Pratt Museum
October 4 – December 28, 2019Kathy Smith is a painter and a long time resident of Homer, Alaska. She can see Grewingk Glacier from her house, and has been watching glaciers retreat since visiting Portage Glacier as a child. Her new paintings are a record of visits to various glaciers in Alaska, and a testament to the effects of a changing climate on the northern landscape. Her work is represented in the Pratt Museum’s permanent collection.
“Grandma” by Christopher Judd. Oil on Linen, 5′ x 3′. All Alaska Biennial, Honorable Mention
All-Alaska Biennial features contemporary work by Alaska artists. This juried exhibition is a continuation of the museum’s All-Alaska Juried and Earth, Fire & Fibre exhibitions, which began more than 30 years ago to encourage creation of new works in all media by Alaska artists. Guest juror Candice Hopkins is a citizen of Carcross/Tagish First Nation in Yukon, Canada, and is an independent curator and writer based in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
The exhibition’s call for entries drew 634 submissions from 161 artists. Works include drawing, painting, mixed media, craft, jewelry, fiber art, visual art, metalsmithing, printmaking, encaustic, ceramic, book/paper arts, photography and sculpture.
Hopkins selected Anchorage artist Kristy Summers’ mixed-media piece Descend for the Juror’s Choice Award, with honorable mentions going to Anchorage artist Christopher Judd’s oil on linen on board painting, Grandma; and Anchorage photographer Mark Stadsklev’s photography giclée print No Way Out. The exhibition opened in Anchorage and travels to other Alaska locations throughout Fall 2019.
All Alaska Biennial is organized by The Anchorage Museum at Rasmuson Center. Support for this traveling exhibition has been made possible with the support of: Alaska State Council on the Arts, a federal Agency; the Municipality of Anchorage, the Anchorage Museum Association and the Anchorage Museum Foundation Alaska Airlines Silver Anniversary Fund.
“With it, we are joined, and continue” Joan Naviyuk Kane. Found images, photographs, blueberry-dyed paper and gauze, fish leather, and encaustic on hand-cut scrap metal Words from her poem, “Anchorage,” in The Cormorant Hunter’s Wife. 8″ x 10″
How do we know, relate to, and narrate the complexities of living in the North? What words resonate with us when we talk, hear, or read about the place we call home? What sparks us to learn more, change our behavior, and show empathy towards a place and its people? These questions inspired Haines artist Katie Ione Craney to create a new series of work based on deciphering the roles of women within the literary and physical landscape.
Opening reception: Friday, August 3, 5-7 p.m.
April 6 – 29, 2018
Select artwork from Kachemak Bay area K-12 students! Get inspired by what our amazing young people are creating!
July 6 – September 18, 2018
Dirigibles of Denali is an augmented reality app/interactive print project reimagining three domed cities that were planned, but never built in Alaska: Seward’s Success, Denali City and Arctic Town. All three domed cities will be virtually constructed on location in Alaska, using mobile augmented reality technology (overlaying virtual information on the real world), creating site-specific, digitally tangible environments using the original historic city plans. In situ, high-resolution images of these three pieces of site-specific augmented reality and a collected anthology of commissioned alternate history stories written by contemporary Alaskan authors will form the basis of the interactive book and museum show, where the works can be activated using target-based augmented reality.
Pratt Museum has been a cornerstone of Homer and Kachemak Bay for fifty years. What might the next half-century hold? What will Kachemak Bay look like, and what might the museum seek to collect? A combination of “future visions” and samples from private collections from the region will explore the future of both the community and the museum on its centennial of 2068.
This program is supported in part by a Grant-In-Aid from the Alaska State Museum, Alaska State Council on the Arts, National Endowment for the Arts, and City of Homer.
“Ties Us Together” seeks to mend the divisions in our community by exploring the similarities of Homer’s people.
Working from community-sourced themes, Sharlene Cline weaves current and historical perspectives on the activities that tie us together as a community. Historical photos from the Pratt collection, collaged with original painting, fabric, and decorative paper will weave the past and present. Local mementos, memories, and K-12 sourced artworks will weave into the site-specific installation.
This program is supported in part by a Grant-In-Aid from the Alaska State Museum, Alaska State Council on the Arts, National Endowment for the Arts, and City of Homer.
The Pratt Museum’s current and former Collections Department staff collaborate to create an exhibit based on each curator’s “favorite things.” This retrospective exhibit highlights items in storage that visitors may not see often, gives some insight into the role and nature of the museum’s collections, and invites visitors to think about what they value as individuals and, collectively, as a community.
This retrospective look at the Pratt Museum’s collections will also be a springboard to discuss the collection moving into the future.
Stay tuned for a schedule of community conversations, workshops, a call for art, and curricula in local K-12 schools!
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).