Native Arts Initiative

This master/apprentice art program seeks to revitalize Dakota art and culture through a series of eight art workshops focused on beading, quilling, tanning and star quilt making.

These eight workshops will provide 75 families with the training and materials to sew traditional textiles, clothing and equipment. Additionally, it will increase these families’ knowledge of Akimel O’otham language and traditions.

This summer art, culture and language school will increase the number of Hopi tribal members skilled at producing Hopi textiles, baskets, and moccasins. The overall goal of this project is to expand this summer school to a year-round art and language immersion school.

This museum and culture center will take its art workshops on the road, traveling to several Pueblos throughout New Mexico to teach artists about selling and marketing their artwork. It will also allow them to network with other artists.

This project seeks to increase the capacity of the Cheyenne River art community by hiring a resource assistant to coordinate a series of workshops on business, marketing and the intergenerational transmission of knowledge.

This project is part of a larger long-term project already underway to reconstruct the Ojibwe Giikendaasowin Village at the newly renovated Waaswaaganing Indian Bowl while at the same time conducting learning demonstration workshops led by master artists and their apprentices. Through these traditional arts workshops, a two-man Wiigwaasi-jiimaan, ricing sticks and paddles, and two traditional Dikinaaganan, among other traditional art forms, will be produced and displayed.

This master/apprentice program seeks to inspire local artists and craftspeople by teaching Oneida youth about traditional art forms, including silver, basketry and pottery. For the youth, this art initiative will increase knowledge of traditional arts. For the artists, it will increase artistic professionalism and create a supportive community network.

These art workshops and classes will provide 50 Lakota youth and family with knowledge, training and materials to make star quilts, regalia, hand drums and beading.

This artist mentorship project will support seven South Dakota artists in residence who will serve as mentors to seven emerging artists, and will also host a summer art camp for tribal youth.

This new art curriculum is intended to increase the capacity of the Pueblo Art Academy. Approximately, five to 10 Pueblo youth will learn about traditional art practices including pottery, fiber arts, sculpture, jewelry, basketry, song, dance and storytelling.

This Native art cooperative seeks to recruit a group of 35 artists/business-owners to develop a strategic plan and create a business plan that will allow them to open an artisans’ store on the Warm Springs Indian Reservation.

This project seeks to convene several departments to draft initial plans for an expanded cultural campus that will revitalize Coast Salish arts and lifeways. Additionally, it will fund two workshops on Coast Salish cedar weaving and cradleboard making.

This art incubator seeks to support artists and community members through several events and activities. With this grant, it will offer several workshops for emerging artists, provide career coaching for experienced artists, host six pop-markets, and hold three art exhibitions.

This project will support the development of the Yavapai-Apache Tribal Artist Committee. The committee will work together to host a series of workshops for tribal youth on pottery, basketry, beading, drum making, gourd making, painting and traditional dress making. Additionally, youth will participate in harvesting, cooking, traditional dance and language classes.

This master/apprentice program focuses on pottery making. In addition to teaching a new generation of Zuni artists, the master artists will also help tribal youth build a positive self-identity and heal from intergenerational trauma.

Local artists will design and teach traditional arts workshops to community members to address and ensure intergenerational transfer of knowledge of important Bois Forte art forms. The project will also be focused on increasing access to arts supplies needed by local artists. Finally, the project will strengthen the governance and mission of the tribe’s museum by supporting a strategic planning process for the board of directors.

Through Dakota Wicohan’s Tawokaga (Art) Apprenticeships program, participants will learn from the community’s master artists via a traditional master/apprentice relationship. Dakota Wicohan provides the physical and financial resources these artists need for their craft, as well as opportunities for both student and master to display their work in sponsored art exhibits. Specifically, the project will serve youth and adults who are new to horse regalia, providing them with the opportunity to learn traditional techniques and the knowledge to create two pieces of horse regalia, present their finished art pieces at several events, and travel to the opening exhibit of the Oceti Sakowin Horse Exhibit.

