Alaska Humanities Forum Mini Grant

When I came to the Museum of the Aleutians it was immediately apparent that two things had to be done; the museum needed to complete an inventory of the collections and needed to spend the next year focused on collections engagement.
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In the first 90 days, we were awarded an Alaska State Museums grant for the inventory, and an Alaska Humanities Forum mini grant for the community engagement.

Though a small grant, the Humanities Forum is allowing the museum to host three "mini" exhibits aimed at showcasing portions of the collection as they are inventoried. Tonight, we opened the first exhibit. "Focus on Collections: Grassweave Baskets."

Today, we had 120 kids from the elementary school come through the exhibit, and tonight we had a "mini" reception for about 20 people.

In the last two weeks we have re-inventoried every basket in the collection, and every basket has been put on display. Though very remote, the museum was set up with some stellar equipment and has the capability of doing pretty cool stuff in house. even with a small staff of three, we were able to turn out a very professional looking exhibit. It will be up for the next six weeks. Then another "mini" exhibit will take its place.  

Today was a big day, and I was very proud of how much work our new staff put in to making it successful. It was a cool day - oh, and also the first blizzard.