This 24,000-sq-ft facility houses a museum, gift shop and a large multipurpose room where short traditional dancing-and-drumming performances take place each afternoon ($20). Local craftspeople often assemble in the lobby to sell masks, whalebone carvings and fur garments and are happy to talk about craft and technique.
In the center’s galleries, displays include everything from poster-sized, black-and-white portraits of local elders to a 35ft-long replica of a bowhead skeleton to a detailed (and artifact-rich) breakdown of traditional whaling culture and hunting practices.
