CULTURE OF ALASKA

CULTURE OF ALASKA

Some of Alaska's popular annual events are the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race that starts in Anchorage and ends in Nome, World Ice Art Championships in Fairbanks, the Alaska Hummingbird Festival in Ketchikan, the Sitka Whale Fest, and the Stikine River Garnet Fest in Wrangell. The Stikine River features the largest springtime concentration of American Bald Eagles in the world.

The Alaska Native Heritage Center celebrates the rich heritage of Alaska's 11 cultural groups. Their purpose is to enhance self-esteem among Native people and to encourage cross-cultural exchanges among all people. The Alaska Native Arts Foundation promotes and markets Native art from all regions and cultures in the State, both on the internet; at its gallery in Anchorage, 500 West Sixth Avenue, and at the Alaska House New York, 109 Mercer Street in SoHo.

Alaska Natives – Inuit, Inupiaq or Yupik drummers and dancers – give informal performances in the lobby of the Alaska Native Medical Center in Anchorage on weekday evenings.

Alaskans are somewhat isolated from other Americans due to their distance, but do have relatively close ties with the Pacific Northwest. Certain towns, in particular Moscow, Idaho (home of the University of Idaho) have a noticeably large presence of Alaskan young adults who have moved to those places for college.

Libraries
The four main libraries in the state are the Alaska State Library in Juneau, the Elmer E. Rasmuson Library in Fairbanks, the Z. J. Loussac Library in Anchorage, and the UAA/APU Consortium Library, also in Anchorage. Alaska is one of three states (the others are Delaware and Rhode Island) that does not have a Carnegie library.