Diné be’ iiná is dedicated to promoting economic self-sufficiency with sheep wool and sheep culture. Currently, Diné be’ iiná provides support and technical assistance to community “spin-off groups” across the Navajo Nation. These are locally-led, informal cross-generational groups of sheep herders and wool-fiber artists meeting monthly to exchange knowledge about shepherding and hands-on learning of new fiber art techniques. During the course of this project, three spin-off groups will foster at least three apprenticeships who will receive training in traditional fiber arts techniques, marketing, entrepreneurship, leadership, and wool production.

The goal for this project is to bring local Native artists from the Fond du Lac community who specialize in a wide array of traditional Native art forms into the Sawyer Community Center on a set weekly schedule to share their skills and knowledge in a formal classroom setting with 15 local Native youth who are members of the Sawyer Ogichidaag Club.

The Sharing Our Wisdom (SOW) program will create an opportunity for tribal members who are artists to enhance their ability to share their arts knowledge and expand the appreciation of Jemez arts and culture through workshops and classes. Facilitating these workshops through SOW will better enable these self-driven individuals to incorporate the history of the Hemish arts and culture through the historic lens of the Jemez people.

Through Tanyan Unspepi, Cansa’yapi Cultural Department (CCD) will begin gathering the community’s cultural arts from tribal families and artists by engaging and strengthening the relationships with the community’s families and by continuing to foster relationships with tribal artists. During the project period, the CCD will conduct a Cultural Skills Inventory to create a catalogue of the community’s artists for future programming and will sponsor introductory workshops for preserving and digitizing art. The CCD will also seek donations of digital images to share with the community and evaluate and celebrate the project through video interviews with artists and families and through the display of donated works in the community. The newly donated digital materials will be used to create the first-ever digital cultural archive for Cansa’yapi.

This project will target Makah master artists and intergenerational emerging Makah artists. Through professional observation, informal oral and formal written surveys, the MCRC has identified Cultural Community Assets and found that there are limited master artists in the Makah community. This project will provide an opportunity for the master artists to share and transfer their skills and knowledge with emerging apprentice artists. This project will revitalize the Ozette-style of basketry and other artwork that isn’t currently being used very much because of limited access to the collections. Project participants will have expanded access to the Ozette Collection as a result of this project.

This project will serve the Muckleshoot Indian Tribe’s community and will continue to build on the arts inherent to the Muckleshoot people who have for centuries implemented art into their daily lives before the word “art” became a word. Art is not a stand-alone program to the Muckleshoot people; rather, it is their way of life. This program will provide a forum at the tribe to lead educational Native arts classes and workshops. Local Muckleshoot artists and other Native artists will lead and teach classes to youth and adults age 16 and above.

Creating a growing foundation for Native artists on the Colville and Spokane reservations, NNDF will provide group entrepreneurial training for Native artists, technical assistance and strategic planning, and promote entrepreneurial opportunities for the artists. NNDF will procure and manage an artist gallery and also host two Native art shows on the Colville reservation, providing a professional platform for the artists to showcase their work. The project will also facilitate three artist-facilitated sessions in which established artists will be matched with emerging artists to train in studio. It will also allow community members to engage with the artists and view the creative process firsthand.

The Pine Ridge Area Chamber of Commerce (PRACC) intends to expand Native American arts and artist capacity as well as the proliferation of traditional Native arts on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation by instituting an artist-in-residency program at the Pine Ridge Visitor Center. PRACC will host 12 Native artists for one-week shows in the summer of 2018. Each artist will also assist a junior artist or apprentice during their show. Of the 12 junior artists, one will be selected as the 13th artist-in-residence at the end of the summer and will receive a paid booth at the Rapid City Winter Art Market in November 2018.

This Poeh Cultural Arts program will teach approximately 50 Pojoaque Tribal Youth the ancient art of traditional ceremonial regalia-making. Instruction will be by Pojoaque traditional leaders and supported by other tribal member volunteers. The regalia-making will closely follow Pojoaque tradition.

