Arts and Culture in Alaska

Known as the Last Frontier, the state of Alaska and its backcountry wilderness do not immediately bring art and culture to mind. However, cities and communities support art and history museums as well as galleries. The main cities of Anchorage, Juneau, and Fairbanks manage to maintain performing arts calendars, though some ensembles may only perform two concerts per year, or may produce work for outdoor summer festivals. Native American culture thrives in Alaska, largely due to the 20 percent of the state’s population that identifies as Native American or of Native descent. Heritage centers, community museums, university libraries, visual art, handicrafts, folklore, and festivals recognize Alaska’s Native heritage. The three major groups of Alaska Natives are the Eskimo (sometimes referred to as the Inuit), the Aleut, and the Indian. HIGH ARTS   The sheer size of Alaska, and the distance required to travel between major cities, means that each region has its own cultural institutions in the areas of classical music, opera, and dance. TheAnchorage Symphony Orchestra, begun in 1946, performs classical and pops concerts at Atwood Concert Hall. The community-based Anchorage Civic Orchestra recently premiered Philip Munger’s compelling symphony, Hindu Kush. The Juneau Symphony consists of local musicians performing classical and educational concerts. The Fairbanks Symphony Orchestra performs in Charles W. Davis Concert Hall. In June, musicians from around the world perform at the three-week Sitka Summer Music Festival. Anchorage Opera is the state’s premiere company, presenting classic opera and musical theater. The ensemble’s Big Wild Chorus accompanies the productions. Juneau Lyric Opera produces operas, musicals, and choral works. Opera to Go is a Juneau-based company that tours the state performing opera. Founded in 1981, Alaska Dance Theatre is a 22-member troupe that performs work by resident and guest choreographers and has a repertoire than includes work by Balanchine and contemporary dances by Israel Gabriel, Minh Tran, Joan Woodbury, and others. The three-concert season includes an appearance by a visiting company. The ensemble is the resident dance company of downtown Anchorage’s Alaska Center for the Performing Arts. Anchorage’s new Pulse Dance Company premiered its modern, athletic work in May 2010. Dance Theatre Fairbanks performs a classical repertory at the Alaska Centennial Center for the Arts Theater in Pioneer Park. The New Archangel Dancers troupe highlights Russian folk dances in its professional productions at downtown Sitka’s Harrigan Centennial Hall. In Bethel, the Cama-i Dance Festival attracts traditional dancers from throughout Alaska to present diverse Native dances during the last weekend of March. Every July, the University of Alaska Fairbanks campus hosts the Fairbanks Summer Arts Festival of dance, music, visual art, opera, and ice skating. MUSEUMS Anchorage holds two significant art museums. The Alaska Native Heritage Center exhibits work and hosts performances that illuminate the lives and customs of Alaska’s Native people, comprised of 11 major cultural groups. Native games, song, dances, folklore, storytelling, artist demonstrations, and educational programs bring the diverse cultures to life. The Anchorage Museum at Rasmuson Center highlights Alaska’s art, history, science, and culture. The art galleries showcase contemporary and traditional Alaska Native art as well as traveling shows. As of May 2010, the museum expanded to include the Smithsonian Arctic Studies Center, Imaginarium Discovery Center, Thomas Planetarium, and ConocoPhillips Gallery. Juneau’s Alaska State Museum holds ethnographic galleries representing the contributions of the region’s Aleut, Eskimo, Athabaskan, and Northwest Coast tribes. In the Aleut gallery, a vivid collection of baskets is woven from thin strips of beach glass. The Athabaskan exhibit area includes masks, arrows, snowshoes, tools, and a 34-foot-long umiak, or boat. The Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian Indians are represented within a clan house-style room constructed of Sitka spruce. Additional galleries exhibit Russian American and American art and artifacts. The University of Alaska Museum of the North in Fairbanks has a dramatic space for exhibiting archaeological finds, cultural artifacts, Native art, contemporary sculpture, and handicrafts. Over one million objects span the prehistoric era to the present day. In the Rose Berry Alaska Art Gallery, paintings, photographs, ancient ivory carvings, contemporary art, and prominent Native American artwork are on view.  The Kenai Visitors and Cultural Center contains exhibits relevant to the region’s history and natural history. The display includes Captain Cook’s journals and a small collection of contemporary art. Kodiak’s Alutiiq Museum & Archaeological Repository contains 150,000 objects, including ancient artifacts that tell the story of the Alutiiq people.  The Sheldon Museum and Cultural Center in Haines has artifacts and memorabilia that reflect the Chilkat Valley’s singular blend of cultures. The Valdez Museum and Historical Archive hosts temporary shows of regional artists. The institution’s historical collections feature artifacts, textiles, photographs, and documents tracing the community’s history. In addition, museum staff have endeavored to collect personal narratives from locals about Valdez’s unique past, which includes the Gold Rush, the 1964 earthquake, the construction of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline, and the Valdez oil spill. Wasilla’s Dorothy G. Page Museum has historic and cultural displays. Visitors can travel through an old mine, winding toward the downstairs gallery.  