PRATT MUSEUM

Entangled: Exploring Natural History Collections from Kachemak Bay

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The Pratt Museum reopened on Thursday, July 9, with a new special exhibit: Entangled: Exploring natural history collections from Kachemak Bay. 

“This exhibit allows us to share some of our favorite things from the Pratt’s permanent collections that you may have never seen before,” said Curator Savanna Bradley, “and hopefully inspires everyone to share or contemplate their own collection stories.”

Entangled brings together artistic whimsy and the study of natural history. The family-friendly exhibit invites museum-goers to consider and question the origins of natural history collecting for individuals and museums in the Western tradition over time. It also explores how our baseline understandings, such as how we practice culture and what we notice about our environment, are shifting. The exhibit was co-curated by Pratt Museum Naturalist-in-Residence Marilyn Sigman and Curator Savanna Bradley and draws from the permanent collections of the Pratt Museum.

The Pratt Museum is offering a variety of virtual and in-person summer programming around the theme of Collecting, including First Friday programs, participatory Zoom events, and a radio series. For more information, see the Events calendar, contact the museum, or visit our social media.

“We are excited to reopen our doors to the community with this exhibit, and we are so grateful for the support and patience of our members, friends, and guests,” said Pratt Museum Executive Director, Jennifer Gibbins. “We hope to inspire visitors of all ages to continue to be curious about the natural world and to enjoy learning, sharing stories, and connecting with others.”

#MuseumFromHome: Download these two coloring pages to enjoy Entangled from your own home!

Entangled will be on display at the Pratt Museum July 9 – September 26.

Jubilee Festival of Student Art

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The Pratt Museum is partnering with Homer Council on the Arts to present the 2020 Jubilee Festival of Student Art! Student works submitted through HCOA’s office will be distributed between HCOA and the Pratt. View the amazing work that our community’s youth are creating at both locations!

Denali: Artists Respond to Composers

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February 4 – May 25, 2020

DENALI Artists Respond to Music Inspired by Wilderness was conceived at the confluence of two languages-music and visual art. Elements Artist Group, six artists anchored in Alaska, created eighteen pieces of art in collaboration with nine composers from Composing in the Wilderness 2017. Each piece of art is a personal response to a musical composition. Composers from Denali National Park’s Composing in the Wilderness program shared their music scores, ideas, and information about specific locations that kindled their inspiration. Elements artists have all experience the transformative potency of living, working, traveling, or being an Artist in Residence in Denali Park. Their connections to this rare wilderness, alon with knowledge of specific places influence their responses–the colors, textures, shapes, and images they chose.

Each visual work in the show is accompanied by a musical score and QR link to audio of the composition by which it was inspired.

Kathy Smith: Rivers of Ice

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October 4 – December 28, 2019

Kathy 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.

All Alaska Biennial

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“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.

Landfalls

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Dedications to Alaskan Women Writers and Storytellers

“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.

Dirigibles of Denali by Nathan Shafer

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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.

Kachemak 2068

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May 4 – July 1, 2018

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 by Sharlene Cline

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May 4 – July 1, 2018

“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.