Access to Alaska Native Collections
This grant program facilitates research visits to museum collections storage in Alaska.
Created in 2023, this initiative invites Alaska Native artists to propose visits to participating museums that have clear benefits to the development of their work.
Over the last few centuries, countless Alaska Native belongings have been taken from Tribes through archeological digs, anthropological studies, coercive or illegitimate purchases, and theft. Many of these belongings are now stored in museums around the world.
It is our hope that relationships between Tribes and museums will continue to grow and lead to more repatriation and long-term care and access agreements, but that may be a very long process. In the meantime, it is important to provide access to Alaska Native collections, so that today's artists and culture bearers can learn from and continue traditional cultural art practices.
The largest barrier preventing artists from visiting these collections is travel expenses. It can cost thousands of dollars to travel to museums anywhere—even here in Alaska. This is why, when The CIRI Foundation approached us to create a grant program that covers travel costs for visits, we were honored to have the chance to manage it.
During our second cycle the program was able to provide even more grants thanks to the Henry Luce Foundation supporting the program.
The program is made possible through funding from The CIRI Foundation’s A Journey to What Matters: Increased Alaska Native Art & Culture (JWM) and the Henry Luce Foundation’s Indigenous Knowledge program. The program is administered by Museums Alaska, and all inquiries should be directed to Museums Alaska.
This program builds connections between Alaska Native artists and museums & cultural centers and provides more equitable access to Alaska Native belongings.
By paying the travel costs of visiting Alaska Native collections, the program removes the largest barrier preventing Alaska Native artists and culture bearers from visiting and learning from their ancestors’ work in museums.
All applicants must be Alaska Native artists living in Alaska.
Museums Alaska invites applications from Alaska Native artists creating tangible art.
Limited to Alaska Native artists currently living in Alaska who create visual, tangible art (jewelry, clothing, instruments, tools, boats, carvings, paintings, etc.).
The grant covers all travel costs for the collections visit, including flights, ferries, mileage, per diem, lodging, parking, taxis, and family care needs.
Grant Cycles:
- Open date: TBD
- Deadline: TBD
- Application Draft Review Deadline: TBD
- Funding Disbursement: TBD
- Deadline to complete museum visit: TBD
Participating Museums
These are the museums in Alaska that are participating in the current cycle of the grant and can host visits.
Alaska Native Heritage Center - Anchorage
- Please find a brief description of their collections below. If you think they may have a collection you’d like to visit, but would like more information, please contact Angie Demma (907-330-8067).
- The Alaska Native Heritage Center cares for a collection that reflects Alaska Native cultural groups from all five regions of the state. The permanent collection accounts for about 3,000 objects, archives, library books, and photographs. Most recently, over 1,700 cultural belongings were gifted to the Center after the closing of the Wells Fargo Museum. The objects and belongings include fine art, utilitarian objects and tools, regalia, watercraft, instruments, historical photographs, the Institute of Alaska Native arts archival files and photos, and library materials.
- The education collection consists of about 500 objects and will be used up in the course of its life. It includes regalia and objects that are handled at the life-size village sites that are interpreted at the point of contact with Europeans.
Alaska State Museum - Juneau
Please use their online collections search to find collections items that you may like to visit. If you have any questions or would like more information, please contact Steve Henrickson and Adriana Botelho Alvarez (907-465-4826).
Anchorage Museum - Anchorage
Please use their online collections search to find collections items that you may like to visit. They have also provided a brief description below. If you have any questions or would like more information, please contact Monica Shah (907-929-9240).
Historical photographs include images from the late 19th century to today.
The art collection represents a survey of visual arts in Alaska from the 18th century to the present, with a strong collection of contemporary Indigenous art.
The largest component of the heritage items are cultural belongings of Athabascan, Inupiaq, Yup’ik, St. Lawrence Island Yupik, Sugpiaq, Unangan, Tlingit, Tsimshian, and Haida peoples.
You may also request to view the collection on loan from the Smithsonian, which is featured in the Living Our Cultures exhibition.
Library resources include books, maps, periodicals, Alaska artist files, and subject vertical files that include a variety of ephemera related to Alaska.
Cordova Historical Museum - Cordova
Please use their online collections search to find collections items that you may like to visit. If you have any questions or would like more information, please contact Denis Keogh (907-424-6555).
Haines Sheldon Museum - Haines
Click here to read a brief description of their collections. They also provided some additional information below. If you think they may have a collection you’d like to visit, but would like more information, please contact Zack James (907-766-2366).
In terms of rare pieces of art and items of cultural matrimony, we primarily steward Tlingit objects. This includes carvings, bentwood boxes, many miniature totems, a significant number of spruce root basketry pieces including 20 gallon plus bags. There are several hundred pieces of hide and bead work as well, and 288 pieces of ivory, mostly art, and mostly collected from various places in Western Alaska around the year 1900.
Click here to see a list of catalog records related to the search term “Tlingit’. It’s not a comprehensive list and omits objects of unknown or non-Tlingit manufacture. If you have questions, or would like more information, please contact Zack.
Ketchikan Museums (includes the Tongass Historical Museum and the Totem Heritage Center) - Ketchikan
Click here to read a brief description of their collections. If you think they may have a collection you’d like to visit, but would like more information, please contact Hayley Chambers (907- 228-5708).
Museum of the Aleutians - Unalaska
Click here to read a brief description of their collections. If you think they may have a collection you’d like to visit, but would like more information, please contact Joselle Hale (907-581-5150).
Sealaska Heritage Institute - Juneau
Please use their online collections search to find collections items that you may like to visit. If you have any questions or would like more information, please contact Emily Galgano.
University of Alaska Museum of the North - Fairbanks
Please use their online collections search to find collections items that you may like to visit. If you have any questions or would like more information, please contact Angela Linn (907-474-1828).
Thank you to our sponsors! Your support is increasing essential access to cultural collections.
