What Keeps the Museum Going (Even When You Don’t See It)
May 6, 2026
By Julie Decker, Anchorage Museum Director and CEO
There’s a feeling people sometimes describe after a visit to the museum. You noticed more than you expected to or something stayed with you, an idea, a memory, or just a subtle shift in how the day felt. Experiences like that can be easy to take for granted. Spaces that invite you to slow down, reflect, or reconnect aren’t always easy to find, and they don’t sustain themselves on their own. But the museum is not only a place to pause. It is also a place that holds and celebrates histories of ideas and innovation, where people encounter new ways of thinking, and feel invited to make, experiment, and do. That energy is a part of the museum.
What it takes to hold a place steady
Behind every visit, there’s a layer of work most people never see. The building is constantly doing its job: keeping the lights on, maintaining the right temperature to care for the collection, and opening its doors in every season. These systems are designed to be invisible, but they’re essential to everything that happens inside.
One of the biggest parts of that work is energy. Like so many other costs, it has risen steadily over time. When those expenses increase, they can begin to draw resources away from exhibitions, education, and access, which are the very things that shape a visitor’s experience.
Looking ahead
This spring, the museum is taking a step to address that challenge by installing solar panels on the roof. It’s a practical decision that makes use of Alaska’s long summer daylight, but it’s also part of a longer view, thinking carefully about how to sustain the museum’s work into the future.
As a public institution, we also think about our role within the broader community. Generating a portion of our own energy is one way to reduce strain on the local grid while contributing to how Anchorage imagines the future. It’s a small but meaningful step toward shared responsibility for the systems we all rely on.
Reducing long-term energy costs helps protect funding for programs and learning. It helps ensure that the museum remains accessible and responsive to the community. And it supports the kind of steady, behind-the-scenes care that allows the museum to remain a place people return to over time.
Sustainability, for us, is not only environmental. It’s about sustaining people, place, and possibility, supporting staff, artists, and communities, and creating conditions where creativity and connection can continue to grow.
What continues
Most visitors won’t notice the solar panels themselves. But they will notice what continues because of them: a place that feels consistent, welcoming, and ready. A place that holds both change and continuity.
That kind of stability is the result of ongoing care and intentional choices. If the museum has ever been a place that felt meaningful to you, or part of how you think about this community and its future, this project is one way that care continues forward.