KMXT 100.1 FM Public Radio in Kodiak, Alaska
Kayla Desroches/KMXT
The Alutiiq Museum and Archaeological Repository’s new events specialist is in charge of putting the museum on the social media radar.
Kodiak-born Christina Thompson says the organization already has a presence on Facebook, and she’s focused on image-based sites like Instagram.
“Everybody’s on social media. Twelve-year-olds have cell phones right now, so I’m hoping to reach everybody. I don’t mean just teenagers. I mean kids, their parents, ‘cause a lot of times kids will let their parents know when they see something online. Hey, I want to go to this, can you take me? And then we’ve got the whole family involved, so my job is done.”
Thompson is in her second week of working at the museum and says she recently graduated with a bachelor’s in fine arts and museum studies from Central Washington University.
Thompson says her parents have since moved away from Kodiak, but she still has family on the island.
She says she’s happy to be back.
“It feels incredible. It feels like a blessing and a dream that I happen to come home at the time that there was a position available for me like this.”
Thompson is now busy helping the museum staff prepare for an Alutiiq Culture Fest next month.
The schedule of events includes an Alutiiq headdress pageant, an open house on the Alutiiq Language Nest daycare, and a ceremony honoring the Alutiiq Word of the Week for reaching its twentieth year.
