New Special Exhibition Coming to the Pratt Museum in January 2026
New Special Exhibition Coming to the Pratt Museum in January 2026
Homer, Alaska (December 12, 2025)
The Pratt Museum Will Host a New Special Exhibition From the Kodiak Maritime Museum Titled “50 Years of Limited Entry: The Closing of Alaska’s Salmon Commons”.
PHOTO: The traveling version of “50 Years of Limited Entry: The Closing of Alaska’s Salmon Commons” on view at the Andrew P. Kashevaroff Building in Juneau, Alaska. Photo courtesy of the Alaska State Libraries, Archives and Museums, March 2025.
The Pratt Museum’s new special exhibition will open in the Main Gallery on January 9, 2026 and be on display through May 17, 2026. In honor of the exhibit, the Pratt Museum will host a Curator Talk on Saturday, February 7, featuring a presentation by Kodiak Maritime Museum Curator and exhibit designer, Toby Sullivan, followed directly by a community conversation session in which all guests are welcome to share their own experiences with the Limited Entry Program in Alaska.
50 Years of Limited Entry examines the origins and effects of the Limited Entry Program in Alaska. As much a social engineering program as a conservation effort, the story of Limited Entry is both instructive and cautionary. In addition to the 50 Years of Limited Entry exhibit panels, this exhibition will feature art, photographs, and materials from the Pratt Museum’s permanent collection.
About the Kodiak Maritime Museum Incorporated in Alaska in 1996 by a small group of commercial fishermen, the Kodiak Maritime Museum’s mission is to recognize, preserve, and interpret Kodiak’s maritime heritage. To make 50 Years of Limited Entry, Kodiak Maritime Museum conducted archival research and interviewed fishermen and fisheries policy makers. Juneau’s Exhibit AK designed the exhibit panels. Support for the exhibit comes from the National Park Service and Alaska Office of History and Archeology, Alaska State Museum Grant-In-Aid, City of Kodiak, Kodiak Community Foundation, Kodiak CHARR, Kodiak History Museum, and individual supporters of Kodiak Maritime Museum. More information about the exhibit and the Kodiak Maritime Museum is available at https://www.kodiakmaritimemuseum.org/.
About the Pratt Museum The mission of the Pratt Museum is to explore and preserve the culture, science, and art of the Kachemak Bay region. The Museum is open daily from 10am-6pm from Memorial Day to Labor Day and Tuesday-Saturday from 11am-4pm the rest of the year. Visit the Pratt Museum at 3779 Bartlett Street in Homer. Tel (907) 235-8635. More information is available at http://www.prattmuseum.org/.
Contact Whitney Harness, Executive Director, tel (907) 435-3333, email director@prattmuseum.org
Executive Director Hired for Pratt Museum
Executive Director Hired for Pratt Museum
Homer, Alaska (October 27, 2025)
The Pratt Museum Welcomes Whitney Harness as New Executive Director
The Board of Directors of The Homer Society of Natural History, Inc. is pleased to announce the appointment of Whitney Harness as the Executive Director of the Pratt Museum. Her appointment was effective Friday, September 26, 2025. Harness has worked at the Pratt for the past two years, serving as the Visitor Services, Store, and Communications Manager and most recently as the Interim Co-Executive Director.
“Whitney brings a wonderful depth of knowledge and insight to her role at the Pratt Museum,” said Sue Fallon, President of the Board of Directors. “Her passion, empathy, and connections to the community are invaluable, and we are thrilled to welcome her leadership as the Pratt Museum moves forward into our next chapter.” As the Executive Director, Harness will oversee the Museum’s daily operations, strategic initiatives, and continued engagement with the local community and beyond.
Her work experience includes management positions in cultural and tourism-related industries in Alaska and her educational background includes a Bachelor of Arts degree in History as well as graduate-level coursework in Education. Whitney was born and raised in Alaska and has lived in Homer since 2016.
“I am honored by the opportunity to serve as the Executive Director of the Pratt Museum,” said Harness. “The Pratt has been a beloved community anchor for over fifty years, and I am committed to both celebrating the Museum’s legacy and driving forward with fresh perspective to engage a new generation of museum patrons.”
