Permanent Exhibits

Temporary Exhibit – Anchored in Kodiak: Stories of Filipino Immigration and Culture

Co-curated with the Filipino-American Association of Kodiak (Fil-Am), Anchored in Kodiak explores the legacy of Filipino immigration to Kodiak and showcases Kodiak’s Filipino community. Representatives from Fil-Am and KHM worked together to create the exhibit and a number of public programs coming this fall. Fil-Am comments on the project, “Fil-Am is thankful for the opportunity to share our culture and history through personal stories, photographs, and costumes with the community. We hope this exhibit will empower the community, and provide a deeper understanding of the Filipino American experience. This exhibit will allow Filipino Americans to remember our history and be a window for the community to learn about our rich history and culture.”

Our temporary exhibit gallery rotates approximately every 6 months. We are currently accepting proposals for future temporary exhibits. To learn more about our new temporary exhibit model, email our Curator at curator@kodiakhistorymuseum.org.

To propose a future temporary exhibit, click the button below.

Past Temporary Exhibits

August 2025: Shoreline Stories: Scenes from the Kodiak Archipelago  

Kodiak artist, JoAnne Knight, displayed a collection of unique photographs from around the Kodiak Archipelago taken from 2016 to 2023 during her travels. “I shoot images to remember. I shoot images to see things from different perspectives. I challenge myself to create within the camera’s viewer and allow very little to no adjustments post capture. My photographs tend to be place-based. I experiment with forcing a subject into the image while freezing a scene that tells its own story. I am intrigued by tricky light situations and moments that cannot be recreated. I allow my environment to influence me as I feel most comfortable when I have my camera in hand or nearby. I enjoy photographs of a journalistic nature and am awed by the snapshot-style prints that carry a story.”

This exhibit was made possible by a Spark Good grant from Kodiak’s local Walmart.

June/July 2025: Mabuhay sa Alaska

Kodiak artist, Brian Venua created this collection of photographs as part of Vhis work chronicling the process that teachers from the Philippines undergo when coming to Kodiak. This project initially began as a passion project for Venua. He wanted to learn more about immigration processes, and he realized that he could do that through his work as a reporter with KMXT. Venua traveled to the Philippines in January 2025 to go on a teacher recruiting trip to see what it was like for all of the school districts and teachers that go through the process.

This exhibit was made possible by a Spark Good grant from Kodiak’s local Walmart.

June/July 2025: Kodiak High School Advanced Art Class: Selected Works

Students in the Kodiak High School Advanced Art class taught by Brendan Harrington have almost complete creative freedom where they complete 1-2 projects each month in a college-level independent study format. Works from this class were selected for display towards the end of the school year. Artists featured in this exhibit: Mikylla Madamba, Storm Hayden, Hector Aquiles Suarez, LeElla Caskey, Emagale Counceller, Beth Miland, Natalie Trujillo, and Gene Bushell.

This exhibit was made possible by a Spark Good grant from Kodiak’s local Walmart.

January – April 2025: 50 Years of Limited Entry: The Closing of Alaska’s Salmon Commons

This new exhibit from Kodiak Maritime Museum examines the conditions that created the Limited Entry Program, the effects it had on Alaska’s fishermen and fishing communities, and recent proposals to address unintended consequences of the program. As much a social engineering program as a conservation effort, the story of Limited Entry is both instructive and cautionary. 

Support for the project came from a Maritime Heritage Grant administered by the National Park Service and Alaska Office of History and Archeology, Alaska State Museum Grant-In-Aid, City of Kodiak, Kodiak Community Foundation, Kodiak CHARR, Kodiak History Museum, and individual supporters of Kodiak Maritime Museum.

November/December 2025: A Sense of Place: Artworks by Bonnie Dillard

Kodiak artist, Bonnie Dillard, displayed a collection of unique drawings inspired by her friend, Eva Holm, and her set net site in Uganik. During the summers when Dillard would visit, she was inspired by Holm’s creativity within the cabin as well as the funkiness of a well-loved set net site. Dillard created this collection of art over the course of many visits between 2011-2020. After the initial partially blind contour drawings were complete, she took them home to add watercolor. The result is a collection of images embodying the special inspiration and feeling of this unique place during those moments in time. 

May 2024 –  October 2024: Kodiak’s Historic Bars – 1899 to Today

Co-curated with the author of Notorious Bars of Alaska, Doug Vandegraft, Toby Sullivan, and Jim Ramaglia. Explores how bars have been part of Kodiak’s social glue for over 100 years. It features profiles of 12 historic bars, bar ephemera, photographs, and oral histories from Kodiak community members. Programs included an alcohol free historic walking tour, lecture, and oral history local radio programming.

This exhibit was supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities.

April 2024: Kodiak High School Advanced Art Class: Selected Works from 2023-2024

Students in the Kodiak High School Advanced Art class taught by Brendan Harrington have almost complete creative freedom where they complete 1-2 projects each month in a college-level independent study format. Works from this class were selected for display towards the end of the school year. Artists featured in this exhibit: Hector Aquiles Suarez, James Berestoff, LeElla Caskey, Emagale Counceller, Aaralyn Hagle, Storm Hayden, Aliesha Miranda, Roxanne Suyat, Natalie Trujillo, and Maria Velasco.

November 2023 – March 2024: Objects Uncovered

Every object in a museum holds many stories and diverse perspectives. Objects Uncovered, presented and explored the different stories associated with objects in our collections. It featured 14 objects and stories selected and provided by Kodiak community members. Many of these objects had never been on display before.

This exhibit was supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities.

November 2022 – October 2023: Fissions of Native Identity 

Who is Native? Who decides? These are questions that face Kodiak’s Native community every day. The origins of these questions lie in the history of colonization and assimilation perpetrated by Russia and the United States in Kodiak. Fissions of Native Identity investigated these questions and histories by exploring the use of blood quantum, federal policies and their definitions of Native, and the different documents used to identify and regulate the identification of Native individuals. Family photos submitted by Native community members are included to counteract the accepted notion of blood quantum and the stereotypical depictions of Native people in popular culture. This exhibit was proposed by and created with a working group of Native community members.

This exhibit was supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities.

June – October 2022: Making History Day by Day: Our Stories and the COVID-19 Pandemic

A reflection on Kodiak’s experience during this history-making pandemic. It features photos, stories, and more from Kodiak community members. The exhibit grew from KHM’s Day by Day program where staff invited Kodiak community members to submit photos, stories/reflections, memes, and more to our digital research files. These materials were collected to document what was happening in Kodiak as it happened to allow future community members and researchers to understand this historical phenomenon.

June – October 2022: Making History Day by Day: Our Stories and the COVID-19 Pandemic

Kodiak Harvest and Bounty Farm co-curated this exhibit about food security on Kodiak. Food security is a complex topic that includes socio-economic concerns, supply chain interruption, local production, and access to knowledge around food. The goal of this exhibit was to kindle conversations in the Kodiak community about what it means to be food secure and connect local producers, organizations, and information that supports local nutritious food on Kodiak. Aspects of food security have been particularly recognizable during COVID-19 pandemic.