Come see what’s new in 2018! The annual recent acquisitions show in the lower level Art Gallery features contemporary Alaska art acquired through donations and the Rasmuson Foundation’s Art Acquisition Fund, as well as select donations in the areas, cultural history and natural sciences.
In conjunction with a site-specific installation by local artist Lynn Marie Naden, the Pratt Museum is excited to host the ROOT International Mail Art Exhibit. We are rooting out participants!
Artists from across Alaska and around the globe are invited to mail original artwork via U.S. Postal Service, on the theme of Roots. All works are considered a donation and will be auctioned for the Pratt Museum (a tap root of our community) at the December 30 closing, with starting bids set at the cost of postage.
The root of Mail Art is attributed to the New York artist, Ray Johnson, correspondence artist founder (Oct. 1927-Jan. 1995).
November 3 – December 30, 2017
Lynn Naden’s “ROOT” will be a multi-component installation in the Pratt’s Special Exhibits Gallery. ROOT explores interconnections and ancestry. The central structure will be built up from strips of paper containing community-sources perspectives on roots. Visit the Pratt Museum to contribute your own story and be part of this multilayered installation.
As John Muir once stated, “When you tug at a root, you’ll find that everything else is connected.”
Following its premiere at the Pratt Museum, ROOT will also travel to Naden’s ancestral homes: Central California and Serbia.
In anticipation of Ritz Noir – A Night at the Museum, visit the lower galleries and mezzanine of the Pratt to previous artworks which will be up for auction. Additional artworks, items, and experience packages will be available at the event on October 21st!
Exploring maps, wayfinding, and related artworks from the Pratt Museum collections, along with recent geospatial and interactive products of Kachemak Bay.
Opening reception: Friday, August 4, 5-7 p.m.
The Art Gallery currently features “Jubilee Festival of Student Art.” This annual exhibit features works by Kachemak Bay’s budding artists. The 2017 show includes works from students at McNeil Canyon, Fireweed Academy, Paul Banks and West Homer Elementary Schools, as well as Chapman School.
In July of 2015, David Rosenthal was artist-in-residence for Katmai National Park. Oil and watercolor works and studies from the ten-day research expedition, as well as images and background to the scientific surveys, draw viewers into the landscape and ecology of one of our nearest national parks.
Opening reception: Friday, June 2, 5-7 p.m.
The Kachemak dialect of the Dena’ina language now only exists in fragments of historical records. Contemporary descendants, many of whom are lineally affiliated to the Ninilchik and Seldovia tribes, reflect the rapid cultural diffusion as diverse Native and non-Native cultures have contributed elements into local family traditions. This lack of cultural continuity, compounded by a lack of academic attention and public discourse, have left a significant gap in public understanding of the Dena’ina language and related issues particular to the Southern Kenai region.
Qena Sint’isis presents a unique form of cultural expression that describes a new take on the indigenous culture of the southern Kenai Peninsula using the universal experience of language. This visual representation of the Dena’ina language will convey the importance of people’s relationships with all language, and how cultural information can be found within visual language. The goals of this program series and its future applications are to both share information about the Dena’ina language using visual elements, to share information about traditional Dena’ina culture, and to encourage people to explore language through the lens of a different writing system in order to experience how cultural information can be transformed in front of their eyes.
Opening reception Friday, April 7, 5-7 p.m.
Special Presentation: Seeing Language: Writing in Art & Design with graphic designer Erico Nascimento. Friday, May 5, 2pm.
Funded in part by The CIRI Foundation, Ninilchik Traditional Council, Ninilchik Natives Association Inc., Alaska State Council on the Arts, National Endowment for the Arts, and City of Homer.
Featuring five full-size art bikes exhibited together for the first time.
Don Henry began doing metal art in the early sixties. He entered his first competition in 1966 and took Best of Show. He moved to Alaska in 1974 and then to Homer in 1984.
Don has donated many pieces to benefit local non-profits and has work in the Bunnell St. Gallery and the Fireweed Gallery, both in Homer, Alaska. You can also find some of his pieces in prominent public places such as the Pratt Museum, the Homer Airport, Homer City Hall, Homer Public Library, and various parks and at the Public Works department.
He has shown works at the International Gallery of Contemporary Art and the House of Harley in Anchorage as well as the Cabin Fever Gallery in Anchorage and at the Capitol Building in Juneau.
His unique art has been featured in the Homer Tribune, Homer News and on KTUU Channel 2 News (NBC). Commissioned pieces are in private collections and public facilities in California, Louisiana, Alaska and Montana.
Bikes by the Bay will be open to the public on Feburary 1, with an official opening reception on Friday, February 3 from 5-7 p.m.
Have you ever kept a diary or journal? Had the opportunity to peruse the personal writing of your ancestors? Several diaries and journals are held in the collections of the Pratt Museum: their stories range from weather reports and moose sightings to extended narrative and personal reflection. Often the written word leaves much to be imagined, and could serve as a jumping-off point for something more.
The Pratt Museum is excited to present Inspired by Diaries, featuring artwork inspired by personal and historical diaries. Also on exhibit will be numerous excerpts and original historical diaries from the Pratt Collections.