About the Pratt Museum The mission of the Pratt Museum is to explore and preserve the culture, science, and art of the Kachemak Bay region. The Museum is open daily from 11am – 4pm every Tuesday – Saturday September 2, 2025 through May 23, 2026 and 10am-6pm from Memorial Day to Labor Day. Visit the Pratt Museum at 3779 Bartlett Street in Homer. Tel (907) 235-8635. More information is available at http://www.prattmuseum.org/.
Contact Sue Fallon, President, The Homer Society of Natural History, Inc. Board of Directors, email prattboard@prattmuseum.org
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The Pratt Museum Hosts “World on Fire” by American Artist Geoffrey C. Smith
Homer, Alaska (September 3, 2025)
New Special Exhibition in Homer at the Pratt Museum: “World on Fire”, Featuring Oil Paintings and Driftwood Sculpture by American Artist Geoffrey C. Smith
The Pratt Museum’s final special exhibition of the year will open in the Main Gallery on October 3, 2025 and be on display through January 3, 2026. A First Friday opening reception will be held at the Museum on Friday, October 3, 2025 from 4 – 6pm.
In World on Fire, American artist Geoffrey C. Smith brings viewers face-to-face with the wild heart of Alaska and the profound transformations it now endures. Painted over the course of three summers spent in the state’s most remote and majestic landscapes, this exhibition captures both the awe-inspiring beauty of Alaska’s wildlife and the subtle, sometimes startling signs of a world in flux.
Using a palette knife and bold, expressive strokes, Smith renders creatures like moose, polar bears, ravens, and brown bears with emotional intensity. Some of the works in the series are almost dreamlike: animals suspended in flame-colored fields, their forms emerging from abstract heat and color. Others are grounded in traditional realism: brown bears fishing for salmon, salmon threading their way upstream, and bull moose standing alert in the quiet boreal light. These moments speak not just to climate change, but to the deep, enduring beauty that still exists in our natural world.
It’s this tension between reverence and urgency, realism and abstraction that gives World on Fire its power. While the title conjures an image of devastation, the show itself is far more layered. It is not a parade of catastrophe, but an act of bearing witness. The wild is still alive. The animals still move with grace and dignity. And the land, though changing, continues to inspire.
Smith, known for his large-scale bronze monuments and nationally recognized wildlife sculptures, approaches painting with the same sense of scale, presence, and emotional resonance. His background as a sculptor brings weight and structure to the compositions, while his painter’s hand channels immediacy and energy. These paintings are not imagined; instead, built from time spent tracking animals in the field, observing migrations, watching ice melt, and listening to silence.
World on Fire speaks to institutions that recognize the transformative power of art to explore environmental change, cultural identity, and our relationship with place. It is a show that invites thoughtful dialogue between science and emotion, tradition and innovation, beauty and urgency. Rooted in firsthand observation and artistic mastery, the exhibition offers not only a striking visual experience but also a meaningful platform for public engagement. It appeals to museums and cultural foundations that seek to illuminate the challenges of our time while honoring the landscapes, species, and stories that define them. Through this work, art becomes a bridge connecting people to the natural world and to one another.
Ultimately, World on Fire is both an elegy and a celebration. A call to see more clearly, feel more deeply, and protect more fiercely.
About Geoffrey C. Smith Geoffrey has been characterized as a representational artist, although stylistically he may be viewed as a naturalist. Geoffrey’s very large works and his signature artistic style can be deemed “loose,” wherein the subjects of his work are represented by basic elements such as fingerprints suggesting feathers or fur. He mixes fine wax and oil paint, then uses a palette knife to sculpt the painting and giving his work a distinctive deeply dimensional feeling displaying large strokes and layers of texture. Geoffrey is a Conservationist and lover of nature. Much of his time, talent, and treasure goes toward supporting charities that foster his ideals. More information is available at https://www.geoffreycsmith.com/.
About the Pratt Museum The mission of the Pratt Museum is to explore and preserve the culture, science, and art of the Kachemak Bay region. The Museum is open daily from 11am – 4pm every Tuesday – Saturday September 2, 2025 through May 23, 2026 and 10am-6pm from Memorial Day to Labor Day. Visit the Pratt Museum at 3779 Bartlett Street in Homer. Tel (907) 235-8635. More information is available at http://www.prattmuseum.org/.
Contact Whitney Harness, Co-Executive Director, tel (907) 435-3333, email wharness@prattmuseum.org
Download PDF of this Press Release, HERE.
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