SITKA — The Sitka Historical Museum is moving forward with plans to reopen next summer with new exhibits that tell more about the city’s rich past.
The museum closed in July 2015 to make way for renovations in Harrigan Centennial Hall. Since then, museum employees have worked on designs for the new space, refined its collection of artifacts and raised money, The Sitka Sentinel reported.
The Sitka Historical Society is halfway to its $680,000 goal for the museum, which is expected to open in summer 2017.
“We’re really hopeful we can get that,” said Sitka Historical Society Executive Director Hal Spackman. “We’re close because we have a couple funding requests in right now.”
Museum curator Kristy Griffin discussed plans for the museum with the Chamber of Commerce last week. She said new additions for the space include a digital display of Sitka’s landscape and an interactive exhibit on how the city’s past influences its future.
“It’s going to be absolutely beautiful,” Spackman said. “The important thing about this museum is it tells all of Sitka’s stories.”
Other features of the museum include a permanent exhibit on Tlingit history, the Great Northern Expedition and the Russian-American Company, Griffin said. Another exhibit will cover Russia’s presence in Alaska and focuses on the daily life of Sitka in the 1800s.
Museum workers have been logging artifacts, photos and other objects into a digital database as well as donating some pieces that could be more beneficial to other organizations.
“We ask ourselves does this object actually belong in our collection? Does it tell Sitka’s story?” Griffin said. “It makes me happy to get objects to a better area where they can tell great stories.”
The museum has added 6,360 new objects to the database and removed 250 objects so far, Griffin said.
The museum hired Washington, D.C.-based HealyKohler Designs to build the new layout for the museum. The firm also worked on the Library of Congress and the Washington Monument, Griffin said.
