Featured Articles
Sitka Is…
Where Artistic Energy Converges
You do not have to look for art in Sitka. It finds you. Often when you are heading somewhere else.
Alaska Storytellers
History in Motion
On a summer day in Sitka, inside a darkened theater, a voice begins, and within seconds the audience is pulled into a tale that stretches across centuries.
A volcanic mountain looms. Ships appear on the horizon. A culture shifts. Then, without warning, the story stands up and starts moving.
Island Artists Gallery
All For One and One For All
In the heart of downtown Sitka, Island Artists Gallery is one of the community’s longest-running creative collaborations. As a cooperative, it is shaped by trust, a shared purpose, and the belief that Sitka’s artists should have a place to shine.
Sitka Jazz Week
Connecting Musicians Across Generations
Each August, Sitka Jazz Week brings together world-class musicians and local players for a week of performance and collaboration. Now in its fourth year, the event was started by Christian Fabian as a “prayer of thanks to jazz.”
Rach Roach
An Artist Profile
Rach Roach has quickly become a driving force in Sitka’s theater community, building a reputation as both a skilled technician and an emerging director. They arrived in 2023 to work at the Sitka Fine Arts Camp, seeking adventure and artistic growth. It proved to be a perfect fit. They’re now a steady and influential presence behind the scenes and on stage.
Sitka Is…
A Perennial Garden of Artistic Expression
In Sitka, “bloom where you’re planted” takes on a life of its own. While some may view the long, dark winter as a time to hibernate, Sitkans know better. Winter is when creative energy begins to stir. Beneath the rain and overcast skies, the community becomes a fertile ground for imagination, collaboration, and artistic risk-taking.
Belly Meat
200 Years of Making Music
At the center of Sitka’s vibrant music scene, three men carry a sound as local as the tide and as timeless as a good story. Belly Meat, the trio of Ted Howard, Ernie Eggleston, and Gary Gouker, has been playing together for about 15 years. They blend blues, rock and roll, and folk with Southeast Alaska humor to make a uniquely homegrown sound.
Christian Litten
An Artist Profile
When Christian Litten walks into a room, the temperature changes. The laughter loosens. Nerves settle. Ideas multiply. Again and again, those who know him use the same words: generous, passionate, fearless, kind.
The Art of the Unexpected
Zeke & Cassidy Present Two Nights of Improv
“Just so you know – this is insane, what I’m about to tell you,” warns Cassidy Russell, long-time improv and sketch comedy teacher at the Sitka Fine Arts Camp, recounting an absurd and memorable performance at camp this summer.
Art in Your Backyard
The Watchman Kootéeyaas – Part II
In the summer 2025 issue of the Sitka Arts Guide, we introduced the story of two remarkable totem poles taking shape right here in Sitka – The Watchman Kootéeyaas. Featured under the “Art in Your Backyard” banner, these poles were actually born in our neighbors’ backyard.
Sitka Is…
A Canvas of Creativity
Summer in Sitka is truly magical. Some call it our “Land of Oz,” a place where time bends, colors intensify, and the landscape whispers stories of artistic passion. Sitka is a living, breathing canvas where creativity pulses through every street and shoreline.
Art in Your Backyard
The Watchman Kootéeyaas – Part I
In the 3600 block of Halibut Point Road, we wondered for years about the enormous log residing in our neighbors’ backyard. Through generations, we knew the family next door intimately – exchanging food, offering help and chatting over the fence.
Lola Hitchcock
An Artist Profile
At just 14 years old, Lola Hitchcock is proving that passion knows no age limit. Bridging the worlds of theater, music, and athletics, Lola demonstrates a rare ability to channel her energy into multiple forms of expression.
Sitka’s Dancing Ambassadors
The New Archangel Dancers
Founded in 1969, the New Archangel Dancers are the longest continuously performing arts group in Sitka. Their origins trace back to a group of women who were originally Scottish dancers, but lost their bagpiper.
Gallery by the Sea
Framing Stories – Gay’s Art of Preservation
In a small storefront on Sitka’s main street, art comes to life. At Gallery by the Sea, every artwork is a direct reflection of Gay McCornack’s vision.
