About the Pratt Museum

Mission Statement

The Pratt Museum is dedicated to the process of education by exploring the natural environment and human experience relative to the Kachemak Bay region of Alaska and its place in the world. The Museum seeks to inspire self-reflection and dialogue in its community and visitors through exhibitions, programs, and collections in the arts, sciences and humanities.

Description


Vega and Sam Pratt

The Pratt Museum is located in Homer, Alaska, on the shores of Kachemak Bay, approximately 200 miles south of Anchorage, on the Kenai Peninsula. Kachemak Bay, located on the southeast part of Cook Inlet, is circled by mountains, glaciers, and active volcanoes. The region's four national parks, five national wildlife refuges, state parks and critical habitat areas support a diversity of wildlife, from seabirds and sea lions to brown bears and the endangered humpback whale. Kachemak Bay is the largest of 23 sites in the National Estuarine Research Reserve System (NERRS) in the nation, and the only one in Alaska.

Homer, Alaska Map

The Pratt Museum is the only natural history museum in the 25,600-square-mile area of the Kenai Peninsula. It serves a regional population of more than 40,000 and hosts around 30,000 visitors each year. Indoor exhibits focus on art, natural history, native cultures, homesteading, fishing, marine ecology and the Exxon Valdez oil spill. Additional attractions are Alaskan wildlife dioramas, salt-water aquaria and a fine Museum store. Outdoor exhibits include the historic Harrington homestead cabin with period furnishings, botanical garden and forest nature trail, enlivened by summer and permanent art installations.

Samuel Leon and Vega Anderson Pratt

The Pratt Museum is built on land donated by Sam and Vega Pratt. Sam’s collection helped inspire the founding of the Homer Society of Natural History in 1955, over a decade before the group created the Museum. The Society voted to honor their contribution by naming the Museum for the Pratts.

Sam Pratt was born in Woodland, Illinois on November 15, 1889. He came to Alaska in 1934. After moving to Homer in 1936, he met and married Vega Anderson. Sam worked as a fox farmer and commercial fisherman, then in 1947 Sam and Vega, both artists, began Vega’s Art and Gift Shop. They sold art supplies and a variety of merchandise, much like a miniature department store.

Sam and Vega were active members of the growing community of Homer and when the Museum opened in 1968, Sam served as the first volunteer curator. The Pratt Museum and the Pratt House on Pioneer Avenue between Bartlett Street and the Sterling Highway, where Sam and Vega lived for years, are on her family’s original homestead. Sam died on November 18, 1974, and Vega on September 19, 2002.

In 1967, the Homer community chose to construct the Museum as Homer’s centennial project, celebrating the purchase of Alaska from Russia. A formal agreement was signed between the City of Homer and the Society to construct a Museum facility and to maintain a Museum for the citizens in the event the Society should cease to exist.

Awards

2005 National Award for Museum Service

The Pratt Museum has been named one of three recipients of the 2005 National Awards for Museum Service, the country's highest honor for extraordinary community service provided by a museum. The award recognizes the powerful role of museums in society and salutes the positive contributions made by each of the winners in making community service central to their respective mission. A formal awards ceremony will take place in Washington D.C. and each recipient will receive $10,000 from the Institute of Museum and Library Services. Read the full press release.

2004 Governor's Award for the Humanities for Distinguished Cultural Service

On October 29, the Pratt Museum received the 2004 Distinguished Cultural Service Award in Anchorage during a ceremony honoring 14 winners of the Governors Awards for the Arts & Humanities. The Pratt was recognized for making significant contributions to the cultural heritage in Alaska for its efforts in revitalization of Alaska Native languages. Read the full award summary.

2002 National Leadership Grant, Institute of Museum and Library Services
The Pratt Museum was one of five museums nationally awarded the prestigious 2002 Museums in Community award in the National Leadership Grant program. The award for $384,039 supported Phase One of the Museum's Master Exhibition Plan, “Kachemak Bay: An Exploration of People and Place.”

2000 Museums Alaska Award for Excellence in the Museum Profession
For the Kachemak Bay Discovery Program

1996 First Place Anheuser-Busch “A Pledge and A Promise” Environmental Education Award
For the Sperm Whale Project. In 1993, the Pratt was awarded a grant from Howard Hughes Medical Institute to fund a collaborative museum/school project centering around the articulation of a salvaged sperm whale skeleton. This project successfully created a cross-curricular approach to science education by involving students, parents, scientists, educators, and museum staff in the research, preparation, articulation and display of the skeleton in 1995. This collaborative Sperm Whale Project received the First Place Anheuser-Busch “A Pledge and a Promise” environmental education award in the grade 9-12 category, along with Homer High School.

1996 Museums Alaska Award for Excellence in the Museum Profession
For the Sperm Whale Project, a collaborative effort of the Pratt Museum, Homer High School, and the community of Homer, promoting ocean conservation.

 

Map of Kenai Peninsula showing Homer and the Pratt MuseumPartners