A bright northern light

The walls of the Museum of the North stand out against the Alaska sky like bold white brush strokes on blue canvas.

Visitors say the swooping exterior of the expanded University of Alaska museum reminds them of breaching whales or northern lights.

The building taking shape on a Fairbanks hill stands out because it’s more Sydney Opera House than the low-bid, big-box discount store that is typical Alaskan architecture.

“It’s as far away from a box as you can possibly get,” says Aldona Jonaitis, director of the museum.

Due to open in September, the museum’s long-awaited second phase is as striking as the art and natural history exhibits inside. Practical as well, the addition will allow the display of 90% of the museum’s art collection, provide lab space for everything from whale dissection to DNA testing of century-old feathers, and even office windows for every full-time staff member, a plus in the light-starved winter months.

The museum opened in 1980 in a 39,000-square-foot building. Exhibits included the Ice Age’s only restored steppe bison mummy, Blue Babe; Alaska’s largest public display of gold, including a palm-size nugget; and artifacts from Alaska’s native people. It became a top tourist attraction.

But ever since, Jonaitis said, museum backers have ached to expand. “We need more space,” she said.

When the time finally came, planners decided to try to duplicate the experience of the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain.

“Other museums that have created what we call signature buildings have experienced the same ‘Bilbao effect,’ where the building becomes a destination,” Jonaitis said. “I said, ‘We really need to do this because we need to get tourists here in the summer to help us pay our bills.’ ”

A combination of private, state and federal money -- about $32.75 million for construction, an additional $6 million or so for equipment and other costs -- will expand the museum to 81,000 square feet in a design by Minneapolis architect Joan Soranno of Hammel, Green and Abrahamson.

A ramp at the gallery entrance will lead to three works: a painting of Mt. McKinley by landscape artist Sydney Laurence, an Inupiaq parka of ground squirrel, wolf and wolverine fur by Helen Seveck of Kotzebue and Point Hope, and an Eskimo ivory sculpture known as the Okvik Madonna.

“It’s our finest artwork,” Jonaitis said of the last piece. “It was made more than 2,000 years ago.”

The placement reflects the theme of the gallery.

“We want to show that Alaska art is not just the Sydney Laurence paintings, although that’s a very important part of Alaska art,” Jonaitis said. “We want to say that native art and nonnative art are of equal value. Art that’s been called art and things that have been called craft like quilts are of equal value. We want to open people’s minds to the broadness of what art is all about.”