The Alaska Native Medical Center Auxiliary Heritage Collection is a collection of Native art that is displayed throughout the Alaska Native Medical Center (ANMC). This collection grew from the heart. It grew from the hearts of the artists who contributed and those of the people who recognized the importance of preserving it. It is a collection all about people.
The collection has been gathered by the auxiliary in conjunction with operating the Native Craft Shop at ANMC since 1975,. To the volunteers of the Auxiliary Craft Shop, the art has many faces. To the Alaska Native peoples the art represents their heritage and is a reflection of their fathers, mothers, grandfathers, grandmothers and generations past.
To all of those coming to the Medical Center it is a means to convey the diversity of cultural and artistic expressions of the Alaska Native people.
The Heritage Collection grew and evolved to its present form over many years. As beautiful examples of Native art flowed into the craft shop starting in 1975, the volunteer-managers felt the need to retain outstanding representative examples for a permanent collection. As the new medical center was first conceived in 1987 as a dream and then became a reality in 1996, display of the collection throughout the hospital was built into those plans. The following pictures will give you an idea of the richness of this collection.
It has been rewarding to the ANMC Auxiliary to install the art collection where people live, work, and heal. Patients from the remote villages needing medical treatment in Anchorage instantly have a feeling of belonging; of being home. Others who work at the medical center are drawn in with a sense of belonging. People from around the world come here to see the collection. ANMC is one of the finest examples of combining art and architecture to create a healing atmosphere.
