the 140,000 negatives in the Steve McCutcheon photograph collection. This grant was made available through the foundation's Anchorage Statehood Celebration Fund.
This photograph collection is of extraordinary historical value, said Chief Curator Marilyn Knapp. These photographs, housed in the museum's Bob and Evangeline Atwood Alaska Resource Center, document Alaska life in the mid-20th century: The move toward statehood, changing indigenous lifestyles, and the growing, post-World War II military population. He also chronicled life in rural communities and construction of the trans-Alaska oil pipeline.
By helping the museum digitize the McCutcheon collection, the Alaska Community Foundation has ensured new chapters of Alaska history will be accessible for generations to come.
COMMITTEE MEMBERS SOUGHT
The museum seeks two people with backgrounds in Alaska art, history or anthropology to serve a three-year term on its collections committee. The committee meets monthly and is responsible for collections policy and planning, acquisitions and de-accessions. Application deadline is Jan. 22. For information on the application process, call Walter VanHorn at 928-9238 or e-mail wvanhorn@anchoragemuseum.org.
OTHER ARCHIVED NEWS
ALASKA’S MEMORY
KTUU feature on the Atwood Resource Center
Crafts Weekend:
Alaska's Finest Juried Crafts Show Thanksgiving Weekend
Food Review
Anchorage Daily News gives Muse four stars
Earth, Fire And Fibre XXVII
List of accepted entries here.
Were Expanding
Learn how the museum is growing
Relics Returned To Life
Native artifacts come home
Shoulda Been There...
Slide shows of recent Museum events
Anchorage Daily News previews expansion
Student show celebrates King's legacy
Anchorage Daily News
Profile on artist-in-residence Zoe Strauss
Anchorage Daily News
Lecturer makes WWII discovery about Black soldiers
Anchorage Daily News
Annual ASD student show "energetic"
Anchorage Daily News
