Anchorage School District Art Show
On view March 2 through April 1, 2012
The 40th annual Anchorage School District exhibition showcases art work from the district’s most creative student artists. The exhibition gives kindergarten through high school students a venue to display their art. Works include drawings, paintings, metalwork, ceramics, sculpture, and multimedia.
The High One: Reaching The Top
On view April 6 through Oct. 21
Climbers from across the globe come to test their mountaineering and wilderness survival skills through the high altitude challenges of Mt. McKinley, the continent’s highest peak. This exhibition looks at climbing Denali, “The High One,” through the gear (historical and the latest technology), the routes, the risks and the rescues. Explore how and why people climb through artifacts, photographs, films and hands-on activities. This exhibition runs in tandem with Ascent: 20,320, historical photographs of Alaska mountaineering from the National Park Service, with emphasis on the history of climbing Mt. McKinley.
Ascent 20,320: Science on the Slopes of McKinley
On view April 6 through Sept. 30
Until the mid-20th century, climbing McKinley was a rare feat undertaken in the name of science. Using historical images from the National Park Service, Ascent 20,320: Science on the Slopes of Mount McKinley looks at the mountain through the lens of scientific expeditions, from the first successful summit in 1913 to the present. Photographs document the first successful summit in 1913, attempts to establish a high altitude scientific camp at 18,180 feet, National Geographic Magazine expeditions and more.
Bradford Washburn, The Great Gorge of Ruth Glacier & Mt. McKinley, 1937
Bradford Washburn: Glories of the Greatland
On view May 6 through Sept. 2
The majestic exhibit of Bradford Washburn’s black-and-white Alaska landscape photographs is back by popular demand. Washburn was recognized as an expert on Alaska’s mountains and glaciers, a brilliant photographer and America’s leading field cartographer. He made more than 50 trips to Alaska in a remarkable career that spanned seven decades. Many of his earliest photographs were created as Washburn hung partly out of an airplane, tethered by straps and buffeted by the winds as he directed the pilot while aiming his camera.
Sarah Anne Johnson, Bubble, photograph
True North
On view May 18 through Sept. 9, 2012
This exhibition departs from the poetic or utopian vision of the North. Artists from Alaska, Canada and Scandinavia de-romanticize northern life, stripping off the varnish to reveal what’s true. Through multimedia installations, sculpture and photography, these artists explore our region’s unique environmental, psychological and societal challenges.
Courtesy Gunther von Hagens, Institute for Plastination, Heidelberg, Germany
Body Worlds Vital
On view Sept. 28 through Jan. 6, 2013
Body Worlds Vital is an awe-inspiring exhibition that educates visitors about anatomy, physiology and health through a series of whole bodies, individual organs and transparent body slices. Displays present the most current information about common diseases, the effects of tobacco use, and the mechanics of artificial body parts. By juxtaposing healthy and diseased organs, the exhibition also encourages healthy lifestyle choices. This is the first Body Worlds exhibition in Alaska.
Fire bags, 1883, Ethnological Museum of Berlin
Dena'inaq' Huch'ulyeshi: The Dena'ina Way of Living
On view May through December 2013
Dena'inaq' Huch'ulyeshi: The Dena'ina Way of Living, curated by the Anchorage Museum, will be the first comprehensive exhibition about Dena’ina Athabascan people. This exhibition, opening in summer 2013, will feature about 200 Dena’ina objects from museums across the globe, including caribou skin clothing adorned with fine quill work, puffin beak rattles and birch bark cradles. Dena’ina history and culture will come to life through art, music, storytelling, re-created settings and hands-on activities.
Gyre
On view starting in January 2014
An Expedition and Exhibition with Marine Debris as Material and Message
The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is a marine-based deposit of trash estimated to be the size of Mexico. Similar accumulations of human debris exist in every ocean. A flip-flop discarded in Thailand finds its way to Hawaii, and a bottle cast off from Japan's tsunami is soon Alaska's beach litter. The world shrinks as we all become connected through our litter, yet somehow we are still severed from the problem we've created. Garbage is killing the very life that depends on the ocean as a source of food and habitat. Now, in one of the most breathtaking places on the planet, a unique scientific expedition and art exhibition will blow the whistle.
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