Alaska News

Arts council displays the latest additions to Alaska's Art Bank

Twenty-two artworks by Alaskans -- and owned by everyone in Alaska -- went on display at the Alaska State Council on the Arts offices in Mountain View at a reception on May 30. The pieces are the latest acquisitions for the Alaska Contemporary Art Bank, a collection of more than 700 works that are available for state offices and public places on a rotating loan basis.

The Art Bank's manager, Janelle Martz, said $20,000 was spent to purchase this year's additions to the collection. Just over 900 entries by 190 artists were submitted to a panel of eight art professionals from around the state.

"We only purchase art from Alaskan artists," Martz said. Purchases are made directly from the artists and the work must be recent, created in the last five years. "That's how we define the 'contemporary' part."

The Art Bank began in 1975. Items can be checked out by state agencies, legislators, courts and so forth, to decorate the work places and public areas of state buildings. Each borrower can check out two works for two years at a time.

Unselected pieces and work needing repairs is housed at the council offices, mostly in a storeroom open from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays.

The newly acquired art works will remain on display at the council offices for the rest of the month, after which they will go to new -- if temporary homes. Here's a look at some of the new pieces. More is available online.

Reach Mike Dunham at mdunham@adn.com or 257-4332.

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On display

2013 Alaska Contemporary Art Bank acquisitions will be on display for the month of June at the Alaska State Council on the Arts, 161 Klevin St. Suite 102. And the winners are...

Here is the art purchased for the Alaska Contemporary Art Bank this year:

"Raven Man" (painting), James Adcox, Soldotna

"LeConte Impressions" (painting), Don Cornelius, Petersburg

"Fireweed Field" (painting), Barbara Craver, Juneau

"Eleven Swift Caribou All Love to Roam" (woodcut), Kevin Crowley, Anchorage

"Ice Flow" (fiber), Nancy Dobson, Eagle River

"Tundra Seep" (painting), Susan Farnham, Fairbanks

"Cold River Blues" (painting), Asia Freeman, Homer

"Frozen Silt Flats and Stranded Ice Flow" (digital ink), Hal Gage, Anchorage

"Night Glacier" (photograph), Brandon Hauser, Juneau

"It was the Place We Had Forgotten Ourselves" (painting), Elizabeth Eero Irving, Eagle River

"Ice Formation 1, 2 and 4" (photographs), Ryota Kajita, Fairbanks

"Pussy Willows" (painting), Kimberly Marcucci

"Berry Picking," "Ptarmigan" and "Bowhead" (clay), Edwin Mighell, Anchorage

"Queen Salmon" (woodblock), Karen Olanna, Anchorage

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"Red Tide" (painting), Linda Infante Lyons, Anchorage

"Beluga Slough Wildflowers" (painting), Kathy Smith, Homer

"Bonanza Creek Mine" (digital paint), Averyl Veliz, Juneau

"Humility" (photograph), Luciana Whitaker, Anchorage

By MIKE DUNHAM

mdunham@adn.com

Mike Dunham

Mike Dunham has been a reporter and editor at the ADN since 1994, mainly writing about culture, arts and Alaska history. He worked in radio for 20 years before switching to print.

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