The Wa$xayam Pomki Museum’s Native Art Summer Project will engage the local Native community with the arts by serving as a pillar for intergenerational interactions. All traditional Luiseño arts classes will be taught by the community’s artists and open for enrollment for local tribal members, their descendants and neighboring Cahuilla and Kumeyaay communities.

Native Artists United (NAU) is a group of Native artists located in the Bismarck-Mandan area of North Dakota representing all tribes of North Dakota and some tribes of South Dakota. Under this project, the Sacred Pipe Resource Center will continue working with the NAU in formalizing an artist cooperative, which will support artist members with marketing and sales utilizing Native-based principles. The NAU will also expand its partnership with the Thusweca Beading & Cultural Academy, a youth artist group, to provide artist-to-artist peer mentoring and ensure the sharing of traditional art forms between several generations.

The Chumash Culture Department has worked with the Chumash community for 11 years to bring knowledge bearers into programming for the community. The project will help return traditional basketry to the community for all ages by bringing in a master basketweaver to teach basketry classes throughout the project period. The project will also support at least five basketweavers in their efforts to make and show their baskets at the Annual 2018 California Indian Basketweavers event.

The Urban Native Artists Cohort will provide business development, communications skills, and exhibition training to regional Native artists through a series of workshops. Selected participating artists will provide paid classes in their realm of Native arts to varied sectors of the Native community. Participating artists will also present at least two exhibits during the course of the year in United Indians’ Sacred Circle Gallery.

The Navajo, Hopi, Zuni, Ute Mountain Ute, and Ute Indian Tribes hold deep ties to the geography in Bears Ears National Monument. This project will work with Native artists in the Four Corners area (New Mexico, Utah, Colorado, and Arizona) to conduct an Arts Assessment and Arts Infrastructure Plan. This plan will involve interviewing artists, mapping their ties to the land of the Bears Ears National Monument, building a database of artists, arts champions and arts resources in the area, and reviewing policies for impact on traditional arts. The project will also extend the organization’s artist-in-residence program.

This project’s goal is to educate the Menominee Tribe’s youth and community on traditional Menominee arts while promoting local Native artists. The organization will plan and host a series of artist-led arts classes designed to pass on traditional knowledge and wisdom to the youth and community. Participants will learn how to harvest natural materials specific to the region and design baskets, lacrosse sticks, and other traditional arts forms, which will be exhibited at the end of the project. Last, the project will begin working with artists to explore developing a stronger market to promote, advertise and to sell their work.

The funding will support AICHO’s ongoing Native arts project and will focus on showcasing and supporting traditional art forms in collaboration with Native artists and elders in the community.

The grant will strengthen both The Hopi School’s current arts programming and organizational capacity by providing support for Hopi artists to teach youth about endangered Hopi arts and how to create these art forms, and funding organizational strategic planning and training for The Hopi School board and financial management activities for the organization.

The center will use the grant to support its Daily Artist Program by providing Native artists with an Investing in Artist Success workshop series in which 20 artists will gain tools to promote themselves as artist, market their work, submit their work in art shows, and build professional portfolios.

The funding will support the foundation’s Learning from the Best – Native Artists Learning Together project, which will offer Native artists in the community four peer-learning, educational meetings at the Lakota Cultural Center on the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation. Established, experienced Native American artists and other professionals from the community will work with beginning/emerging artists on topics to include portfolio-building, inventory management, gallery work, presenting themselves and their art in different settings, business preparation and development, and skill-building.

This project will use the funding to focus on the complete inventory process of LEAF’s art collection, a teaching compendium for Native artists in which two LEAF staff members will oversee the inventory process and the organization’s use of objects as educational resources to Native artists, resulting in a professionally inventoried collection of Native art that will be accessible to Native artists and local educational institutions.

