Valdez Museum and Historical Archive

Located at the heart of Valdez, Alaska, in a beautiful mountain setting, the Valdez Museum & Historical Archive occupies two facilities, the Valdez Museum on Egan and the Valdez Museum on Hazelet – which features the Remembering Old Valdez Exhibit. The Valdez Museum & Historical Archive is so much more than a place to store historical relics, artifacts and art. It is a place where we encourage all to come learn, engage, and explore the material evidence of our world. We make history and art accessible to the public through interpretation, education and exhibition. We are open year-round and offer a wide array of public programs.

The Valdez Museum & Historical Archive strives to make measurable changes in community conditions and improve lives by offering enrichment opportunities in developing healthy children, families and community through our exhibits, cultural programs, education and historical interpretation. The museum fosters a “sense of community” by sharing the stories of our lives here in the Prince William Sound area while allowing for easy interaction among community members at exhibits, lectures, and presentations. The museum functions as a place of ideas and education. Museums are a natural gathering place for a community and through a variety of activities and events provide a conduit that helps build and strengthen inter-connections within the family units and the community at large.

With the generous support of Pick Click Give gifts, the Valdez Museum continued its efforts to be more than a place to store artifacts and relics. The Museum is grounded in a strong sense of responsibility in contributing to the regions educational and economic development. After the arrival of the Covid-19 Pandemic, new innovative approaches to educating were called for, embraced and applied. These combined interfacing with teachers, students and community members via the virtual realm and safely in person. At the Museum 6th graders learned about oil and water, and the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill in a hands-on laboratory comprised of activity stations. 9th grade history students examined photographs from the VMHA collection in Visual Thinking Strategies sessions via Zoom.

Resources developed for learners of all ages were added to the Education, Learning and Experience section of the VMHA’s website. Walk, Talk and See film shorts launched and featured Old Town history. They resonated with locals and reached a broader audience via social media. Museum-based on-line art lessons combined with “take and make” activity bags and were sold in the VMHA store at low cost. These supplanted some of the in-person art classes usually offered that were tabled in the short-term due to the Pandemic. The public responded favorably to these inventive ways to connect people with content.