MUSIC Alaska’s traditional music reflects its Native cultures as well as music by the state’s Irish, English, and Russian immigrants. Among the artists who identify themselves as traditional Alaskan musicians are Aleut flautist Mary Youngblood, folksinger Libby Roderick, and the Yupik ensemble Pamyua, which bases its songs on Inuit, Greenlandic, and Yupik chants. Over a century ago, French and Arcadian fur trappers ventured to Alaska, bringing fiddles and folk music traditions with them. They introduced the instruments to the Alaska interior’s Athabascan Indians, who combined the sounds with their traditional music. This unique music form has inspired theAthabascan Old-Time Fiddlers Festival in Fairbanks. Fiddlers converge for four days of concerts and events celebrating Alaskan heritage. The Anchorage Folk Festival spans two weeks in mid-January and brings together musicians, storytellers, dancers, and folk artists to present bluegrass, jazz, Celtic, folk, Klezmer, and American roots concerts. Juneau’s Alaska Folk Festival takes place every April, and features regional artists performing traditional, rock, classical, and jazz, as well as dance performances and workshops. Less traditional, theJuneau Jazz & Classics Festival spans nine days in May. Jazz, blues, and classical artists and bands from around the world perform in venues throughout Juneau. Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter Jewel, born in Utah, was raised in Homer. THEATER AND PERFORMING ARTS The main venue in Anchorage’s performing arts community is the Alaska Center for the Performing Arts, which hosts seasons by Alaska Dance Theatre, Alaska Junior Theater, Alaska Theatre of Youth, the Alaska Concert Association, the Anchorage Concert Chorus, the Anchorage Opera, the Anchorage Symphony, Whistling Swan Productions, and touring companies and productions. Anchorage also has a few theater groups. Cyrano’s Theatre Company, the resident theater company at Cyrano’s Off-Center Playhouse, performs a new play every month, featuring everything from Shakespeare to original productions. Anchorage Community Theatre, formed in 1953, has a five-play season of established dramas and comedies. Scared Scriptless Improv, a comedy improvisational theater troupe, tours Alaska and performs once a month at the Snow Goose Theatre. The highlight of Juneau’s theater scene is Juneau’s Perseverance Theatre, presenting professional theater that includes classical, contemporary, and world premiere plays. The ensemble also performs in the Beyond Heritage Native Festival. The Juneau Arts & Culture Center hosts regional performers.Theatre in the Rough has a brief season of Shakespeare plays. Fairbanks has a few small theater groups. The Fairbanks Shakespeare Theatre performs a brief season, and the Fairbanks Light Opera Theatre produces two musical theater pieces per year. TheFairbanks Drama Association and the Looking Glass Group Theatre organize the annual 8X10 Festival of New Alaskan Plays. The spring festival features rehearsed, staged readings of 10-minute plays at the Riverfront Theater. FILM The glaciers, mountains, and remote wilderness of Alaska provide dramatic backdrops for many films, beginning with Alaska Moving Picture Corp.’s silent film The Chechachos (1924). Other films with Alaska locations include the award-winning Inupiat language film Eskimo/Mala the Magnificent(1932), the psychological thriller Insomnia (2002), the drama White Fang (1991), John Sayles’ dramaLimbo (1999), and the adventure film Into the Wild (2007). Several other films feature Alaska as a theme, notably fugitive drama Runaway Train (1985), survival story The Edge (1997), gold rush story North to Alaska (1960), and adventure story Alaska (1996). Actor Ray Mala catapulted to fame with his performance in Eskimo/Mala the Magnificent, going on to perform in 25 films. The country’s first Native American cinema star performed in Cecile B. Demille’sUnion Pacific (1939) and worked as the cinematographer on Alfred Hitchock’s Shadow of a Doubt (1943). He was born in a small village called Candle, on the Seward Peninsula, where Captain Frank Kleinschmidt discovered the teenager while filming Primitive Love (1927). Other actors associated with Alaska include Irene Bedard, Tracy Dinwiddie, Michelle Johnson, Annie Parisse, and Kate Sheldon. For a taste of regional history and scenery, Anchorage’s Bear and Raven Adventure Theatrescreens locally produced movies about Alaska. LITERARY ARTS Among the writers associated with Alaska are Tlingit scholar Nora Marks Dauenhauer (b. 1927), Tlingit memoirist Ernestine Hayes (b. 1945), fantasy writer Megan Lindholm (b. 1952), poet Robert W. Service (1874–1958), 1995 Alaskan poet laureate Tom Sexton (b. 1940), science fiction writerDana Stabenow (b. 1952), and best-selling Athabascan novelist Velma Wallis (b. 1960). VISUAL ARTS Although born in Ohio, Fred Machetanz (1908–2002) made his way to Alaska in 1935 when visiting his uncle in Unalakleet. He returned later to settle in Alaska, where he wrote and illustrated adventure stories. After showing a series of artwork in Anchorage in 1962, Machetanz focused more attention on painting. He under-painted Masonite