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Mobilizing the Community Through the Arts

Support for Communities

Total Allocation: $168,249

In 2010, Mobilizing the Community grants were awarded 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, youth programs, or projects that encourage civic dialogue.

The awards are highlighted by projects which offer a great measure of teaching and instruction for participants. Of the 11 grantees, two are university educational institutions focusing on Native arts and culture – one offering an artist in residency program in-house and the other establishing a relationship with a tribal entity outside the institution.  Two of the grantees are Hawaiian festivals – one on the continent and the other on Hawai’i – both offering some form of training in traditional practices. The remaining seven projects all feature education and focus on the transmittance of cultural traditions – basketmaking and weaving, carving, language preservation, and other cultural practices.

* Click on Organization's name for more information

Grantees:

Alutiiq Museum & Archeological Repository

in
Location: 
Kodiak, AK
Award: 
$19,230
Project: 

“Weaving Tradition”

Website: 
Alutiiq Museum and Archeological Repository
application/pdf iconAlutiiq Museum and Archeological Repository

The Alutiiq Museum is one of the premier cultural centers in Native Alaska and their Executive Director, Sven Haakanson, is a MacArthur Foundation fellow. Funding for the Weaving Traditions supported an education based weaving project featuring elder weavers teaching week-long basket weaving workshops to 30 students in five rural Alutiiq schools.

Blas Aguilar Adobe Museum & Acjachemen Center

in
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. The Blas Aguilar Adobe Museum and Acjachemen Center museum fosters the preservation and continuity of the tribe’s cultural patrimony.  Funding for the Acjachemen Cultural Revitalization Project supported a cultural revitalization project highlighted by nine monthly tribal workshops, led by traditional cultural practitioner Domingo Belardes.

Diné be’ iiná, Inc. (The Navajo Lifeway)

in
Location: 
Window Rock, AZ
Award: 
$15,840
Project: 

“Navajo Lifeways and the Arts: What Plants Can Teach Us”

Website: 
The Navajo Lifeway
application/pdf iconDiné be’ iiná, Inc. Fact Sheet

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.

Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA)

in
Location: 
Santa Fe, NM
Award: 
$10,000
Project: 

“Mescalero Water Tank Documentation”

Website: 
Institute of American Indian Arts
application/pdf iconAnnoucement

Ke Kukui Foundation

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Location: 
Vancouver, WA
Award: 
$20,000
Project: 

“3 Days of Aloha in the Pacific Northwest”

Website: 
Ke Kukui Foundation

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 3 Days of Aloha in the Pacific Northwest supported a summer festival that features a hula competition, traditional Hawaiian dance and music performances, arts and crafts vendors, and traditional hula and craft workshops.

Kua’aina Associates

in
Location: 
Berkeley, CA
Award: 
$10,000
Project: 

“Emerging Indigenous Voices: A New Generation of Artists”

Website: 
Kua’aina Associates

Kua’aina Associates is a cultural preservation organization that supports cultural programming across a network of Native artists and organizations, primarily in the Bay Area in California. Funding for this project supported an artist-in-residency project with 12 emerging indigenous artists who were mentored by a faculty of 7 established Native artists and cultural practitioners.

Longhouse Education and Cultural Center

in
Location: 
Olympia, WA
Award: 
$20,000
Project: 

“National Native Master Artist Initiative: Artists Teaching Artists”

Website: 
Longhouse Education and Cultural Center
application/pdf iconLonghouse Education and Cultural Center

Maine Indian Basketmakers Alliance (MIBA)

in
Location: 
Old Towne, ME
Award: 
$20,000
Project: 

“Basketry Workshops in the Wabanaki Tribes in Maine”

Website: 
Maine Indian Basketmakers Alliance

The Maine Indian Basketmakers Alliance (MIBA) is the premier basketmaking organization on the east coast, functioning as a collective and fostering the preservation of traditional basketmaking practices. In 1993 tribal baskemakers from the four federally recognized tribes in Maine (Maliseet, Micmac, Passamaquoddy, and Penobscot) realized there were fewer than a dozen weavers younger than the age of 50 statewide amongst a tribal population of 6,000. Today, due to MIBA programs, the average age of the 125 MIBA basket makers is 40.

Moku O Keawe Foundation

in
Location: 
Waikoloa, HI
Award: 
$20,000
Project: 

“Moku O Keawe Hula Festival”

Website: 
Moku O Keawe Foundation
application/pdf iconMoku O Keawe International Festival Program

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 supported a fall festival that included 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.

Nahahiganseck Language Committee

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Location: 
Charleston, RI
Award: 
$12,000
Project: 

“Preserving Nahahiganseck Language Through Song”

The Nahahiganseck Language Committee fosters the continuity, revival and integration of the Naragansett language into the community. With a tribal population of 2,400, the Naragansett are the only tribe in the state of Rhode Island and in 1978, the state settled out of court to return 1,800 acres of land to the tribe.

Sealaska Heritage Institute

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Location: 
Juneau, AK
Award: 
$6,636
Project: 

“Tlingit Paddle Carving Project”

Website: 
Sealaska Heritage Institute

The Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI) provides cultural programming for the Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian people of southeast Alaska. SHI develops and implements programming for the preservation and perpetuation of Southeast Alaska’s Native art and culture. Primary constituencies are the approximately 22,000 Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian of the region and in the lower 48.