The annual Arctic Circle Assembly, this year in Reykjavík, Iceland, has brought several familiar big-name Alaskans from over the pole, including Anchorage Mayor Ethan Berkowitz and his wife Mara Kimmel, who is attending as a representative of the Anchorage Museum.
They were on a panel today about creating welcoming cities: “Stronger Together: Inclusive, Resilient and Connected Northern Cities.”
Also on the panel was Anchorage Museum Indigenous Curator of History and Culture Aaron Leggett.
Mara Kimmel, Anchorage’s First Lady, is the deputy director of strategy, research, and scholarship at the city-owned museum.
Also attending the conference, which ends Oct. 12, is former Lt. Gov. Mead Treadwell, (pictured above) and Sen. Lisa Murkowski, both of whom were speakers on the Thursday programs.
Former owner of the Anchorage Daily News/Alaska Dispatch Alice Rogoff appeared on a panel concerning the media. She was joined by Elizabeth Arnold, a professor at the University of Alaska Anchorage Department of Journalism, Mark Trahant, and former Atwood Fellow at UAA and editor of Indian Country Today. Rogoff also chaired the panel on “Paving the Polar Silk Road, China, Russia, Japan, Korea.”
On Friday, Mayor Berkowitz will speak on the topic of “Setting the Arctic Agenda from a U.S. City Perspective.” Treadwell will chair a panel of governors to include Gov. Janet Mills of Maine, H.E. Roman Kopin, governor of Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, Russia and Maria Derunova, deputy governor of Murmansk Oblast, Russia.
Sen. Murkowski met with representatives from different Arctic nations.
The Anchorage Museum also sent curator Bodil Kjelstrup to take part in a break-out session: “What are we Learning about Art as an Instrument of Circumpolar Change and Innovation? The Accumulating Experience of the SEED Lab Experiment.”
