The More You Look

In the Fall of 2024, the museum opened the Northwoods Set Book Project, the first special exhibit presented within the museum’s Rose Berry Alaska Art Gallery, bringing closer together newer community work and the work within the museum’s permanent collections. It’s the first of a growing line-up of temporary shows housed within the museum’s principal art gallery. UAMN Director of Exhibits, Design and Digital Media, Roger Topp met with Northwoods Book Arts Guild members Susan Campbell, Margo Klass, and Corlis Taylor – at Margo’s, around the dining table where they had tea and cookies, and talked about the Book Guild, this exhibit, and what cooking next.

The More You Look is a production of the UA Museum of the North, on the campus of the University of Alaska Fairbanks and the ancestral lands of the Dena people of the lower Tanana River. UAMN illuminates the natural history and cultural heritage of Alaska and the North through collections, research, education, and partnerships, and by creating a singular museum experience that honors diverse knowledge and respect for the land and its peoples.

In September of 2024, Nathan Jackson’s totem pole, “Everyone’s Grandfather,” on the grounds of the museum, was removed from its site of 36 years and brought inside the museum for conservation and future installation within the building. UAF professor of Native Art, Da-ka-xeen Mehner, and UAMN Senior Collections Manager for Ethnology and History, Angela Linn talk about the lowering of the pole and the in-progress work to get it back onto exhibit.

The More You Look is a production of the UA Museum of the North, on the campus of the University of Alaska Fairbanks and the ancestral lands of the Dena people of the lower Tanana River. UAMN illuminates the natural history and cultural heritage of Alaska and the North through collections, research, education, and partnerships, and by creating a singular museum experience that honors diverse knowledge and respect for the land and its peoples.

Christina parks, the UAMN's Director of Visitor Services somehow finds time for an afternoon chat on September 4th, 2024, what happened to be the busiest non-event day at the museum in years.  Not all days at the museum are the same. Like anywhere, some days are down-right rough, and no more so than for the staff in museum visitor services.

The More You Look is a production of the UA Museum of the North, on the campus of the University of Alaska Fairbanks and the ancestral lands of the Dena people of the lower Tanana River. UAMN illuminates the natural history and cultural heritage of Alaska and the North through collections, research, education, and partnerships, and by creating a singular museum experience that honors diverse knowledge and respect for the land and its peoples.

Today, a conversation with UAF masters student Sydney Almgren and postdoctoral researcher Laura Timm. We talk about their current research, Sydney updating us on her work following on a prior episode of the show – but they also talk about their varied histories within the fields of fish, the jobs they’ve done, opportunities and advice for students, and the jobs they might do in the future.

The More You Look is a production of the UA Museum of the North, on the campus of the University of Alaska Fairbanks and the ancestral lands of the Dena people of the lower Tanana River. UAMN illuminates the natural history and cultural heritage of Alaska and the North through collections, research, education, and partnerships, and by creating a singular museum experience that honors diverse knowledge and respect for the land and its peoples.

A conversation with Audra Darcy and Haley McCaig, UAMN research archaeologists, and recorded on the cusp of the 2024 summer field season. It's less about science and data analysis and more about logistics, planning, and manual labor in really cool places.

The More You Look is a production of the UA Museum of the North, on the campus of the University of Alaska Fairbanks and the ancestral lands of the Dena people of the lower Tanana River. UAMN illuminates the natural history and cultural heritage of Alaska and the North through collections, research, education, and partnerships, and by creating a singular museum experience that honors diverse knowledge and respect for the land and its peoples.

In July 2023, the museum recorded a trailer for The More You Look Podcast, and we think, now more than a year later, we got the direction, the goals about right. Over the years, museum outreach has considered the museum from many angles. What does, not any museum, but this museum look like in terms of a gallery, in terms of a website, a book, a card game? What does this museum sound like when it takes on the form of a podcast. And what can we as a community, and the museum’s visitors, learn from that.

