Bering Sea Storms: Past to Present Exhibition to Show at Pratt Museum

Homer, Alaska (December 17, 2024)

The Pratt Museum will host “Bering Sea Storms: Past to Present” Exhibition with Panels and Videos Featuring the Aleutian Environment, Indigenous culture, and Aleutian Island Storm History

The Pratt Museum’s first special exhibition of the year will open in the Main Gallery on January 10, 2025 and be on display through May 16, 2025. A First Friday opening reception will be held at the Museum on Friday, February 7, 2025 from 4:30-6:30pm.

In 2022, a group of scientists as well as local youth, elders, and stakeholders participated in a research trip transiting the Aleutian Islands to study Bearing Sea storminess, gathering data to help further understand the historic record of extreme storm events. The goal of the project was to help communities plan for future storm scenarios that may result from rapid climate change. Bering Sea Storms: Past to Present highlights the research collected and the way that scientists and Indigenous Alaskans worked together.

The entire project, including the exhibition, was funded by the National Science Foundation. The month-long voyage was led by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, with scientists from the University of Alaska Fairbanks and University of North Carolina Wilmington. The Qawalangin Tribe of Unalaska assisted with fieldwork planning and outreach, and two tribal Culture Bearers joined the cruise as well. The Museum of the Aleutians in Unalaska unveiled the exhibition, and it was mounted there through mid-September 2024.

Exhibit & Project Contact Dr. Chris Maio, Director Arctic Coastal Geoscience Lab, Associate Professor Coastal Geography, University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute, (907) 474-5651, cvmaio@alaska.edu, https://acgl.community.uaf.edu/

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 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, Visitor Services, Store and Communications Manager, tel (907) 435-3328, email wharness@prattmuseum.org

Download a PDF of this press release, here.