The Friends of Sheldon Jackson Museum invite Alaska Native artists to submit an application for the 2025 Alaska Native Artist Residency Program. The deadline to apply is January 15, 2025. Residencies are 18-22 days long and are scheduled for July 16-August 4, August 11-31, September 3-22, and September 23-October 14. All residency positions include a $2,300 artist stipend, a $735 food stipend, lodging, and travel to and from Sitka. While in residence, artists create art in an open studio-like format in the museum gallery and engage with the community through:1) Cultural Consultations; 2) Artist Talks; and 3) teaching an art form or art forms. Positions will be filled as funding allows and is contingent upon grant awards.
Artists may focus on traditional or contemporary Native art forms, including but not limited to wood carving, ivory carving, silver engraving, beading, skin, gut and fish skin sewing, drum making, basket or textile weaving, drumming, and dancing. Outstanding beginners and experienced artists are welcome. Artists benefit from utilizing the museum’s collections for research and meeting visitors from around Alaska, the world, and the local Sitka community while working in the museum gallery.
During cultural consultations, artists and culture bearers help further document the museum’s artifacts, providing invaluable information and insight. Artists benefit from consultations as the paid study time offers inspiration for new works of art and connections to the works of ancestors. Paid time accessing and studying the museum’s exceptional Alaska Native ethnographic and art collection occurs in the museum gallery and in collections storage. Artists’ insights are documented and added to records.
Artists are encouraged to give several artist talks while in residence. Artists give biographical presentations, sharing their art form(s) and cultural background; speak about specific artifacts at the museum; and have the option to give a talk on a topic of their choice. Artists may opt to present on a wide variety of topics, from decolonization and cultural appropriation to personal reflections and research on the museum's founder Sheldon Jackson, his collecting, and the Sitka Industrial Training School, a boarding school formerly located on the Sheldon Jackson campus. All artists give an informal presentation at the end of the residency to showcase what artworks they created or began during their time at the museum.
Go to the 2025 Alaska Native Artist Residency Program page to apply or call the museum at (907) 747-8981 and request an application be emailed or mailed.
If you have questions about the program or application, please email Jacqueline.Fernandez-Hamberg@alaska.gov or call (907) 747-8904. Applications are due Jan. 15, 2025.
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