MJ Murdock Charitable Trust awards Kodiak’s Baranov Museum $210,000 for redesign, upgrades

(Photo by J. Stephen Conn / Flickr)

Daysha Eaton/KMXT Kodiak

The MJ Murdock Charitable Trust has awarded the Baranov Museum in Kodiak a $205,000 grant for a redesign of its permanent exhibits and a facility upgrade.

Sarah Harrington is Executive Director of the Kodiak Historical Society and Baranov Museum. She says the money will be used to better care for museum artifacts, increase sustainability and community engagement, and to expand the scope of Kodiak stories told by the museum.

“Talking about the fishing industry, the history of hunting for furs, World War II history, and stories that youth can connect with in the community as well,” said Harrington. “The last I looked, 61 percent of students in the Kodiak Island Borough School District are Asian American and Native American, and we want everyone to be able to come into the museum and make a significant personal connection with the stories that they see reflected in the exhibits.”

The Baranov is housed in the oldest building in Alaska and the earliest Russian-built structure in America — a national historic landmark known as the Russian American Magazin.

Up until now, the Baranov has been focused mostly on Russian and American colonization.

Harrington says the redesign and upgrades are part of a larger project which will cost $750,000, from planning to implementation. Now they have raised most of the money and are waiting on one more grant.

“Once we hear back from that grant application later this month, we will be, hopefully fully-funded for the project,” said Harrington.

The museum is more than halfway to its goal of raising $85,000 through a capital campaign. Construction of the new exhibits is scheduled to begin in September. The museum plans to close over the fall and winter, reopening in April 2019.

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