Arts Gathering
Summer, with its superlong days and mild temperatures, is the best time to visit Fairbanks. But for art lovers, the last two weeks in July are the most attractive. Since 1980, the Fairbanks Summer Arts Festival has brought a wealth of arts experiences to Alaska’s second-largest city.
The festival features events, demonstrations, exhibitions and performances in a wide range of artistic disciplines and media. Visitors can see theater and comedy troupe shows; hear brass, roots, jazz, gospel, classical, opera and other types of musical performances; attend demonstrations by chefs and culinary arts instructors; and learn about massage, tai chi, Pilates and other healing arts.
In addition to the exhibitions and performances, the festival offers visitors the opportunity to attend workshops and classes put on by featured performers. The workshops range from two hours to two weeks in length and can include topics as diverse as sushi-making, glass fusion and food-and-beer pairing.
Art on a Tree
Many of the tribes in the Pacific Northwest have a long history of carving totem poles, artistic and traditional works in the trunks of tall trees that become icons of their areas. The Totem Heritage Center in Ketchikan gives visitors an opportunity to appreciate totems from various native Alaskan groups.
The growth of non-native settlements in southeast Alaska in the early 1900s drove many native tribes out of the area; they left behind their villages and totem poles, which soon became overgrown and eroded. The heritage center was established in 1976 to preserve a number of 19th-century totems found in uninhabited Tlingit and Haida villages near Ketchikan.
Visitors to the center can find a variety of these large cedar-carved poles, some of which tower dozens of feet. The museum also showcases other traditional art forms of area natives and offers arts classes and workshops to visitors.
Alaska Meets Russia
Three cultures meet in Kodiak, where modern American influences encounter native Alaskan traditions and customs brought from nearby Russia. Groups can explore all three cultures with a visit to the Baranov Museum.
The museum is located in a 200-year-old National Historic Landmark building called the Russian American Magazin, also known as the Erskine House. The original two-story log structure was built in 1808 by Russian colonists in Alaska that had made Kodiak Island a base for fur-trapping expeditions. Today, the expanded building houses a number of exhibits dealing with the Russian colonial period and other elements of the area’s history.
The museum has significant exhibits detailing native Alaskan history and art as well. Visitors will see artifacts from the 18th- and 19th-century Alutiiq and Aleut groups, among them ceremonial objects. Also on display are selections from the museum’s 500-piece collection of Alaskan art, which includes paintings, sculpture, scrimshaw, carvings and other work by noted Alaskan artists.
