Palmer museum wants residents to help make history

What you need to know:

• The museum is inviting residents to a community conversation Tuesday from 6 to 8 p.m. to help decide which stories, historical figures and aspects of Palmer’s history should be featured in an updated permanent exhibit.
• The current exhibit has been in place for about five years but includes display cases that are 10 to 15 years old.
• The planned redesign aims to create a more immersive, interactive experience, drawing on the museum’s collection of more than 14,000 photos and incorporating elements that engage multiple senses.
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PALMER – The Palmer Museum of History and Art’s main exhibit area is about as warm and welcoming as 400 square feet can be for the more than 30,000 visitors who walk through its doors each summer.

But the historic space is getting a bit, well, old.

Museum officials are beginning the process of updating the permanent exhibit, and they want Palmer residents to help shape what comes next. The museum will host a community conversation Tuesday from 6 to 8 p.m. to hear what residents think the new exhibit should look, feel and even smell like.

The museum’s current display features a small collection of historic artifacts, photos and interpretive signs that give a brief history of Palmer — from its roots as a crossroads of Ahtna and Dena’ina people through its development via the fur trade, railroad, mining and the 1935 Matanuska Colony Project. The exhibit has been in place for about five years, with some display cases 10 to 15 years old.

The museum has many more photos it could display digitally but lacks interactive displays that would allow visitors to more easily explore them.

“We really want to have a better way to demonstrate the expansive history that Palmer has for the community and for our visitors in a way that's engaging and more than just reading on an interpretive label,” museum Executive Director Dylainie Nathlich said last week.

The museum is partnering with Juneau-based design firm ExhibitAK on the update, using grant funding from the Rasmuson Foundation, the Palmer Community Foundation and the city of Palmer.

“How do you select what stories really need to be told? And so part of that community conversation will be sort of like a discussion to agree upon which aspects of the story should be highlighted, what historical figures should be mentioned,” Nathlich said.

She said she’s excited about the opportunity to hear from locals about what they think should go into the new exhibit.

“It's always such a wonderful experience to be able to meet the community on such an intimate level, and really get to understand what people take pride in and how much they love and care about their community and how they want to share that with the world.”

Everyone is invited to attend the event, and refreshments will be served.

Nathlich said much of the museum’s potential is currently going untapped. It owns a collection of more than 14,000 photos, of which more than 1,400 have already been digitized. Though the collection can be accessed online, she’d like to make it more easily accessible to museum visitors. Ideally, the new exhibit will incorporate a variety of display formats that give a more expansive view of Palmer’s history.

“Our big goal with it is to have it be immersive,” she said. “We want to incorporate all the senses — smell, touch, really feel like you're involved in it.”

Ultimately, Nathlich said she hopes the community conversation helps designers create a museum exhibit visitors and locals alike can be proud of.

“As a museum, we have a purpose to serve as a place of belonging and to be able to see yourself in that story.”

Matt Tunseth is a freelance writer from Southcentral Alaska. Write to him at matthew.tunseth@gmail.com.