We are happy to announce our second round of Alaska Art Fund (AAF) and Collections Management Fund (CMF) grantees! In this round, we are awarding $201,714.17 to eleven museums and cultural organizations across Alaska.
As always, a huge thank you goes out to Rasmuson Foundation for their continued support for these important grant programs!
We also want to thank our amazing panelists who spent their personal time to carefully consider the applications and have provided thoughtful advice and comments for each applicant.
And without further ado, congratulations to the following grant recipients!
Collections Management Fund – Round 2 Grants – $127,314.17
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$13,850 – The Anchorage Museum will provide conservation assistance to recently exposed and damaged cultural heritage from the Nunalleq site and train community members and staff of the Nunalleq Cultural Center.
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$8,302.75 – Ketchikan Museums will replace the last of the 1980’s and 1990’s inefficient, incandescent lighting in the lower level gallery of the Totem Heritage Center, allowing them to meet light level standards and provide a higher level of collections care.
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$19,913.36 – The Alutiiq Museum & Archeological Repository will move collections off-site, starting with stone artifacts stored in the basement, in preparations for the renovation of AMAR facilities starting in mid-2023.
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$19,985.91 – The Eagle Historical Society and Museums will assess and conserve a pair of moosehide drapes and seven ecclesiastic textiles that have been in use or displayed since 1899/1900 in Eagle’s historic St Paul’s Church.
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$9,342.15 – The Museum of the Aleutians will complete an inventory, cataloging, photographing, and rehousing project for their World War II Artifact Collection.
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$19,920 – The Aleutian Pribilof Islands Association will work with a conservator to provide professional treatment for 12 baskets, assess 16 culturally significant items, and provide staff preventative care training.
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$20,000 – The Alaska Law Enforcement Museum will work with a conservator to complete an assessment survey of the textiles and clothing in their collection and to host a workshop on the care of textiles and clothing for themselves and several local museums.
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$16,000 – The Cape Fox Cultural Foundation will move 1899 Edward H. Harriman Expedition artifacts—repatriated by the Sanyaa Kwáan belonging to the Teikweidi and Neix.ádi clans. They are currently in a location with insufficient protection from the elements and will be moved to a safer location.
Alaska Art Fund – Round 2 Grants – $74,400
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$9,000 – The Alutiiq Museum & Archeological Repository will commission a contemporary snow-falling parka from Kodiak Alutiiq Elder and master skin sewer Susan Malutin to fill a significant gap in their collection.
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$3,000 – Ketchikan Museums will acquire Killerwhale Spirit Button Robe Collar, by Janice L. Jackson (Aanchgwanutk’) to fill a significant gap in their collection.
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$1,200 – The Museum of the Aleutians will commission a woven grass basket from Akutan weaver Antoinette (Tina) Kudrin Gauen depicting the Islands of the Fours Mountains, a sacred place to the Unangax^. The piece will fill a gap in their basket collection.
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$10,000 – The Anchorage Museum will commission a large-scale 3’ x 5’ woodblock print by Iñupiaq artist Sarah Ayaqi Whalen-Lunn depicting a woman bound and tethered by ropes, hanging from a uterus. The piece was created as a reflection of “current issues and how women’s bodies are used against them,” and is being added to the Anchorage Museum’s collection to represent an artist’s response to the historic 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization Supreme Court ruling.
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$5,000 – The Alaska State Museum will acquire This One by artist Sara Tabbert, consisting of two 20″x16″ cradled panels, of natural and dyed veneer on carved panel, relief printing. The acquisition will fufill the museum’s goal of collecting a Tabbert piece, expanding their woodworking and relief carving collection, and enhancing their collection of artists outside of SE Alaska.
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$35,000 – The Alaska Native Heritage Center will acquire the piece, Indian Children Bracelets, by preeminent Tlingit and Unangax artist, Nicholas Galanin. The engraved artwork is a resurfaced pair of tiny handcuffs that visually conceptualize the removal of Indigenous children from their families during the Boarding School era (1860-1978). The piece will fill several gaps in their collection and assist them in telling the story of the Boarding School era.
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$1,200 – The Cordova Museum will acquire Mt Eccles, a large 31” x 55” energetic, mixed media painting by Sharlene Cline with beautiful brushwork of Mt. Eccles, a signature Cordova Mountain. The piece will enhance their collection as it features a medium not currently represented in their collection and the painting is of an iconic, local geographical feature.
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$10,000 – The Aleutian Pribilof Islands Association will commission a set of four traditional visors by Alaskan artist Okalena Patricia Lekanoff-Gregory. In Southwestern Alaska, there are very few of these traditional visors in the communities, so the organization is building their traditional arts collection to display and share these commissions with tribal members and aspiring artists in their communities.
Congratulations to everyone on their success
