As part of the Anchorage Museum’s artist-in-residence program for the Northern Initiative, we have been focused on removing the parameters put in place by traditional residency programs and to put the emphasis on process. While we feel strongly that our Artists in the Arctic residency program provides both artists and the Alaskan community with a rich experience that builds, over time, a critical network of participants, we also looked for a way to provide shorter-term projects that would bring a greater sense of activity and vibrancy to the Museum and its community. The programs below are part of our planning efforts. These programs we will kick off in 2014.

MUSEUM AND COMMUNITY-BASED RESIDENCIES
Beginning in 2014, the Museum will offer three non-studio-based residency for three local, national, or international artists working in any media, as part of our efforts within the Initiative to integrate artists within the artistic and multi-discipline programmatic and institutional dimensions of the museum. This is a process-oriented program, with an emphasis on public engagement and programs, rather than on exhibitions. Each artist is invited by the museum or selected from a proposal process and works closely with a member of the curatorial, collections or programming staff. Some residencies may lead to an exhibition or program, but the primary goal is to be open-ended, with research and experience as the primary emphasis. Artists are encouraged to engage with the Anchorage and broader Alaskan community through lectures, workshops, meetings, collaborations, and research into the Museum’s collections.

Museum staff aid in research and introduce artists to the area with a focus on locations of interest to each individual artist. The Museum also connects artists to curators, scientists, historians, policymakers and other artists who might be interested in their work—form the underpinnings of a growing international network of artists with ties to the North and through supporting local artists in their projects and career development.

Artists are encouraged to create dynamic new work for public engagement in Museum circulation spaces, allowing for strong connections to form between the artists, the museum, and the public, giving interested visitors and students much greater access to the artists and their work and creating a new kind of interactive museum.
 The project experiments with an artist-driven visitor engagement and education program that encourages daily contact among visitors, artists, and museum staff and activates the spaces, exhibitions, and website in imaginative ways. Artist projects must relate to the Museum’s mission and have an emphasis on life in the North. For 2015, the artist residencies will focus on the Anchorage Centennial.

Applications available January 2014

INTERNSHIPS
Museum Studies/Northern Initiative Internship
The Northern Initiative seeks to support researchers and community engagement at all levels. The Museum Studies/Northern Initiative Internship Program is an unpaid volunteer internship opportunity that exposes interns to the inner workings of a major and multi-disciplinary museum, promoting an awareness of careers in the field as well as supporting Northern research through experiences not available in most academic settings. The Museum selects a diverse group of talented undergraduate and graduate students from a highly competitive, international pool of candidates.