Anchorage Museum

Anchorage, AK

Situated on the ancestral lands of the Eklutna Dena’ina, the Anchorage Museum (AMA) is a cultural anchor in Southcentral Alaska, advancing climate resilience, Indigenous knowledge, and cultural transformation through exhibitions, public programs, and sustainability leadership. With a mission to serve people, place, planet, and potential, AMA offers a curatorial platform for perspectives on the changing North—presenting works by contemporary and historical artists in Art of the North, amplifying Alaska Native voices through long-term collaborations with the Smithsonian’s Arctic Studies Center, and supporting youth-led exhibition-making through its Teen Climate Communicators program.

Building on earlier FCI grants in 2022 and 2023, AMA now turns to implementation, as it prepares to install a rooftop solar array—its first major step toward net-zero operations by 2050. The system will reduce reliance on Anchorage’s natural gas grid, offset up to 131 metric tons of Scope 2 emissions annually, and generate an estimated $1.5 million in long-term energy savings. Beyond infrastructure, the project serves as a public model for energy-conscious museum practice in the Arctic and affirms AMA’s commitment to resilience as both environmental strategy and curatorial imperative.

Milestones

• Install a rooftop solar array as the museum’s first major renewable energy system

• Generate up to 13 percent of AMA’s total energy needs during peak months

• Offset approximately 131 metric tons of Scope 2 carbon emissions annually

• Achieve an estimated $1.5 million in lifetime energy cost savings

• Reduce reliance on Southcentral Alaska’s natural gas supply

• Advance AMA’s institutional goal of net-zero operations by 2050

• Support Anchorage’s Climate Action Plan and align with municipal sustainability goals

• Serve as a public model for clean energy adoption in cultural institutions across Alaska