Anchorage Museum receives $1 million matching grant for expansion project from M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust

July 06, 2006

Contact: Ann Hale -

Vancouver WA-based M. J. Murdock Charitable Trust announced a $1 million matching grant for the Anchorage Museum's Capital Campaign recently. The museum expansion campaign team is working to raise $3 for every $1 of the trust's grant by Dec. 31, 2007.

This matching grant is contingent upon the museum reaching its $116 million fundraising goal and will help fund the capital costs of building the addition, renovating the existing facility, and creating and installing new exhibits. The museum currently has raised $104 million which includes $50 million from the late Elmer Rasmuson, nearly $20 million from federal grants, $20 million from the State of Alaska, and $14 million raised from individuals, businesses and foundations through a capital campaign. The museum seeks to raise an additional $12 million.

This matching grant comes at an important time; the museum is in the final architectural design stages for a new 70,000 square-foot wing that will expand its capacity to present exhibitions and to store and care for collections.

The new wing is designed by David Chipperfield and Associates of London and Kumin Associates of Anchorage and will include the first Smithsonian Institution facility outside of Washington D.C. and a new home for The Imaginarium.

The expansion will provide for:

• The exhibition of 1,000 Alaska Native artifacts from the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian and National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. in the Arctic Studies Center
• New changing exhibition space that will host Alaskan and national exhibitions of art, history and science
• Interactive science learning about the natural and physical sciences, through The Imaginarium's move to the museum
• Improved visitor services with a new orientation gallery, shop and cafŽ
• A two-acre common featuring an ice rink in winter and outdoor gathering spaces to the west of the museum for festivals, outdoor exhibitions and recreation opportunities year-round.
• Needed storage and working areas for the museum's growing collections, the conservation of art and artifacts, research and exhibition preparation.

A groundbreaking ceremony and celebration is scheduled for Sunday, Aug. 20, 2006, at 1 p.m. The ceremony will happen outside the museum on the two-acre area where the museum addition will be built followed by music, entertainment, food and activities for families continuing inside the museum. This event is free and open to the public.

For more information on the museum expansion or to make a gift, visit www.anchoragemuseum.org or call 343-6175.

The M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust was created by the will of the late Melvin J. (Jack) Murdock, who was a co-founder of Tektronix, Inc. of Beaverton, Ore., and a resident of Vancouver, Wash.. Since its establishment on June 30, 1975, the trust has focused its grant-making efforts in five states of the Pacific Northwest: Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon and Washington. The trust's mission is to enrich the quality of life in the Pacific Northwest by providing grants to organizations that seek to strengthen the region's educational and cultural base in creative and sustainable ways. Although the major funding interests are education and scientific research, grants are also given to a wide variety of organizations, including those that serve the arts, public affairs, health and medicine, human services, and people with disabilities.