Museum H.R. manager Emilie Nelson asks Director of Exhibits, Design, and Digital Media, Roger Topp a few questions about the podcast. What were the expectations going in? How much work has it been? What are the challenges, and what’s still to come? He answered some questions and sounds like he tried to evade others.

The More You Look is a production of the UA Museum of the North, on the campus of the University of Alaska Fairbanks and the ancestral lands of the Dena people of the lower Tanana River. UAMN illuminates the natural history and cultural heritage of Alaska and the North through collections, research, education, and partnerships, and by creating a singular museum experience that honors diverse knowledge and respect for the land and its peoples.

Museum galleries and programs are brought to life by museum educators and members of the Fairbanks community, who volunteer to teach school children, guide tours, and help during special events. And the UA Museum docent program has been around for more than 40 years, almost as long as the museum has been located on the west ridge of the UAF campus.

Museum docents Tim Doran, Judy Ferri, Avalon Wappett, and David Weissman, speak about how they became involved, how docenting is a team effort, and how the best parts of any museum program are what the volunteers share of themselves.

The More You Look is a production of the UA Museum of the North, on the campus of the University of Alaska Fairbanks and the ancestral lands of the Dena people of the lower Tanana River. UAMN illuminates the natural history and cultural heritage of Alaska and the North through collections, research, education, and partnerships, and by creating a singular museum experience that honors diverse knowledge and respect for the land and its peoples.

Arctic lands today are important breeding grounds for more than 200 species of birds, some of which migrate great distances to take advantage of the abundant summer resources. But this episode is not about them, but birds that lived in Alaska a long-long time ago.

The Prince Creek formation of northern Alaska is the northernmost fossil-bearing Late Cretaceous ecosystem in the world. It possesses a remarkable collection of fossils, including dinosaurs, mammals, fishes, and birds.

UAMN Curator of Earth Sciences, Patrick Druckenmiller and graduated UAF Masters student in Geosciences, Lauren Wilson join me to talk about Lauren’s research into these newfound 70-million-year-old nestling bird fossils. It’s novel research and the quick beginnings of a bright career.

The More You Look is a production of the UA Museum of the North, on the campus of the University of Alaska Fairbanks and the ancestral lands of the Dena people of the lower Tanana River. UAMN illuminates the natural history and cultural heritage of Alaska and the North through collections, research, education, and partnerships, and by creating a singular museum experience that honors diverse knowledge and respect for the land and its peoples.

Welcome to season II, where we’ll continue to explore the stories and community of the museum. More from the students, more from the field, more memories of where we’ve been and how we get to tomorrow. 

And how appropriate to kick off the season with today’s conversation with museum Manager for Administrative Affairs, Emilie Nelson, a.k.a. H.R.

Part of this discussion appeared in the last episode of the first season of the show, and I thought it appropriate to bring it back in the context of a more complete – and very, very fun – conversation. As you’ll hear, this one gets very chatty, very meta, and Emilie gets me (Roger) talking as much as I incite her to talk about growing up Alaskan, and dog mushing, and casting about as adults for what comes next.

The More You Look is a production of the UA Museum of the North, on the campus of the University of Alaska Fairbanks and the ancestral lands of the Dena people of the lower Tanana River. UAMN illuminates the natural history and cultural heritage of Alaska and the North through collections, research, education, and partnerships, and by creating a singular museum experience that honors diverse knowledge and respect for the land and its peoples.

Museums are places of connection and relationship: visitor to visitor, visitor to object, object to community, community to future research – and there’s not a department within this museum that doesn’t foster and seek to grow all of those relationships. = Today on the podcast, conversations  with two such departments, the museum’s offices of development and human resources. Person to person. Person to interest. And Interest to long-term relationship.

The More You Look is a production of the UA Museum of the North, on the campus of the University of Alaska Fairbanks and the ancestral lands of the Dena people of the lower Tanana River. UAMN illuminates the natural history and cultural heritage of Alaska and the North through collections, research, education, and partnerships, and by creating a singular museum experience that honors diverse knowledge and respect for the land and its peoples.