The Menominee Historic Preservation Department and Cultural Museum will use the grant to provide a series of traditional Menominee arts workshops taught by artist instructors and organize a strategic planning session with local Native artists, resulting in guidance and direction to better support and promote local Native arts in the future.

The grant will support NACA’s ongoing management of the Oak Creek Vista Vendor Project in partnership with the Coconino National Forest. NACA will provide new Navajo, Hopi and Zuni artist vendors with quarterly vendor orientations to enhance their personal and professional skills to better prepare them to sell their art at the Oak Creek Vista Overlook. The project will also support the NACA Master Apprenticeship Program in which a master jewelry artist will teach 20 members of the community how the artist’s particular style of art is created, and participants will learn how to make other simple traditional Native jewelry pieces.

The grant will support six objectives of the institute’s Art & Archaeology Academy (A3). Under this project, the institute will convene 50 artists at a two-day art institute in which artist participants reflect on the past, present and future of traditional arts in Pueblo communities, the creation of a high school arts curriculum based on the learnings at the art institute and the implementation of the Art & Archaeology Academy’s student and mentor art exhibition and conservation in partnership with the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture. The project will also survey up to 200 Pueblo artists during the 2017 Pueblo Market to gain a better understanding of their views and strategies on preserving traditional Pueblo art forms.

The grant will support the Suquamish Museum’s artist-in-residence program in which a Native artist will be selected to produce his/her art work in public view at the museum and will offer regular, hands-on workshops to teach skills to artists and other community members.

This project will grow the community of Native artists working in the Tulalip reservation and surrounding area by developing an arts curriculum. Through a series of artist-led workshops, the tribe’s Hibulb Cultural Center will provide the space and opportunity for dedicated individuals interested in learning more and exploring their artistic sides.

TMTAA organized and hosted its first annual juried art show in 2016 and will utilize the funding to continue the show in 2017 with seven divisions including Fine Art, Sculpture, Mixed Media, Textiles, Diversified Arts, Beadwork, Baskets for adult artists and four divisions for youth artists (age 7-17). Under this project, the show will offer additional services to participating artists including a training component in which TMTAA staff members work with Native artists on strategies for developing successful art show applications, maximizing sales, and presenting their artwork for optimal sales. The trainings will also support youth/adult mentorships with established artists to help prepare emerging youth artists for the juried art show and other shows.

The funded project, Gathering and Healing Through Arts, will support two goals: increasing access to and awareness and appreciation of Dakota arts in the Upper Sioux community through hosting artist gatherings and showcasing community artists and their art; and increasing the intergenerational transfer of Dakota arts by supporting a communal artist space and nurturing the teaching and sharing of artistic and cultural practices through traditional and contemporary Dakota art forms.

The grant funds will support the efforts of the Warm Springs Artisans’ Community to incorporate as a nonprofit utilizing cooperative principles; provide opportunities for Native artists to sell their work locally, regionally and online; and provide education and training to increase artists’ knowledge of cooperative principles, business and marketing strategies, and sales techniques.

The 11-year-old Woodland Indian Art Show & Market will utilize the funds to work with arts advisory councils at the Lac Courte Oreilles Band of Lake Superior Ojibwe and the Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa to expand Woodland Indian art events for Native artists with the goal of creating the infrastructure necessary to establish a traveling Woodland Indian Art Show and Market based on the WIA model and in partnership among Woodland Indian tribes in Wisconsin.

During the grant period, ZYEP’s six-member master artist committee will undergo training to learn how to create, disseminate and select requests for proposals for traditional Zuni art work that will ultimately be created by local artists in the tribe’s Hon A-wan Park to ensure that the park reflects Zuni’s rich artistic tradition and provides a space for future art creation. After artists are selected, the master artist committee will oversee the development of traditional Zuni artwork in the Hon A-wan Park and provide the contracted artists with technical expertise and training.

