Fridays, 12–1pm online
Cold Mountain Path by Tom Kizzia; Katrina Noble (Cover Design by); Kristin Link (Illustrator)
ISBN: 1736755811
Publication Date: 2021-10-05
There's No Through Trail ... We all have ghost towns. Impermanent places we dream of returning to. Here was Alaska's. In 1938, the last copper train left the Wrangell Mountains. But the spirit of the old days-free-wheeling, self-reliant, bounty-blessed-lived on in the remote town of McCarthy. The valley's few holdouts were joined over time by a gallery of prospectors, grifters, back-to-the-landers, dreamers, escape artists, hippies, speculators, preachers, and outlaws. While the rest of Alaska boomed in the new oil age, an old and makeshift way of life persisted against the quiet undertow of the past, that ebbing toward the wilderness that was here before us. Then the modern world found its way back in. A road, a bridge, a national park. A mass shooting that left six dead. Cold Mountain Path is a deeply American saga of renunciation and renewal-a rollicking local history that is also a lyrical exploration of time, loss, and change ... and a pulsating account of the morning that brought Alaska's ghost town decades to an end. Register for Virtual Alaska Story Hour for Adults.
Gail Priday
Solo Exhibition
December 2, 2022 - February 2, 2023
Artist Gail Priday finds inspiration from the natural world, specifically the boreal forest. Her solo exhibition, Up Close and Under Foot, includes 33 paintings that depict “ever-changing treasures up-close and underfoot.”
She came to Alaska from the East Coast more than a decade ago and was immediately drawn to the forest floor.
“I knew I would love the mountains and expansive sky, but I did not expect to be so taken with the underbrush and fungus,” Priday explains. “The easily overlooked features of the landscape hold great significance to me. They suggest an extraordinary and active world that exists quietly beside my own.”
In her paintings, she combines elements of realism and imagination to portray fungus, lichen, leaves, and other life in the understory.
The exhibit opens at the Alaska State Museum in Juneau on Friday, December 2, 4:30–7:00 pm and runs through February 2, 2023.
Gail Priday is one of six artists selected for the Alaska State Museum 2020-2023 Solo Artist Exhibition Series, along with artists Ben Huff, Sonya Kelliher-Combs, Alison Bremner Nax̲shag̲eit, Jannah Sexton-Atkins, and Mitch Watley.
Image credit: Gail Priday, "A Soft White Morning," acrylic on canvas, 2022
Jannah Sexton Atkins
Prayer Makers - Ecological Relics
February 3, 2023
Using found and recycled objects combined with hand-drawn and sculpted elements, artist Jannah Sexton Atkins assembles works that contemplate society’s connection to nature.
The Marker Series chronicles "humanity’s impact on Earth’s complex natural ecosystems by exponentially disrupting the elegant inter-relational web of organic life forms and their natural sustainable habitat critical for life itself.”
Each of the 20 Prayer Markers in the exhibition includes a portrait of an insect, bird, fish or plant. Sexton Atkins playfully combines these portraits with salvaged, societal waste. The resulting Markers encourage connection and responsibility to our planet.
The exhibit opens Friday, February 3, 4:30–7:00 pm. The artist will give a talk about her work at 6:30 pm in the APK lecture hall. The exhibit runs through April 8, 2023.
Jannah is one of six artists selected for the Alaska State Museum 2020-2023 Solo Artist Exhibition Series along with artists Alison Bremner Naxshageit, Ben Huff, Sonya Kelliher-Combs, Gail Priday, and Mitch Watley.
Image credit: Jannah Sexton Atkins, Prayer Marker - Wake for the Wetlands, mixed media assemblage, found objects.
Stop by for February First Friday!
The Alaska State Museum is open with FREE admission for First Friday from 4:30-7:00pm.
See the new exhibition "Prayer Markers - Ecological Relics," an exhibition of works by artist Jannah Sexton Atkins. Using found and recycled objects combined with hand-drawn and sculpted elements, Sexton Atkins assembles works that contemplate society’s connection to nature. The exhibit opens Friday, February3, 4:30–7:00 pm. The artist will give a talk about her work at 6:30 pm in theAPK lecture hall. The exhibit runs through April 8, 2023.
Join us for a special performance at APK!
Con Brio Chamber Series and the Friends of the State Library, Archives and Museum present Music for Flute on Saturday, February 11, 2023 at 2pm at the APK Atrium. This concert features flutist Sally Schlichting performing music of Bach, Verdi, Takemitsu and Mozart. She will be joined by pianist Sue Kazama, and Elena Levi, violin, Meg Rosson, viola, and Ben Holtz, cello.
The one-hour performance is pay-as-you-can. For more information contact conbriochamberseries@gmail.com.
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