Sitka Is…
A Year-Round Arts Utopia
“Well, folks – it’s definitely winter.” Sitka WhaleFest is over, the clocks have been set back, and we’re in the thick of Native American Heritage Month celebrations.
Sitka Wearable Art 2026
Forest to the Sea
It’s a story you’ve heard before. Jeff Budd gets inspired by an arts endeavor in another Southeast town. Years ago, while in Ketchikan, Budd attended one of their Wearable Art productions and enjoyed it so much that he brought the idea home.
Holiday Brass
An Annual Sitka Tradition
It started with a suggestion. Two Sitka Fine Arts Camp board members proposed to director Roger Schmidt that he produce a brass concert to celebrate the holidays. From that simple idea an annual Sitka tradition was born.
Tidal Echoes
Southeast Alaska’s Arts and Literary Journal
Published annually since 2004 by the University of Alaska Southeast (UAS), Tidal Echoes is Southeast Alaska’s premier literary and arts journal.
Sotera Perez
An Artist Profile
Barista, bass player, director, writer, costume designer. Sotera Perez is the complete package when it comes to the arts.
Art In Your Backyard
Ocean Wave Quilters
For nearly 40 years, a passionate group of Sitkans have gathered together to tell stories with fabric – occasionally in their backyards, sometimes in their sewing rooms, and regularly at the United Methodist Church.
Sitka Is…
A Summer Arts Paradise
Sitka is known as the home of abundance in wildlife and outdoor activities. Sitka is also known for an abundance of the arts in summer.
Porch Fest
A Family-Friendly Music and Arts Celebration
“Happy Porch Fest!” says one person to another. “Happy Porch Fest to you, too!” This may sound odd to anyone, except those walking down Lincoln Street on Porch Fest Day. Now in its fourth year, Porch Fest is becoming a Sitka tradition.
Sitka Music Festival 2024
Celebrating 53 Seasons!
The Sitka Music Festival (SMF) was started in 1972 by violinist Paul Rosenthal. This celebration of chamber music has evolved through the decades. “It’s been quite a journey,” says Festival Executive Director Alex Serio.
SFAC Musical Theater Camp
Newsies Takes the Stage in 2024
In late July every year, Broadway comes to Sitka. Broadway, you say? Yes, Broadway – in the form of the Sitka Fine Arts Camp (SFAC) Musical Theater production.
Art In Your Backyard
Lingít Ghíxh’jaa (Tlingít Violin)
What happens when three creative teachers combine sign language, Tlingít language and violin? An amazing program called Lingít Ghíxh’jaa’ (Tlingít Violin).
Sitka is…
Southeast Alaska’s Art Destination
People often wonder what folks do in Sitka during the long, gray winter months. The answer is simple – they go to the theater, they participate in theater, they listen to music, they create music, they attend lectures, they give lectures, they take classes and teach classes. Sitka transforms once the tourist season is over. It becomes a place of art.
The Sitka Nutcracker
Show Takes Center Stage with an Enchanting Alaskan Twist
What do the following have in common: A slime line, a gaggle of tourists, fireweed, bears, northern lights, mosquitos, and snow? If you guessed Alaska and the Nutcracker, you are correct. Wait, what? The Nutcracker?!?! Yes, in 2023 the Sitka Nutcracker takes on the Last Frontier.
Sitka Fine Arts Camp
50 Years in the Making
Roger Schmidt was just five years old when Sitka Fine Arts Camp began in 1973. No one could have known that one day he’d be at the helm of the vessel on a decades-long voyage.
Portrait of an Explorer
A Q&A with Roger Schmidt
Sitka is my home. I grew up here, my family and my friends live here. I have tried professionally and as a volunteer to do what I can to maintain and create the type of community that I want to live in and that I want my children and other children to want to continue to live in.
Art In Your Backyard
The Sitka Monthly Grind
When it comes to entertainment in “your backyard,” nothing fits the bill like the Sitka Monthly Grind. This local variety show begins its season in September and takes its final bow in March each year. Advertised as family friendly and non-political, it is pure art by Sitkans for Sitkans.