Museums Alaska is now accepting applications for the Access to Alaska Native Collections (AANC) program. This program responds to the needs of the Alaska Native artists and culture bearers for access to collections in museums by supporting research visits to museum collections storage in Alaska. As such, Alaska Native artists and culture bearers will be invited to propose a visit to a participating museum’s collection that has a clear benefit to the development of their work.
The grant will cover travel costs for the collections visit—flights, ferries, mileage, per diem, lodging, parking, taxis, and family care needs.
The grant program is made possible with funding from The CIRI Foundation’s A Journey to What Matters: Increased Alaska Native Art & Culture (JWM) and the Henry Luce Foundation and is administered by Museums Alaska. All inquiries must be directed to Museums Alaska.
Eligibility is limited to Alaska Native artists.
Please contact us if you have any questions about the program.
APPLICATION DATES:
Open date - August 10, 2023
Deadline - extended to September 11, 2023 (11:59pm)
Application Draft Review Deadline: August 25, 2023
Funding will be sent out in mid-October 2023 and has to be spent by June 30, 2024, so please plan your travel accordingly.
IMPORTANT DOCUMENTS & LINKS:
Grant Help
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- If you need help filling out the application due to language barriers, lack of access to a computer or internet, or some other reason, please contact us. We can help you complete and submit your application.
- We also have an optional grant review for those who would like help strengthening their application. To submit your application for optional grant review, complete your narrative and budget and submit them to Museums Alaska's director by the review deadline (listed above and in the grant guidelines).
INFORMATION ABOUT ALASKA NATIVE COLLECTIONS AT PARTICIPATING MUSEUMS
Alaska Native Heritage Center - Anchorage
- Please find a brief description of their collections below. If you think they may have a collection you'd like to visit, but would like more information, please contact Angie Demma (907-330-8067).
- The Alaska Native Heritage Center cares for a collection that reflects Alaska Native cultural groups from all five regions of the state. The permanent collection accounts for about 3,000 objects, archives, library books, and photographs. Most recently, over 1,700 cultural belongings were gifted to the Center after the closing of the Wells Fargo Museum. The objects and belongings include fine art, utilitarian objects and tools, regalia, watercraft, instruments, historical photographs, the Institute of Alaska Native arts archival files and photos, and library materials.
- The education collection consists of about 500 objects and will be used up in the course of its life. It includes regalia and objects that are handled at the life-size village sites that are interpreted at the point of contact with Europeans.
Alaska State Museum - Juneau
Anchorage Museum - Anchorage
- Historical photographs include images from the late 19th century to today.
- The art collection represents a survey of visual arts in Alaska from the 18th century to the present, with a strong collection of contemporary Indigenous art.
- The largest component of the heritage items are cultural belongings of Athabascan, Inupiaq, Yup’ik, St. Lawrence Island Yupik, Sugpiaq, Unangan, Tlingit, Tsimshian, and Haida peoples.
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- Library resources include books, maps, periodicals, Alaska artist files, and subject vertical files that include a variety of ephemera related to Alaska.
Cordova Museum - Cordova
Haines Sheldon Museum - Haines
Click here to read a brief description of their collections. They also provided some additional information below. If you think they may have a collection you'd like to visit, but would like more information, please contact Zack James (907-766-2366).
In terms of rare pieces of art and items of cultural matrimony, we primarily steward Tlingit objects. This includes carvings, bentwood boxes, many miniature totems, a significant number of spruce root basketry pieces including 20 gallon plus bags. There are several hundred pieces of hide and bead work as well, and 288 pieces of ivory, mostly art, and mostly collected from various places in Western Alaska around the year 1900.
Click here to see a list of catalog records related to the search term "Tlingit'. It’s not a comprehensive list and omits objects of unknown or non-Tlingit manufacture. If you have questions, or would like more information, please contact Zack.
Ketchikan Museums - Ketchikan
Museum of the Aleutians - Unalaska
Sealaska Heritage Institute - Juneau
University of Alaska Museum of the North - Fairbanks
APPLICATION
To apply, click the button below to go to the grant application. Grant application deadlines can be found in the Application Guidelines document linked above.
Note: The application was created in Google Forms. You cannot save the application and return to it. Please have all your information and documents ready to upload at one time.
Grant Application Link
We have an optional grant review for those who would like help strengthening their application. To submit your application for optional grant review, complete your narrative and budget and submit them to Museums Alaska's director by the review deadline (listed in the grant guidelines).
