Museums Alaska Announces 2024 Fieldwide Award Winners
Anchorage, Alaska – Museums Alaska, the statewide association for museums, announced the winners of their annual awards this year at their conference, held in Fairbanks from September 25-27, 2024.
Museums Alaska awards individuals, partners, or organizations in several categories for their outstanding work in, with, and for museums and cultural centers.
“Every year, we’re delighted to present our awards to amazing members of our museum and cultural center community,” said Dixie Clough, director of Museums Alaska. “We are always impressed with the amazing work of the volunteers, champions, and colleagues who are nominated, and this year was no exception.”
Museum Champions are people or organizations who perform amazing work in funding, advocacy, or other extraordinary contributions to museums and cultural centers. Those who win the Excellence in the Field award have shown their leadership in museums and cultural centers. The Outstanding Volunteer award goes to one of the amazing museum and cultural center volunteers in Alaska.
This year, the Outstanding Volunteer award went to Diana Wasson, a board member and volunteer of the Eagle Historical Society and Museum (EHS&M). Diana has been assisting EHS&M on a multi-year project to preserve and restore the St. Paul’s Mission church in Eagle. As part of this bigger project, in 2023 she applied for a Museums Alaska Collections Management Fund grant to contract with a conservator to perform a condition assessment, document, and clean two moosehide drapes and eight textiles on display in the historic church.
Diana dedicated a significant amount of her time and was a key part of the success of this project. She showed a great level of motivation and skill, and assisted in all components—from hosting the conservator in Eagle on two on-site visits, to assisting in collections care tasks. These tasks were outside her area of experience but she embraced the situation.
She also helped to organize the collections care presentations and community workshops, and was instrumental in involving the community in the project. Her enthusiasm and love of Eagle—its museums and history—is impressive.
“Eagle Historical Society and Museum is an entirely volunteer-run organization,” said Dixie Clough, director of Museums Alaska, “and in volunteer-run organizations, it takes a village, but you also need especially dedicated people to rally the group around important projects like this one. Diana went above and beyond to manage this project, and we couldn’t be more happy to present this award for her exceptional volunteer work.”
This year’s Museum Champion award went to Ron Inouye of Fairbanks, Alaska. Ron has volunteered on the board of the Friends of the University of Alaska Museum of the North (UAMN) every year since 1991, serving as the Friends of UAMN president since 2012. Ron’s genuine devotion, endless enthusiasm, unwavering reliability, and passion for knowledge have made him a cornerstone of our museum community. The Friends group played a major role in securing funding for the museum expansion in the early 2000’s which doubled the building’s size and transformed the ways the museum serves the public. Friends have hosted a giving challenge during holiday seasons since 2017. These contributions paired with community support have raised $217,000 for the museum’s most immediate needs.
Ron also serves as president of the Tanana-Yukon Historical Society, dedicated to sharing the history and continuing story of Fairbanks and Interior Alaska, volunteers for the Alaska Historical Society, dedicated to the promotion of Alaska’s history, and serves on the UAF Elmer E. Rasmuson Library’s Rare Book Endowment Committee.
Director Emerita of the UA Museum of the North Aldona Jonaitis noted in the nomination that, “Ron Inouye is devoted to the museum, and enthusiastically supports the myriad other organizations he works with. He is consistently optimistic, very hard working, and creative as he suggests new ideas that will help the museum. During the campaign for the museum expansion, he led the Friends of UA Museum of the North board to Juneau for discussions with legislators about the museum’s funding needs, which they allocated. He was thus very instrumental in helping finance the museum’s expansion.”
Susie Crevensten served as Friends of UAMN secretary for several years, stepping down in 2021. She reflects, “Ron was always a positive and patient leader. Working with him strengthened my understanding of how dedicated people work with museum collections. His ability to identify many possibilities for the museum kept us active and engaged. Never a dull moment!”
“Ron is able to see the big picture when others are more rooted in their local community,” says Angela Linn, UAMN Senior Collections Manager of Ethnology & History. “When our colleagues in Juneau were working to build the new Andrew P. Kashevaroff Building for the State Library, Archives, and Museum (SLAM), Ron was one of the state’s strongest advocates for getting full funding from the State Legislature. He knew that if those state divisions were strong and well cared for in a new facility, we would all benefit, and he was right! Ron taught many Alaska museum professionals how to be better advocates and how to communicate effectively and respectfully with our elected officials. He is a true supporter of the museum and history communities and we are all better off because of him.”
“Ron’s unbounding enthusiasm and support for the entire field – from the local level to the statewide level is unmatched,” said Dixie Clough, director of Museums Alaska. “His advocacy for museums, as well as his volunteer work, and generosity, have made an indelible impact on the field. He truly is a champion for us all.”
The final award, Excellence in the Field, was presented to the exhibition team of Mana: The History We Inherit.
Mana: The History We Inherit is a groundbreaking exhibit enriching our knowledge of Alaska’s heritage and history. The exhibit has a profound effect on Alaska’s cultural landscape, particularly how it reshapes the narrative around Filipino American history in the state. By illuminating stories seldom shared or forgotten, the exhibit fills a significant gap in historical record, contributing to a more inclusive, nuanced, and accurate portrait of the state’s history.
As a model of community-based curation, the exhibit brought together dozens of contributors from across Alaska. It was led by Tasha Elizarde, Shayne Nuesca, and Joshua Albeza Branstetter, with written contributions from Pearl-Grace Pantaleone and Matt Jardin, along with stories submitted by community members. The exhibit was made possible by generous donations from more than a dozen groups, including Filipino American community organizations uniting to uplift our elders.
The exhibit premiered at a poignant time in Alaska’s history: the first state-recognized Filipino American History Month. Aware of this momentous occasion, curators knew the exhibit called for celebration and deep community involvement. To do this, they leveraged social media and other digital platforms to build anticipation and excitement, and foster engagement with the community throughout the process. The result was a vibrant event attended by more than 1,500 community members from across Alaska celebrating intergenerational connection, Filipino culture, and showcasing Filipino artists and small businesses.
Mana: The History We Inherit was displayed at the Anchorage Museum from October 2023 through February 2024, but the exhibit’s influence extends beyond the walls of the museum. It has sparked conversations about the importance of centering communities and authentic relationships while preserving and sharing underrepresented stories. The exhibit’s success demonstrates a need for community-driven storytelling in cultural preservation efforts. Recognizing this, Tasha Elizarde, Shayne Nuesca, Joshua Albeza Branstetter, and Pearl-Grace Pantaleone officially established Mana as a media collective to ensure voices of Filipino Americans in Alaska are documented and shared for generations to come.
In July 2024, Mana presented its exhibit and approach to historical preservation in Houston, Texas after an invitation from the Filipino American National Historical Society to speak at its 20th biennial conference attended by nationally acclaimed historians, conservators, curators, and educators. They continue to preserve Filipino American history and plan to share the exhibit through Filipino community groups in Ketchikan and Fairbanks this year.
“We’re excited to present this award because it’s such a great example of a community curation project,” said Dixie Clough, director of Museums Alaska. “It takes a lot of passion and time to gather community stories and curate them for an exhibition. The team’s dedication to this work is outstanding.”
All of the awardees were announced at the conference and greeted with a rousing round of applause from the attendees.
