Evergreen Names 2008 National Native Master Artists

The Longhouse Educational and Cultural Center at Evergreen Names 2008 National Native Master Artists

The Longhouse Education and Cultural Center at The Evergreen State College is pleased to announce its 2008 national grant recipients. Twenty four grants were awarded to Native artists, organizations and tribes throughout the United States.

Four grants up to $5,000 were awarded through the National Native Master Artist Initiative: Artist Teaching Artists program and twenty grants up to $2,000 were awarded through the National Native Creative Development Program.  The Longhouse’s national re-granting program is made possible by the Ford Foundation’s IllumiNation Program, which was established to strengthen Native arts and cultures throughout the United States.

The National Native Master Artist Initiative: Artist Teaching Artists program is designed to create opportunities to promote Native arts and cultures within urban and rural Native communities throughout the United States.   The grant provides an opportunity for a Master Native Artist to teach other Native artists, whether established or emerging, within a community setting.  Organizations may apply for funds to support a master Native artist to be in residence for the purpose of teaching a form of visual or performing arts to Native artists within the community.

2008 National Native Master Artist Initiative: Artist Teaching Artists include:

M. Cochise Anderson (Chickasaw/Mississippi Choctaw), Ed Edmo (Shoshone-Bannock), Clarissa Hudson (Tlingit) and the Yakama Nation Language Program

The National Native Creative Development Program (NNCDP) addresses the professional development needs of individual artists.  Grants are awarded to artists that are interested developing a website, traveling to artist gatherings, and purchasing tools, supplies, materials, and studio time, etc.

2008 National Native Creative Development recipients include:

Marcus Amerman (Choctaw), Shawn Brigman (Spokane), Raven Chacon (Diné), Victor A. Charlo (Bitterroot Salish), Kelly Church (Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians), Wade Fernandez, Sr. (Menominee), Erin Genia (Sisseton-Wahpeton), Pauline Hillaire (Lummi), Anna Hoover (Aleut), Clarissa Hudson (Tlingit), Janice Jackson (Tlingit/Tsimshian/Haida), Sonya Oberly (Nez Perce), Sandra Osawa (Makah), Michael Peters (Squaxin Island), Shaun Peterson (Puyallup), Joseph Seymour, Jr. (Squaxin Island), Cedar Sherbert (Santa Ysabel Iipay), Ronald Washington (Northern Arapaho), Melanie Yazzie (Diné) and Rona Yellow Robe-Walsh (Chippewa-Cree)

For more information about the Longhouse grant programs, visit http://www.evergreen.edu/longhouse/grantprograms.htm