PRATT MUSEUM

established in 1968

“Entangled & Ingested” Traveling Exhibition to Visit Pratt Museum in September with a Focus on Art, Science, and Policy

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“Entangled & Ingested” Traveling Exhibition to Visit Pratt Museum in September with a Focus on Art, Science, and Policy

Homer, Alaska (June 1, 2026)

The Pratt Museum Will Host a New Special Exhibition Curated by Dr. Katharine Owens Titled “Entangled & Ingested”.

The Pratt Museum’s new special exhibition will open in the Main Gallery on September 25, 2026 and be on display through the end of the year. In honor of the exhibit, the Pratt Museum will host an opening reception on Friday, October 2 from 4 – 6pm with light refreshments and free admission to all Museum galleries.

Entangled and Ingested is an exhibition featuring more than fifty pieces from multi-media artist Dr. Katharine Owens’ series of life-sized portraits of animals harmed by plastic pollution. Her work draws attention to the devastating impact of waste on ecosystems as well as individual species and challenges viewers to confront their role in a disposable culture while encouraging a reimagining of our relationship with waste.

Each piece is made from hand-sewing unrecyclable plastic onto canvas and features a species named in scientific literature as being harmed by plastic pollution. The animals serve as both victims and witnesses, offering a visual narrative of our shared vulnerability in the face of environmental collapse. Some of the smaller pieces were created by Dr. Owens, while the largest pieces have been collaboratively constructed during public sewing workshops with communities around the world.

About Dr. Katharine Owens As both a National Geographic Explorer and Fulbright Nehru fellow, Dr. Owens melds science and policy on the topic of plastic pollution in her art practice. She has researched water policy for over twenty years and worked on plastic pollution projects in places as varied as Connecticut, Kerala, India, and Svalbard int he Arctic Circle. Kat lectures, hosts collaborative sewing workshops, and exhibits her work all over the world. More information about Dr. Owens and the Entangled and Ingested Project is available at https://katowens.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 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/.

Special Exhibition “In a Time of Change: Boreal Echoes” Will be Mounted in the Main Gallery at the Pratt Museum

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New Special Exhibition Coming to the Pratt Museum in May 2026

Homer, Alaska (April 15, 2026) – Pratt Museum

Special Exhibition “In a Time of Change: Boreal Echoes” Will be Mounted in the Main Gallery at the Pratt Museum

The Pratt Museum’s new special exhibition, In a Time of Change: Boreal Echoes (Boreal Echoes), will be on display in the Main Gallery from May 15, 2026 through September 20, 2026. Boreal Echoes is a touring exhibit produced by the Alaska-based collaborative environmental arts-humanities-science program known as “In a Time of Change (ITOC)”. Boreal Echoes is the result of three years of learning, conversation, and experimentation by a cohort of artists who were inspired and informed by the boreal forest, the scientists who study it, and each other. Artists built relationships to the boreal biome and one another through outdoor field trips, scientific presentations, artist craft talks, and monthly group activities. The cohort then created original artworks sharing their collaborative and individual investigations, inspirations, and care about the boreal biome. The Boreal Echoes exhibition builds on In a Time of Change’s former project, Boreal Forest Stories, which was mounted at the Pratt Museum in 2023. 

Boreal Echoes is directed by Mary Beth Leigh and includes artwork by Susan Campbell, Alyssa Enriquez, Nancy Hausle-Johnson, Mary Bee Kaufman, Margo Klass, Jennifer Moss, Ree Nancarrow, Oralee Nudson, Teresa Shannon, Todd Sherman, Marianne Stolz, Connie Stricks, and Sara Tabbert. The artwork in the exhibit embraces many art mediums; from ceramics, moving sculptures, textiles, bookmaking, and much more. 

The Museum will host an Opening Reception on Friday, June 5 from 4-6pm, in collaboration with Homer’s monthly First Friday events. In addition, the Pratt will offer workshops and programs aligned with the exhibition’s themes, including free weekly Storytime programs in June, Scribble Sketching the Boreal Forest, and Animal Tracking and Journaling in the Boreal Forest, both presented by naturalist Kim McNett. To learn more about these events visit https://www.prattmuseum.org/events/ 

About In a Time of Change Arts – Humanities – Science Collaboration  Founded in 2007 by the Bonanza Creek Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) in Fairbanks, Alaska, the In a Time of Change (ITOC) program facilitates and produces collaborative arts-humanities-science exhibits and events focused on ecological themes important to Alaska. ITOC is part of a growing network of place-based, environmental arts-humanities-science programs across the U.S. and around the world. ITOC is directed by Mary Beth Leigh (University of Alaska Fairbanks). Lissy Goralnik (Michigan State University) leads research and evaluation of the program and John Smelter serves as curator and coordinator. Learn more by visiting their website at https://inatimeofchange.org/.

About the Pratt Museum The mission of the Pratt Museum is to strengthen relationships between people and place through stories relevant to Kachemak Bay. It fulfills its mission by facilitating engagement between community members and strengthening understandings of our shared place. Through these activities, the unique relationship between the people and places of Kachemak Bay will be sustained far into the future. The Museum is open Tuesday-Saturday from 11am to 4pm. Beginning May 5, 2026, the Museum will be open daily from 10am – 6pm. Visit the Pratt Museum at 379 Bartlett Street in Homer. Tel (907) 235-8635. More information is available at https://www.prattmuseum.org/.

Contact Whitney Harness, Executive Director, tel (907) 435-3333, email director@prattmuseum.org

New Special Exhibition “50 Years of Limited Entry: The Closing of Alaska’s Salmon Commons” Coming to the Pratt Museum in January 2026

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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

The Pratt Museum Hosts “World on Fire” by American Artist Geoffrey C. Smith

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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.