Stories of Place: Three New Anchorage Museum Exhibitions Reflect Life Across Alaska

AK Grown: Childhood in Alaska
On view May 1, 2026-Feb. 14, 2027, First Floor, Atrium

Michaela Goade: Song of the Seasons
On view May 1, 2026-April 30, 2027, Second Floor, ConocoPhillips Arctic Gallery

Everyday Anchorage: Duke Russell & Ward Wells
On view May 1-Aug. 2027, Fourth Floor, Brian E. Davies Chugach Gallery

ANCHORAGE, ALASKA — 

Three exhibitions opening May 1 at the Anchorage Museum explore how people experience Alaska through city life, childhood memories and the changing seasons.

Everyday Anchorage: Duke Russell & Ward Wells

Anchorage has always been in the process of becoming. From its beginnings as a Dena’ina fish camp to a railroad tent city, through oil booms, tourism campaigns, and decades of rapid growth, the city has shaped and reshaped its identity.

Everyday Anchorage: Duke Russell & Ward Wells brings together paintings by Duke Russell (b. 1959) and photographs by Ward Wells (1920–1982), showing how two artists from different generations capture life in Anchorage. Together, their works reveal a shared fascination with the strange, familiar, and evolving aspects of Anchorage life, as seen through its residents, streetscapes, storefronts, parks, and the blending of urban and rural archetypes.

AK Grown: Childhood in Alaska

While Everyday Anchorage reflects on the evolution of a city, AK Grown: Childhood in Alaska turns to the experience of growing up across the state.

Through archival photographs and family albums spanning nearly a century, AK Grown: Childhood in Alaska highlights everyday moments that define growing up in a place where landscape and weather shape childhood memories.

Images show children running through deep snowbanks on Halloween night, posing beside oversized salmon, inventing winter games and gathering with family across Alaska’s wide-open landscapes. What might seem unusual elsewhere is simply part of everyday life here.

Michaela Goade: Song of the Seasons

In Michaela Goade: Song of the Seasons, color, story, and sound bring Alaska’s seasonal rhythms to life.

Drawn from the books Berry Song and Moon Song, the exhibition features illustrations, sketches and behind-the-scenes videos by Sitka-based Tlingit and Norwegian artist Michaela Goade. The works trace the changing seasons, from the jeweled abundance of summer berry picking to the quiet stillness of a winter walk, showing how light, weather, plants and animals shape life in the North.

Goade became the first Native American artist to receive the Caldecott Medal in 2021 for her illustrations in We Are Water Protectors. Her work reflects a deep appreciation of the land and invites readers and viewers to connect with the natural world and their communities.

All three exhibitions open May 1, 2026, at the Anchorage Museum. Visit anchoragemuseum.org for exhibition details, hours, and admission information.