Grantees: 2010 Mobilizing the Community Through the Arts
Total Allocation: $168,249.00
Support for community based programming: Grants in support of community arts participation projects which incorporate heritage practice, language and story preservation, cultural mapping, traditional arts apprenticeships, public art, cultural celebrations and festivals, programs that engage youth, or projects that encourage civic dialogue.
Grantees:
1. Alutiiq Museum and Archeological Repository – Kodiak, AK
2. Dine be’ iiná (The Navajo Lifeway) – Window Rock, AZ
3. Longhouse Education and Cultural Center – Olympia, WA
4. Maine Indian Basketmakers Alliance (MIBA) – Old Towne, ME
5. Nahahiganseck Language Committee of the Naragansett Tribe – Charleston, RI
6. Sealaska Heritage Institute – Juneau, AK
7. Blas Aguilar Adobe Museum and Acjachemen Cultural Center – San Juan Capistrano, CA
8. Moku O Keawe Foundation – Waikoloa, HI
9. Ke Kukui Foundation – Vancouver, WA
10. Kua’aina Associates – Berkeley, CA
11. Institute of American Indian Arts – Santa Fe, NM
Alutiiq Museum and Archeological Repository
Location: Kodiak, AK
Award: $19,230
Project: “Weaving Tradition”
The Alutiiq Museum is one of the premier cultural centers in Native Alaska. Their Executive Director, Sven Haakanson, is a MacArthur Foundation fellow. Funding will support an education based weaving project featuring elder weavers who will teach week-long basket weaving workshops to 30 students in five rural Alutiiq schools. The project will foster intergenerational ties, preserve heritage practices, and create a basketmaking workbook for each of the schools.
Diné be’ iiná, Inc. (The Navajo Lifeway)
Location: Window Rock, AZ
Award: $15, 840
Project: “Navajo Lifeways and the Arts: What Plants Can Teach Us”
Dine be' iina, Inc. (The Navajo Lifeway) works in support of Dine producers and weavers, assisting sheep, goat, and fiber producers in the Navajo Nation with technical and educational information in sustaining economic self-sufficiency. Funding will support a cultural preservation project that incorporates media arts and cultural technology with fiber and shepherding arts, investigating 10-15 plants and documenting their web of interrelationships, recovering stories, traditional practices, and inter-generational sharing at the heart of the Navajo sheep culture. The project will maintain cultural values in a contemporary world and cultivate traditional knowledge through community dialogue, exhibits, and a bilingual DVD.
Longhouse Education and Cultural Center
Location: Olympia, WA
Award: $20,000
Project: “National Native Master Artist Initiative: Artists Teaching Artists”
Housed at the Evergreen State College, the Longhouse is one of the foremost Native educational institutions in the country. Funding will support a residency program and will award three $5000 grants to master Native artists to teach established or emerging artists within an intensive community workshop setting. The key component in the project is artistic impact – artists work with masters in the field to polish their skills, explore new avenues for creation, and strengthen networks of native artists in traditional and contemporary art forms.
Maine Indian Basketmakers Alliance (MIBA)
Location: Old Towne, ME
Award: $20,000
Project: “Basketry Workshops in the Wabanaki Tribes in Maine”
The Maine Indian Basketmakers Alliance is the premier basketmaking organization on the east coast, functioning as a collective and fostering the preservation of traditional basketmaking practices. Funding will support a cultural preservation project anchored by workshops on 5 Wabanaki reservations, led by master weavers who will work with youth in the creation of baskets – from the gathering of materials to the weaving of baskets. The workshops will foster intergenerational activity and cultivate the preservation of traditional heritage survival practices rooted in the land.
Nahahiganseck Language Committee of the Naragansett Tribe
Location: Charleston, RI
Award: $12,000
Project: “Preserving Nahahiganseck Language Through Song”
The Nahahganseck Language Committee fosters the continuity, revival and integration of the Naragansett language into the community. Funding will support a language preservation project utilizing song and featuring Nammy award winning vocalist, Jennifer Kreisberg, working with community members to create new music to accompany songs written by the Naragansett community. The project will distribute a CD created from the collaboration to tribal members.
