News

Over the winter of 2018-2019, Tanana Chiefs Conference (TCC) Cultural Programs quietly launched an exciting new project designed to connect entrepreneurial Native Alaskan artists in rural villages with the over 160,000 visitors who come to the Morris Thompson Center annually.  Many visitors are looking for authentic, Alaska Native-made items to take home with them. TCC… Read More

The Morris Thompson Center exhibits have a fresh new look!  The original exhibit designers returned to Fairbanks to modernize the exhibit lighting with LED technology.  Chris and Bianca, pictured here in the exhibits’ smoke-house, threw themselves into upgrading the exhibit lighting with a passion born of their long-term dedication to and vision for the Morris… Read More

A collection of pieces by renowned contemporary Athabaskan mask maker Kathleen Carlo-Kendall and her apprentice, Chris Ehlers, will be on view at the Morris Thompson Center exhibit hall throughout May and June.  In October, the two artists will return once more to the center with a special exhibit of new work that they are creating… Read More

The Golden Valley Electrical Association (GVEA) Goodȼents Fund has made a generous grant to the Morris Thompson Center for installation of LED lighting throughout the building. The Morris Thompson Center’s exhibits are illuminated by several hundred specialized lights that run thirteen hours a day, seven days a week in summer.  We also light our hallways,… Read More

Deb Hickok, president and CEO of Explore Fairbanks, was recently elected to a three-year term on the Board of Directors of the U.S. Travel Association. Camille Ferguson, executive director of the American Indian Alaska Native Tourism Association, was also elected. U.S. Travel is the national, non-profit organization representing the travel industry that generates $2.4 trillion… Read More

Fairbanks lost a valued community member on March 5 with the passing of Sarah Latta Carter Crawford, known as ‘Carter.’  Born on Oct. 3, 1938 in Glen Ridge, New Jersey, Carter graduated from Winsor School and Smith College and established herself as a media professional in New York and LA. She considered her move to… Read More

Throughout 2019 the Morris Thompson Center is hosting events celebrating the Native languages of Interior Alaska, including introductions to Native languages, activities for families, and panel discussions.  Monthly film screenings celebrating Native languages will take place from September through December 2019.  A special part of this series is “Denaakk’e Dedeenee,” consisting of five monthly Denaak’e… Read More

Thanks to a generous grant from Museums Alaska, with support from the Rasmuson Foundation, the Morris Thompson Center offered training on collection care for museums professionals in interior Alaska.   Registration filled rapidly for the January 15-16 workshop with Conservator Nicole Peters, who is based in Skagway. Representatives of 12 Interior Alaska organizations signed up. … Read More

On April 18, ten student teachers from the University of Alaska, Fairbanks drifted one by one into the Denakkanaaga elders’ living room at the Morris Thompson Center. They gathered there, seated in a half-circle facing a group of people ready to share many years of accumulated wisdom about teaching and learning.  Elders Dr. Elizabeth Fleagle… Read More

Eight-year-old Isaac King of Rhinelander, Wisconsin is preparing to be a firefighter one day, and says the Northern Lights are “the most beautiful thing he has ever seen.”  Isaac is also battling Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia.  With help from the Rhinelander Fire Department and the Make-a-Wish Foundation, earlier this year Isaac accomplished his goal of visiting… Read More