Collaborations
Sperm Whale Project
In
1988, the carcass of a
sperm whale washed ashore on East Chugach Island about 40 miles south
of Homer, Alaska. Using the salvaged skeletal remains as an inspirational
focus, the Pratt Museum developed a unique community-based marine science
education program in close partnership with Homer High School. This online
exhibit highlights what happened to that 41-foot whale skeleton: research,
documentation, preservation, articulation, exhibition, and interpretation.
Get the full story in our online exhibit The Sperm Whale Project.
Shorebird Festival
The
Pratt museum collaborates with other partners in the annual Shorebird
Festival. For more information,check out the Shorebird Festival website for current information or other birding sites, such as the American Bird Center.
The Gathering
Tamamta
Katurlluta: A Gathering of Native Tradition
Based on an idea formulated by Sugpiaq Nick Tanape of Nanwalek, this
collaboration between the villages of Nanwalek, Port Graham, and Seldovia
and the Pratt Museum, this event has been a biennial celebration since
1998. A welcome to the hunters returning home by kayak, blessing and dancing
on the beach, a potluck, and evening of dance have been the core activities.
The Alaska Native Harbor Seal Commission has sponsored educational programs
about seal
harvest and nutrition and Native Youth Olympic demonstrations.
Kenai Fjords Oral History and Archaeological
Project
Kenai Fjords Oral History and Archaeological Project was an exciting
four year project partnering thePratt Museum with the villages of Nanwalek,
Port Graham, and Seldovia, the Smithsonian Institution's Arctic Studies
Center, and National Park Service. In 2001, Arctic Studies Director Dr.Aron
Crowell and Pratt Museum Director of Education and Exhibits Gale Parsons
traveled to the villages to ask permission to do the project and seek
collaborators. With the blessing of the villages and direction of archaeologist
Crowell, a four year project explored a beautifully rugged wilderness,
excavated three sites that were dated between A.D. 1000 and 1810, and
educated participants ranging in age from 15 to well past 60. Oral histories
taken both on site and back home in the villages tell memories of stories
told by ancestors who had lived in and hunted from the sites and of feelings
experienced by present day visitors brought to the excavation. These video
tapes are the basis for two educational videos, Archaeology and
Memory: Ancestral Alutiiq Villages on the Outer Kenai Coast, Alaska,
produced by the Arctic Studies Center and Bringing the Stories Back,
produced by the Pratt Museum. The Pratt will integrate Bringing
the Stories Back into the second phase of our Master Exhibit Plan,
now under development.
|