Sealaska Heritage Institute
Location: Juneau, AK
Award: $6636
Project: “Tlingit Paddle Carving Project”
The Sealaska Heritage Institute provides cultural programming for the Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian people of southeast Alaska. Funding will support a youth education project targeting high school students at the Juneau-Douglas High School, ages 15-18, each of whom will design, carve, finish, and publicly display a ceremonial Tlingit paddle during a 12 week period of instruction by Native Alaskan artist, Donald Gregory. Students will learn the protocols of gathering wood, creating designs, and preserving their paddles, thus developing their knowledge of cultural traditions and maintaining vital canoe culture heritage practices.
Blas Aguilar Adobe Museum and Acjachemen Cultural Center
Location: San Juan Capistrano, CA
Award: $14,543
Project: “Acjachmen Cultural Revitalization & Youth Documentation Project”
The Acjachemen are representative of the myriad of ethnic groups found along the California coast and the museum fosters the preservation and continuity of the tribe’s cultural patrimony. Funding will support a cultural revitalization project highlighted by monthly tribal workshops, led by traditional cultural practitioner Domingo Belardes. The project promotes community vitality, builds community understanding between the land and cultural activities, and gives tribal members ownership of stories, histories and culture.
Moku O Keawe Foundation
Location: Waikoloa, HI
Award: $20,000
Project: “Moku O Keawe Hula Festival”
Moku O Keawe Hula Festival is the major international hula competition on the west side of Hawai’i Island, taking place annually in November. Funding for the project will support a fall festival that includes international hula competitions, Hawaiian culture workshops, a Hawaiian marketplace, Ho’ike, and Hawaiian music concerts, offering students and teachers opportunities to explore historic ceremonial sites, relate land sites to traditional story and dance, and develop weaving, instrument making, and food production practices. The festival significantly impacts the local economy, provides local Native Hawaiians with meaningful education, and serves as a gathering place for Hawaiian dancers, cultural practitioners, artists, and musicians.
Ke Kukui Foundation
Location: Vancouver, WA
Award: $20,000
Project: “3 Days of Aloha in the Pacific Northwest”
Ke Kukui Foundation supports the preservation of Hawaiian/Polynesian culture through community events, education, music and the art of hula in communities throughout Washington and Oregon. Funding for the project will support a summer festival that features a hula competition, traditional Hawaiian dance and music performances, arts and crafts vendors, and traditional hula and craft workshops. The festival preserves cultural traditions, promotes traditional culture, and serves to educate participants in the historic significance of Hawaii on the region.
Kua’aina Associates
Location: Berkeley, CA
Award: $10,000
Project: “Emerging Indigenous Voices: A New Generation of Artists”
Kua’aina is a cultural preservation organization that supports cultural programming across a network of Native artists and organizations. Funding will support an artist-in-residency project taking place over 6 weeks on Maui, HI with emerging indigenous artists who will be mentored by a faculty of established Native artists and cultural practitioners. This project offers Native students professional development training that includes building artistic assets, entrepreneurship, documentation, resume building, and gallery relations in an intensive workshop environment.
Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA)
Location: Santa Fe, NM
Award: $10,000
Project: “Mescalero Water Tank Documentation”
IAIA is the foremost native arts education institution offering four-year degrees in Studio Arts, Visual Communication, Creative Writing and Museum Studies. Funding will support a education based cultural preservation project working in collaboration with the Mescalero Apache bringing IAIA staff together with Apache youth to document, as artifacts, nearly forgotten water tanks used by Apache “cowboys” during the heyday of cattle ranching in the area in the mid 20th century. The project will preserve memories of a time of cultural significance in the history of the tribe, while providing invaluable artistic and cultural training in an environment that has produced a significant reduction in local education services. The collaboration will foster mentorship, educational outreach into tribal communities, and a cultural link between Apache youth and IAIA.