Through the Power of We Fundraising and Sustainability training, the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center (IPCC) was able to begin developing a framework to tell the organization’s “Pueblo Story” for use in all of the organization’s development initiatives. IPCC staff who attended the training also gained insight on how other Native American organizations are controlling their message and leveraging relationships to build and fund successful programs/projects. This professional development grant also positioned the IPCC to begin building a realistic funding framework and better identify its strategy.

Through the Power of We Fundraising and Sustainability training, the Keya Foundation’s director was able to learn about relevant fundraising strategies for the organization and train the organization’s Board of Directors to increase its capacity to participate in the organization’s fundraising activities.

The LEAF director will attend a three-day course, “Managing Your Capital Campaign,” conducted by Indiana University’s Lilly Family School of Philanthropy in Phoenix, Arizona. The course will provide the LEAF director with a baseline knowledge of the concepts and terminology of the field of fundraising and also help the director determine LEAF’s readiness for capital fundraising, plan a capital campaign from preparation to celebration, develop gift range charts as development tools, cultivate volunteer leadership, and integrate capital fundraising in the organization’s development plan.

The LOOM Indigenous Gallery Advisory Council received an intensive Strategic Planning Training which positioned the Advisory Council, as one of a few Native-controlled arts organizations in Gallup, to be a strong co-collaborator with Native artists and bring underrepresented perspectives and voices to the table in an effort to facilitate peer-to-peer opportunities between Native artists in the region and support artist-in-residence opportunities.

The tribe’s museum director participated in the 2017 Association of Tribal Archives, Libraries and Museums annual conference to enhance and expand the Menominee Museum’s current strategies for revitalizing and promoting culture and the arts, Native artists, entrepreneurship, and their connection with the community.

A NACA staff member attended the Power of We Fundraising and Sustainability training to provide staff with the opportunity to gain the skills needed to help the organization in fundraising and to explore more diverse revenue streams so that the organization is not as reliant on federal grants.

The Stockbridge-Munsee Museum staff are the caregivers of the tribe’s traditional art forms. This professional development grant supported the participation of the tribe’s museum staff in the Association of Tribal Archives, Libraries, and Museum’s 2017 annual conference and increased their capacity to care for cultural items in the library/museum’s collection. The manager has utilized the new ideas gained from the conference during the planning of exhibits and the retention of artwork, and the conference has helped the library/museum better serve the Native artists and traditional Native arts in the Stockbridge-Munsee Community by making the library/museum manager more aware of the arts in the community and giving information on how to incorporate their art into the library/museum.

The foundation’s executive director participated in the Power of We Fundraising and Sustainability training to help increase the organization’s knowledge of developing and sustaining cultural and arts programs from a financial standpoint. Staff have been able to leverage this additional knowledge to increase the organization’s capacity to implement additional programming and policies that empower community well-being through the continued sharing of cultural and artistic traditions and practices.

The curator of the Tulalip Tribes’ Hibulb Cultural Center attended the Association of Tribal Archives, Libraries, and Museum’s 2017 annual conference to learn about improving the effectiveness of the Hibulb Cultural Center’s exhibitions for visitors to the center and the community’s artists who exhibit their art work in the center.

One artist and one WSCAT staff member attended the Power of We Fundraising and Sustainability Training in order to increase awareness of nonprofit development best practices, especially those related to revenue development, for their emerging artist cooperative. Through this training, staff have gained a basic understanding of financial stability and will position the emerging organization to begin building a strong foundation for development.

The WIA executive administrator and board president participated in the Power of We Fundraising and Sustainability training to support the organization’s newly-formed fundraising committee in developing fundraising strategies and a plan of action for fundraising next steps.

Native POP will utilize the professional development grant to strengthen the leadership and governance capacity of Native POP Organizing Committee members by engaging them in a board development training and strategic planning process. These activities will also position committee members to set priorities for Native POP’s future.

The Shallow Gallery is an innovative exhibit space in Gallup featuring rising-star Native artists who address relevant issues in their work. The professional development grant will be used to support a strategic planning training for the Shallow Gallery Advisory Council, and one Advisory Council member will attend the 2017 Western Museum Association Conference to gain capacity in leadership, governance and management.

