After nearly three years of traveling, the exhibit Decolonizing Alaska, which opened in Homer in August, 2016, ends its tour in Anchorage in February, 2019.
Here’s the final Decolonizing Alaska tour calendar:
Homer: 8/5 – 8/31/16, Bunnell Street Arts Center
Valdez: 9/16 – 10/23/16, Valdez Historical and Fine Arts Museum
Washington DC: 2/3 – 3/18/17, Corcoran School of Arts and Design at George Washington University
Juneau: 5/5 – 10/14/17, Alaska State Museum
Ketchikan: 11/4 – 12/22/17, Ketchikan Arts and Humanities Council
Fairbanks: 2/10/18-9/30/18, The UA Museum of the North
Petersburg: 11/2-30/18, Petersburg Library and Clausen Memorial Museum
New locations for the exhibit tour have opened up along the way. What I’ve learned from this project centers on adaptation and resilience. The most recent development in Anchorage follows the cancellation of a long-planned final stop at the Center for Contemporary Art + Culture. Its unfortunate that this important institution in Portland lost space downtown. Nevertheless, the fact that so many of Alaska’s communities elected to participate can only be understood as a movement to decolonize Alaska.
The project has shaped Bunnell Street Arts Center. In our leadership and programs, from exhibits to performances, residencies and Artist in Schools, we are changed. Bunnell’s strategic plan now places equity and inclusion alongside excellence at the top of our goals. I am convinced that true decolonization begins in our homes and schools, in how we tell our stories, in how we meet each other. Central to this work, last year Bunnell co-commissioned
ALAXSXA | ALASKA,
a theatrical collage of striking contemporary and historical encounters between Indigenous Alaska Native communities and newcomers to the Great Land. As this play tours Alaska in 2018, engaging a host of new partners and as it is shared in Anchorage and Nanwalek, in Homer and shared again at
Elders and Youth* prior to Alaska Federation of Natives in Anchorage, the work continues!
Asia Freeman
Artistic Director
Bunnell Street Arts Center
Decolonizing Alaska is made possible with support from the National Endowment for the Arts, The CIRI Foundation, Rasmuson Foundation, The Harper Arts Touring Fund administered by Alaska State Council on the Arts, Pratt Museum, Leonard Hyde, Penny Pederson, Valdez Museum and Historical Archive, George Washington University, Anchorage Museum, Alutiiq Museum and Archeological Repository, Alaska State Museum, Ketchikan Arts and Humanities Council, UA Museum of the North, Petersburg Library and Clausen Memorial Museum and University of Alaska Anchorage.
I would also like to recognize our ALAXSXA/ALASKA partners, Ping Chong + Company, National Performance Network, Juneau Arts and Humanities Council, University of Alaska Anchorage, La Mama Experimental Theater, New England Foundation for the Arts, Cook Inlet Housing Authority, The CIRI Foundation, Alaska State Council on the Arts, Rasmuson Foundation, Anchorage Concert Association, The Calista Corporation, Nanwalek Tribal Council, Chugachmiut, Inc, and First Alaskans
