Anchorage Museum

The Anchorage Museum will display a rare complete set of 50 stone lithographs created from 1946 to 1980 by Alaskan artist Fred Machetanz. There are only three public institutions that are known to have complete sets of the Machetanz lithographs, since only 100 copies of each piece in the set were released. The works depict Alaska Native life, sled dogs, wildlife and traditional Alaska scenes like grizzled gold panners working. The show will be on display until Feb. 26. Contact Rebecca Palsha at rpalsha@ktuu.com

For many teenagers, a first job might include manning a drive-thru window, bussing tables or mowing lawns. But at the Anchorage Museum a group of teens are getting work experience that can actually be a learning experience. The Imaginarium Discovery Center opened in the Anchorage Museum in 2010, after being located on Anchorage's 5th Avenue since the early 1990s. It's the type of place that, at first, seems like a kids-only zone, but adults are just as likely to find their inner child once they start exploring the exhibits.

Salmonstock Ninilchik, Friday, Aug. 5 - Sunday, Aug. 7 The fun starts Friday at 2:00 pm at the Kenai Peninsula fairgrounds. Celebrate the world's greatest remaining renewable resource, Alaskan salmon. Salmonstock features two stages with top Alaskan, Northwest, and national artists performing, several booths featuring delicious treats from local restaurants and Alaskan breweries will offer their brews in a very extensive beer garden. Sounds like a party! For a list of all the bands playing and ticket prices go to salmonstock.org.

A handful of people came to the first series of Eyak workshops held at the Anchorage Museum, a second chance at bringing back the endangered Alaska Native language. This weekend was a chance to use systematic techniques to help new speakers learn Eyak in a short period of time. Guillaume Leduey, a 22-year-old man from France who taught himself how to speak the language, led the free sessions with University of Alaska Anchorage sociolinguist Roy Mitchell. The Eyak language has lost its last native-born speaker, but the daughter of that speaker says this workshop is important because it brings back a culture and an identity.

A sign of summer and a shot in the arm for Downtown businesses arrived at the Port of Anchorage Friday, as the Holland America Lines cruise ship MS Amsterdam tied up to begin its second year of visits to the city. The Amsterdam, carrying 1,380 passengers and 600 crew, is expected to make 16-hour visits on alternating Fridays throughout the summer. The visitors were met by Anchorage Convention and Visitors Bureau volunteers wearing red vests, who oriented them with what the city has to offer.

For many tourists, one of the first things they do after arriving at the Ted Stevens International Airport is hail a taxi cab. The Anchorage Convention and Visitors Bureau is putting special pouches in 75 of the cabs around town.  Each is loaded with packs of pamphlets and brochures containing information about things to see and do while in town. They say when it comes to benefiting local shops and restaurants, the program is working. This is the third summer that the ACVB has been running the program, outfitting cabs with the information pamphlets.

George Albert looked up over thick-rimmed glasses to study the threading pattern William McCarty IV was using to create the webbing of a traditional Athabascan snowshoe. "Yeah, he's doing good," Albert said. "Yesterday he didn't hardly know nothing about this. Today I don't really have to instruct him at all. " Albert, of Ruby, along with master artists Trimble Gilbert, of Arctic Village and George "Butch" Yaska Sr., of Huslia, gave a three-day master artists' workshop on snowshoe buliding hosted by the Anchorage Museum May 3-6. McCarty, 18, of Ruby, Daniel Tritt, 26, of Anchorage, and Al Yatlin Sr., 60, of Huslia, served as apprentices under the master crafsmen, carrying on a proud tradition producing one of Alaska's most vitally important survival tools.

KICK-OFF EVENT: “Eskimo Star” Gala Book Signing, 6-9 p.m., Tuesday, 6-9 p.m., Anchorage Museum. Screenings of clips from “Robinson Crusoe of Clipper Island” and “How Death Was Cheated in the Great Race to Nome.”  SCREENINGS  AT THE BEARTOOTH THEATRE PUB:  MARCH 30-31 - “Igloo,” Wednesday, March 30, 5:15 p.m.  Free Admission. - “Last of the Pagans,” Wednesday, March 30, 7:15 p.m.   - “Red Snow,” Wednesday, March 30, 9:00 p.m.   - “Eskimo,”  Thursday,  March 31, 5:30 and 8:15 p.m. OTHER ANCHORAGE SCREENINGS:  - Alaska Moving Image Preservation Association Benefit.  Friday, April 1, 7:30 p.m. Showing of recently discovered Ray Mala footage.  UAA Consortium Library.

The 1933 hit movie “Eskimo” is about to come out of obscurity, thanks to a recently published book about its leading man. “Eskimo Star: From the Tundra to Tinseltown, The Ray Mala Story,” will be celebrated at a gala book signing event at the Anchorage Museum on Tuesday, March 29. The author of “Eskimo Star,” Lael Morgan, says her interest in the book began about 30 years ago, when she was researching other stories in Alaska and was...