Anchorage Museum of History and Art
The Anchorage Museum is a large art, history, ethnography, ecology and science museum located in a modern building in the heart of Anchorage, Alaska. It is dedicated to studying and exploring the land, peoples, art and history of Alaska.
The museum displays material from its permanent collection, along with regular visiting exhibitions.
The museum opened in 1968 in a 10,000-square-foot (930 m2) building with an exhibition of 60 borrowed Alaska paintings, a collection of 2500 historic and ethnographic objects, and a staff of two. The museum has grown steadily and expanded three times since then, most recently in 2010, to its current size of 170,000 square feet (16,000 m2) with a collection of 25,000 objects and 500,000 historic photographs, and a staff of more than 50. First accredited in 1973, the museum has maintained its accreditation since. In 1992, the museum became the home for the Alaska office of the Smithsonian's NMNH Arctic Studies Center, which supports the museum's mission through research, education, and exhibitions.
The Anchorage Museum is "a world-class museum located in the heart of Alaska's largest city". It welcomes over 180,000 annual visitors from Alaska and from around the world and serves as a cultural center for the community. The museum is repeatedly ranked among Alaska's top ten visitor attractions. Each year it presents 16–20 changing exhibitions complemented by education programs and activities. In 2006, 20,993 students and 47,836 adults participated in education programs.
Permanent exhibits include an Alaska history gallery, Alaska art galleries, the Imaginarium Discovery Center science galleries and the Smithsonian Arctic Studies Center, which features Alaska Native artifacts on long-term loan from the Smithsonian Institution.
The museum's library/archives are in frequent demand by publishers, scholars, and other researchers for its information and images. Titles held in the Library are accessible to students, scholars and the public via interlibrary loan on the web.
The Smithsonian Institution's Arctic Studies Center conducts public programs and collaborative research programs to increase understanding of northern peoples, cultures and environments. It develops exhibitions and offers professional museum training workshops frequented by museum and cultural center personnel from across the state.
The museum serves its statewide mission by organizing and presenting programs and exhibitions in Anchorage, as well as by traveling exhibitions throughout the state. Examples include exhibits shared with museums in Unalaska, Bethel, Homer, Ketchikan, Kenai, Fairbanks, Kodiak, Eek and Juneau.
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