ASM Exhibitions & Events

Opens Friday, December 5, 4:30-7 pm

Now in its 55th year, Alaska Positive is a statewide juried photographic exhibition organized and toured by the Alaska State Museum. Its purpose is to encourage the practice of photography as an art form in Alaska. Alaska Positive opens Friday at the Alaska State Museum and runs through mid-March 2026. The exhibition will then travel to museums around the state.

Patrice Aphrodite Helmar is the juror for Alaska Positive 2025. Helmar’s photographic career began in Juneau working in their father’s small-town camera shop and darkroom. Their work has been shown at PARTICIPANT INC, the Jewish Museum, Ortega Y Gasset Projects, Gaa Gallery, the National Museum of Iceland and is in museum collections including the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York.

Helmar selected 37 photographs by 33 photographers for the exhibit. Overall, Alaskan photographers submitted 198 entries.

The top award, the Juror’s Choice Award, went to Katie Ione Craney of Fairbanks for a photograph titled what we carry in our pockets (for Jenny Irene). The Awards of Recognition went to Amber Johnson of Anchorage for Ice Studies #8018, a C-type print, and Petra Lisiecki of Anchorage for Real/Ethereal - The Swimmer, also a C-type print. Awards are sponsored by the Friends of the Alaska State Library, Archives, and Museum.

Left image: Amber Johnson, Ice Studies #8018, 2025. Right image: Petra Lisiecki, Real/Ethereal - The Swimmer, 2023.

A slideshow of The Best of Alaska Positive, comprised of award-winning photographs over the last 55 years, will be playing in an adjacent gallery.

Helmar gave a lecture at the Alaska State Museum on Tuesday, November 25. The event was recorded for later broadcast by 360TV in partnership with our local radio station KTOO. It will also be available on the museum’s website.

Final Photographs Selected for Alaska Positive 2025

Saturday, December 20, 10:30 am-12:30 pm
APK Classroom

Learn about the 10 Agents of Deterioration and use archivists' tools to create and decorate your own archival box.

Children in 4th grade need to be accompanied by an adult ready to actively participate. Space is limited, registration required.

This event is hosted by the Children's Exploration Center.

First & Third Saturday of the Month, 1:30-3:30 pm *NEW TIME*
Alaska State Museum

Join us for sketching in the gallery! Bring your own sketching materials. Graphite, colored pencils, pen, pastels, watercolor, and gouache are all ok.

For ages 15+. All are welcome. Donations accepted, free for FOSLAM members.

We’re planning to meet the first and third Saturday of the month at 1:30 pm, through April (except state holidays). Questions? Call 907-465-2901.

Sponsored by Friends of the Alaska State Library, Archives & Museum

November 7, 2025 – January 10, 2026
Part of the Alaska State Museum 2024-2026 Solo Artist Exhibition Series 

Continuing My Grandmother’s Legacy is an exhibition of works by Golga Oscar. Oscar is interested in the traditional and contemporary lifestyle of the Yup’ik culture. Through his knowledge of traditional art forms and sewing skills, he creates cultural attire that becomes a strong visual element in his photographic imagery. 

In Continuing My Grandmother’s Legacy, Oscar takes self-portraits wearing parkas, mukluks, and masks from the museum’s collection. Oscar explains that he uses photography to show “the concept of two worlds, Indigenous and Western identity, which tells a story about my art career and how it saved me despite Western influences.”

The exhibition features Oscar’s textile artwork, including Yup’ik headdresses and parkas, as well as ledger drawings and beaded/quillwork artwork. Oscar uses various techniques to create his work. He draws from Yup’ik methods and other methods influenced by Indigenous groups in North America.

Oscar was born and raised in the village of Kasigluk, near Bethel. He is a fluent Yup'ik speaker and is dedicated to keeping his culture and traditions alive and relevant by teaching the next generation about their language and art.

XX: Twenty Years of Alaskan Art is a new exhibition at the Alaska State Museum featuring the work of contemporary Alaskan artists. The exhibit opens Friday, March 1.

The museum acquired these pieces over the last twenty years though the generosity of the Rasmuson Foundation’s Alaska Art Fund.

Initiated in 2003, the Alaska Art Fund provides grants for Alaska museums to purchase current work by practicing Alaskan artists.

Thanks to the Fund, the Alaska State Museum has brought over 200 works of art valued at nearly half a million dollars into its permanent collection—the most significant donation over time, in terms of dollar value, in the museum’s 124-year history.

The Alaska Art Fund is managed by Museums Alaska and has donated over $6.7 million dollars to museums statewide for the purchase of art.