with blue and white, then applied transparent oil glazes in layers over it. His subject matter typically featured Romantic style Alaskan landscapes. A select list of artists who were born in or who worked in Alaska includes painter William D. Berry(1926–1979), nature photographer Michio Hoshino (1952–1996), painter Joan Arend Kickbush(1926–2006), Romantic landscape painter Sydney Laurence (1865–1940), Inupiat silversmith and sculptor Ronald Senungetuk (b. 1933), and cartoonist and printmaker Jamie Smith (b. 1965). ARCHITECTURE Filled with national parks, historic monuments, and archaeological sites representing ancient Native cultures, Alaska has surprisingly few noteworthy examples of architecture. Old West buffs may appreciate the saloons and frontier-style buildings in the Alaska Panhandle such as Skagway’s 1894 Mascot Saloon. Juneau’s Casey Shattuck neighborhood features examples of colonial, Tudor, and Italian Renaissance Revival homes. Also in Juneau, the St. Nicholas Russian Orthodox Church, built in 1894, has a gold dome. The interior has religious icons and paintings. Wrangell’s Chief Shakes Island features a group of carved totem poles and the Shakes Community House, in the style of a high-caste tribal house. On Flaxman Island, along Alaska’s Arctic coast, the Leffingwell Camp Site was the post of Ernest de Kovel Leffinwell, a geologist and polar explorer. Along the Canadian border, the Skagway Historic District and White Pass hold 100 structures from the Gold Rush era. Old Wasilla Townsite features a complex of historic structures, among them a 1917 one-room schoolhouse, Herning-Teeland-Mead House, a blacksmith shop, Paddy Marion cabin, Walter Trensch cabin, a bathhouse, Shorty Gustafson barn, and the Capitol Site building. Old Town Kenai holds elements of its Russian background, most notably the Holy Assumption of the Virgin Mary Russian Orthodox Church. The 1896 church has three onion-shaped domes and is a National Historic Landmark. HANDICRAFT AND FOLK ART Handicraft and folk art traditions thrive in Alaska, most of them reflecting Native American customs. Museums, cultural centers, heritage sites, concert halls, and festivals showcase traditional performing arts such as song, dance, and storytelling. Prominent craft traditions among the Northwest Coast Indian people include totem carving and a unique style of weaving that creates perfect circles on textiles. Chilkat blankets and robes made of goat wool and cedar bark feature these circular patterns. Aleut basket-weaving, typically tightly woven with fine fibers, often consist of ryegrass. The baskets usually fall into one of three styles: Attu, Atka, or Unalaska. Athabascan and Eskimo people form larger baskets made of willow root or birch bark. Beadwork shows up in Athabascan culture, where women create ornamental decorations on clothing and objects such as tools, jewelry, blankets, moccasins, boots, and quivers. Traditional beadwork uses seeds, shells, quills, and carved pieces of wood, while more modern beadwork incorporates glass beads. At the Midnight Sun Intertribal Powwow in Fairbanks, Alaska Natives, Native Americans, and First Nations people of Canada come together each July to sing songs, perform dances, spin stories, and share customs. In Ketchikan, the Great Alaskan Lumberjack Show highlights a different aspect of Alaskan culture, namely the state’s logging history. Athletes test their agility, strength, and stamina in categories such as sawing, chopping, logrolling, and speed climbing. Native traditions also show up in Alaska’s prominent art movements. The custom of woodcarving is shared by many Native Alaskan cultures, with artwork typically depicting spirits, animals, or places. TheTlingit woodcarving tradition has produced masterful details on totem poles. Tlingit custom includes placing a totem pole in front of the house to represent the mother’s clan. Totem poles may also chronicle a historic event, share a story, or pay tribute to a deceased family member or tribal chief. One of the best areas to see prime examples of totem carvings is in Ketchikan northward toward the Inside Passage. Galleries, parks, monuments, museums, and public spaces hold ancient totem poles.  At Sitka National Historic Park, a collection of totem poles lines the walking trail. At Ketchikan’s Totem Heritage Center, 33 totems from Haida and Tlingit villages are on view, making it the country’s largest collection. Ketchikan’s Totem Bight State Historic Park represents the results of a successful project undertaken by the U.S. Forest Service in 1938. Participants located old totem poles and salvaged, repaired, and reconstructed them. The Civilian Conservation Corps provided funding to hire old Native American carvers who created new totem poles. Ice sculpture is an interesting Alaskan art form. Fairbanks hosts the World Ice Art Championships, attracting 30 competitors from around the world. They spend the first two weeks of March crafting their sculptures, while the final two weeks feature festivities and viewings for the public. HISTORIC ART MOVEMENTS Alaska plays a major role in the evolving contemporary Native American art movement. While Native Alaskan art may draw upon traditional art and craft techniques or subject matter, as seen in the masks and totem poles by Michael Dangeli/Goothl T’similx (b. 1972), it may also break from tradition, as in the paintings of Celese Worl (b. 1957), which display traditional views through a contemporary lens.