The professional development grant will be used to formalize the Yavapai-Apache Nation’s Artist Coordination Team, which will be comprised of local Yavapai-Apache artists, and provide the team with strategic planning training to gain leadership skills. The trainings will position the team to inform the direction of the tribe’s future arts programming, identify ways the tribe can work with its artists, and raise the community’s awareness of traditional Yavapai-Apache art.

The “Community Development Through Creative Placemaking” project will serve primarily young adult and adult artists of the Oglala Sioux Tribe on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. As part of its Regenerative Community project, Thunder Valley is entering the design phase for the “Empowerment Center,” a cultural centerpiece of multiple buildings around the powwow grounds/amphitheater. Once completed, these will include community gathering space, business incubators, artist studios, and artist live/work spaces. The project is focused on continuing to expand the engagement of local artists in the critical development stages of the Empowerment Center, recognizing that creative placemaking is an integral part of making this community beautiful and inspirational for innovation. Thunder Valley will also continue to provide services to the community’s artists, including holding at least three financial literacy trainings with the goal of strengthening the business foundation of artists.

The Cultural Arts Project will continue to provide tribal artists with training and technical assistance in their efforts to establish themselves as entrepreneurs through individual business development. During the project, participating artists will attend three trainings, including financial literacy, social media and marketing to help expand their markets, and business plan development in which tribal artists will be provided with a template in which they can began developing individual business plans and also receive one-on-one training by knowledgeable staff and planners. Artists will also be offered four peer-teaching community events, which will feature an artist demonstrating and teaching his or her art form.

The office’s Gizhiigin Arts Place is a unique economic development model focused on strengthening the arts industry of the White Earth Reservation. During the project, Gizhiigin will serve the White Earth Reservation through four initiatives: 1) the Legacy Art Youth Mentorship Program; 2) the Gizhiigin Artist Career Development Program; 3) the Art Cooperative Incubation; and 4) public and community art projects and events.

Founded in 2006 by volunteers on the Oneida Nation Reservation, the Woodland Indian Art Show & Market will hold its 10th Annual Art Show and Market in July 2016. Woodland’s Managerial Capacity project will bring on a part-time executive director who will focus on 1) building a solid base of volunteers for the organization composed of Native college students and other community members; 2) implementing a solid fiscal policy to build the sustainability of the organization’s board, expand the professional development of the management staff, begin researching and developing an endowment/trust fund, and mapping grant opportunities at private foundations and other funding sources; 3) expanding the organization’s “friend raiser” partnerships with Woodland Indian tribes and tribal organizations; and 4) adopting a sound communications plan that aligns with the organization’s digital marketing efforts.

The “Expanding Cheyenne River’s Art Market” project will build off of the chamber’s past successes at providing entrepreneurial opportunities for Native American artists, increasing awareness of Native American art, and educating on Lakota culture. The project will expand the art market on the Cheyenne River Indian Reservation by implementing these strategies: 1) plan and host Cheyenne River’s 4th Annual Art in the Park for artists to sell their work and others to be exposed to Lakota culture; 2) develop and implement a statewide art marketing campaign to drive art buyers to local art venues and online platforms; 3) facilitate networking opportunities for artists and other business owners to collaborate; and 4) provide art entrepreneurs with additional training, technical assistance and resources so they can achieve their business goals.

The “Exploration and Expansion of the Lakota Artistry Cooperative on the Cheyenne River Reservation” project will develop a business plan for the expansion of the Lakota Artistry Cooperative and an arts supply store at the H.V. Johnson Cultural Center for the Cheyenne River arts community. Based on findings of the business plan, the project will establish a supply store where local artists can purchase supplies without having to travel more than 200 miles roundtrip. The supply store will also provide the option for artists to utilize the store’s online ordering system.

