Saturday, May 25, 2013

News
Anchorage Museum Shows "New Acquisitions"
Alaska art from private donations now on display
By Lauren Maxwell
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ANCHORAGE - Visitors to the Anchorage Museum now have a chance to see artwork and artifacts that have not been shown before. The Anchorage Museum is putting up a large exhibit called “New Acquisitions”. They’re the items that have been donated to the museum over the last three years from private collections, family estates and even visitors to the Anchorage Museum.

“People all over the state and all over the country actually,” says Collections Director Monica Shah. “People who come during the summer and see our wonderful museum and when they get home decide we would be a good repository for things that perhaps their parents or grandparents or even themselves have collected in earlier times.”

Shah said the museum doesn’t accept all the donations that are offered, and they must have a tie to Arctic history or art. Shah said this newest exhibit will include about two dozen paintings by well known Alaskan painters including Sydney Lawrence.

“These Alaskan painters are so well known,” says Shah. “And I really recommend people come to see them because they’ve been in people’s private collections their entire lives and now they are at the Anchorage Museum for the public to see.”

The first half of the “New Acquisitions” exhibit became available for viewing Friday. The museum plans to install the other half of the exhibit, which includes the Alaskan paintings, immediately following Thanksgiving weekend. The exhibit is up through February 10.