Cold Place, Hotbed of Innovation

By Andrea Orlando

Community Director

The National Consortium for Creative Placemaking

It makes sense that a place with unique challenges is also a petri dish for innovative solutions. Listen in on our conversation with the CEO and Director of the Anchorage Museum to learn how the institution is playing a proactive role in finding arts and culture-based solutions to some of the state's most pressing challenges.

The museum in Alaska has partnered with the Northern Norway Art Museum to address issues that are simultaneously unique to Northern places, but have global implications. It is exploring equitable community solutions through its new Solutions for Energy and Equitable Design Lab (SEED Lab). This episode of the CreativePlace podcast is a conversation with Julie Decker, Director and CEO of the museum, and Bodil Kjelstrup, who is serving as curator of the SEED Lab. Kjelstrup is from the Northern Norway Art Museum, and the two met at a conference on the arts in the circumpolar north several years ago. Find out how the SEED Lab is engaging the creativity of the community.

This chat hits on climate change, equity in indigenous communities, do-it-yourself culture, and shifting narratives to empower local communities.  The two museum professionals co-taught a breakout session at the 2019 Pacific Creative Placemaking Leadership Summit in Los Angeles in June.