The project is the second of a three-phase effort to build capacity and infrastructure to support the Two Rivers Gallery. The first phase involved developing a new vision, new leadership and reopening the gallery, which has occurred. The second phase involves strengthening the gallery’s collaborations with other organizations both in the arts world and other sectors, including Native and non-Native communities, developing a business and sustainability plan for the gallery, and increasing the gallery’s marketing and media efforts to better support emerging Native artists while providing them additional exposure. The gallery serves the multi-tribal Native community of the Twin Cities by offering opportunities to view, create and learn about art – always for free – and for the broader community to have access to Native artists and to learn about Native cultures and values.

The Gimaajii Mino Bimaadizimin Artist/Community Collaboration will be a year-long art-making and artist-development project for Native American artists primarily from the Fond du Lac, Bois Forte, White Earth, Mille Lacs, Leech Lake Bands and Red Lake Nation. AICHO will work with the Gimaajii community to curate, coordinate and document art-making events, Native artist skill-building and professional development workshops, and collaborative installations and performances. AICHO will develop a website where Native artists display professional photos and sell their art. AICHO will address cost obstacles by funding supplies, providing workshop meals, and paying stipends to artists to lead workshops for residents and community members.

Given the scarcity of Dakota artists and opportunities for making, showing and selling art in their Minnesota homelands, Dakota Wicohan will use the grant for its Tawokaga Program to create opportunities to develop artists and for artists to make art. Dakota Wicohan will also focus on strengthening its organizational capacity to support the artists to be able to better sustain the artists and the arts while also expanding the visibility of and supporting the network for Dakota arts in rural Minnesota. Dakota Wicohan will leverage its recent successes to continue intergenerational apprenticeships, add professional development opportunities for artists, publicize and share Dakota arts, expand the capacity of its in-house programming, and develop and enhance relationships so that Dakota Wicohan can offer more opportunities for their artists.

This project will help revitalize the Native American artists who have been teaching, preserving and showcasing art in the mediums of pottery, quilting/sewing, woodwork/sculpting, beading, leather work, painting/drawing, and quillwork. The Lower Sioux Agency Historic Site will be the hub station for artists to showcase their art, market their products and provide educational workshops to the Lower Sioux Tribal Community members and other Natives in the area. The grant will serve as an apprenticeship program for quilters, potters, beaders and leather workers.

The Red Lake Native Arts Program serves predominantly adult artists and emerging youth artists living on and or near the remote Red Lake Reservation in northwestern Minnesota. Geography and lack of knowledge about the work of Native artists in the area and also small business development have made it difficult to establish a thriving arts economy. The grant will provide a wraparound approach from developing the artist’s personal/business foundation to providing access to expanded markets and the necessary tools for success. By building staff capacity rather than relying on inconsistent volunteer time, the Native Arts Program will become more effective in delivery of key program components: art-specific business training and coaching, sales events, cooperative development and access to capital. The project has the underlying intent to revive and preserve the rich culture and traditions of their Anishinaabe people.

The Little Eagle Arts Foundation (LEAF), founded in 2013, is an emerging Native-led nonprofit that primarily serves artists from the Ho-Chunk Nation and other Wisconsin tribes. LEAF will utilize the grant to expand its capacity as a Native nonprofit. LEAF will plan and implement a board retreat for a planning, growth and expansion project, which will serve the LEAF Board of Directors and the Native artists (predominantly Ho-Chunk and other Great Lakes-area tribes) that benefit from LEAF’s programs. Work will include creation of a formal board handbook, a board retreat, and a strategic plan framework to ensure a standard of good governance. As an emerging nonprofit, LEAF is in an optimal position to put in place the essential elements of good governance. This valuable work will provide LEAF with a strong footing to build a stable board and an organization that can achieve its mission of serving Native artists in Wisconsin.

The Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians has experienced a loss of art forms that were essential to its heritage and culture. Creating an authentic Native American artwork project will assist in redeveloping the lost arts. The Turtle Mountain Tribal Arts Association has created an art project, the Artistic Renewal and Preservation Project, consisting of three component: beadwork, red willow basket creation, and dance regalia, focusing on the traditional styles of the ancestors. The project is designed to provide past, present and new artists with the opportunity to build upon their skills and become master artists and entrepreneurs. The project also will involve peer-learning and sharing opportunities in which traditional master artists will teach community members in hands-on art sessions that are open to all enrolled tribal members.

Four Bands Community Fund, a Native-controlled nonprofit Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI), administers the “Rediscovering Native Art on Cheyenne River” project to strengthen the arts sector on the Cheyenne River Reservation by building the capacity of a communal art space, building the capacity of local Native artists, developing and implementing a reservation-wide art marketing program, and developing and distributing a best practices guide so that the project can be replicated in other reservation communities. To maximize the impact of this project, Four Bands Community Fund partners with key organizations that are also dedicated to promoting Native art and culture.

Located within the Minneapolis American Indian Center (MAIC), a Native-controlled 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, the Two Rivers Gallery has provided a venue for local American Indian artists since 1976. In 2014-2015, the MAIC will revitalize the Gallery through organizational development and by providing resources for local American Indian artists to hold exhibits in the Gallery. Local American Indian artists will be invited to participate in six community shows in 2015. The re-launch of the Gallery will add to the revitalization of the MAIC. Located along the American Indian Cultural Corridor in south Minneapolis, the MAIC has been the heart of the American Indian community. The Two Rivers Gallery will add to the rich culture of the community and history of the MAIC.

Sitting Bull College, a Tribal College accredited by the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Higher Education, currently provides opportunities for artists to show what they do, market their products and services, and learn topics relevant to their success. The purpose of this project is to create a community infrastructure that will more effectively market and coordinate the artists’ relevant programs and services and increase the quality of the programs and services offered to community artists.

The Lakota Fund, Inc. (TLFI), a Native-controlled Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) serving the Pine Ridge Reservation, provides Oglala Lakota artists with financial services and business skills development. Selected artists will access capital and expand marketing of their work. An estimated 30% of Pine Ridge Reservation households earn some income from arts and crafts. However, economic well-being for families and the community is often lost because these endeavors are not run as businesses, are undercapitalized, and lack marketing opportunities. By helping individual artists, this project will boost the entire art industry in this region. TLFI will establish an Artists Division within TLFI to maintain this focus beyond the scope of this project. The current TLFI Strategic Plan focuses organizational efforts on creating and expanding Native business; the new Artists Division will assure that focus remains on art entrepreneurs, a group who helped Lakota Fund get started.

The purpose of the White Earth Nation’s Gizhiigin Art Place Project is to assist, promote and foster the growth and development of local artists and entrepreneurs with a unique focus on community involvement while increasing the visibility of the local artists and entrepreneurs. The project will succeed in its purpose by giving the clients and all those involved a viable skill set and valuable business knowledge that will allow them to use their creative abilities to make a viable living. In 2015, the project will house up to six clients at its location in Mahnomen, Minnesota, and offers them a workspace, access to high-speed internet, business plan development, along with access to local resources with the knowledge and expertise to assist them with any business development needs.

Woodland Indian Art, Inc. (WIA), a community organization located on the Oneida Tribe of Indians of Wisconsin reservation, promotes and educates the public about the uniqueness of Woodland Indian Art. WIA also organizes and administers an annual Woodland Indian Art Show and Market, which includes a juried art competition, artist workshops, youth art competition and an art market. WIA is working to increase its organizational capacity as a nonprofit and strategic infrastructure by creating a sustainable business/marketing plan for WIA and an action plan to increase revenue to support and expand WIA’S activities. By increasing the organizational capacity of Woodland Indian Art, Inc. it will have the ability to expand its focus to a “festival” type event which includes performing artists and more art workshops from the targeted Midwest tribes, as well as an increased number of artists and public who decide to participate. This project will strengthen the board and other volunteers through training and implementation of strategic long-term planning for growth and sustainability.