Things to Do in Anchorage

With its craggy mountains, monochrome tundra, and verdant valleys, Alaska itself stands as a monument to the beauty and power of nature. Focusing on the state's prehistory, the Alaska Museum of Natural History's sprawling collection of artifacts educates the public with engrossing and educational dioramas and displays. Among the museum’s notable exhibits is its newest installation, Ice, which delves into the profound geological changes wrought by the last Ice Age. Likewise, the Schmidt Mine exhibit lets visitors touch and pick up craggy specimens from the collection, including meteorites and fluorescent stones. Ancient mammoth bones and fearsome saber-tooth tiger jaws show patrons the fauna encountered by Alaska's first human inhabitants, whereas fully assembled dinosaur skeletons transport viewers even further back in time, way before the Jurassic Park movie came out.

Within the historic 4th Avenue Market Place is the Alaska Experience Theater, a time capsule of state history and a portal for cultural exploration through film. The curators perennially screen four short documentaries on Alaskan history, projecting one about the devastating Good Friday Earthquake of March 27, 1964, in an earthquake simulator that rocks on hydraulic lifts designed to soothe Zeus in his infancy. A 40-foot screen commands attention in the 96-seat main theater, where the documentaries are relayed in vivid detail by a 3-D Christie Digital Projection System along with cult classics, independent films, and wide-release blockbusters. Out in the marketplace, dancers perform native Alaskan dances to the beat of drums, and two permanent exhibits reveal more information about the earthquake and display the full collection of prints by Alaskan artist Fred Machetanz.

Built in 1968 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the purchase of Alaska from Russia, the Anchorage Museum’s mirrored skin now holds an immense collection of exhibits that celebrate Alaska’s history and innovations in art and science. Using grants awarded by the National Endowment for the Arts and other organizations, Anchorage Museum was able to devote four floors and a small but well-appointed fourth dimension to art, cultural history, natural history, and science and technology—all represented by more than 25,000 objects.

Through a series of permanent exhibits, visitors embark on a cultural and geological voyage. More than 600 Alaskan Native artifacts on loan from the Smithsonian Institution join miniature dioramas of indigenous lifestyles in illuminating the cultures that first shaped the area, while other collections peer into the gold rush era, World War II, and the process of becoming a state. Itchy hands find relief in the Imaginarium Discovery Center, a playground for DIY discovery where visitors of all ages can touch sea stars, shoot air cannons, and learn more about what makes a volcano erupt or the aurora borealis cast its eerie glow.

While Center Bowl’s neon marquee has retained its vintage look for over 50 years, the bowling alley's modern innards include 30 updated Brunswick synthetic lanes with touchscreen scoring and automated gutter guards. The lights go dim on weekend nights for neon-bowling sessions, during which bowling balls and toothpaste stains glow in the dark. Between frames, bowlers can refuel at the concessions stand, which doles out pizza, wings, soft drinks, and beer.

The Anchorage Ballet and its academy have been preserving the art of classical dance since 1997 through a well-rounded curriculum based on the Russian Vaganova method, and has prepared young dancers for international careers with the American Ballet Theatre, the Kirov Academy, the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, and The Juilliard School. Each student is placed into the appropriate level of classes—which include pointe and pas de deux—according to age, talent, attitude, and musicality. It is through these classes, seasonal performances, and summer camps that the school's skilled teachers and guest instructors teach ballerinas to harmonize the entire body's movements, creating expressive leaps and pirouettes via Vaganova's vision. The academy partners with the Alaska State Council on the Arts, the Atwood Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts to help bring ballet to Alaska's arts community and particularly limber polar bears. The academy won the 2010 award for outstanding arts organization at the Mayor's Arts Award ceremony.