WYOMING — The Wyoming Arts Council today announced they will be offering a new Native Art Fellowship designed to raise the profiles of the highly talented Native artists in Wyoming and celebrate their artistry.
For years, the Wyoming Arts Council has hosted annual fellowships for the visual, literary, and performing arts that are merit-based and juried by professionals from outside the state.
This year, the Arts Council is also offering a Native Art Fellowship. Structured similarly to the other fellowships, the Native Art Fellowship is an unrestricted $3,000 award that is open to Native artists based within Wyoming, across any artistic discipline or medium (visual, literary, performing, folk & traditional, etc.)
This fellowship was partially inspired by a presentation at the 2019 Wyoming Arts Summit in Cheyenne from Abi Whiteing (Blackfeet) and Catherine Bryan (Navajo) of the First Nations Development Institute.
Their presentation focused on the ways that Native communities and causes, including Native artists, have been under-supported by philanthropic organizations and grantmaking, as outlined in their publication, “We Need to Change How We Think: Perspectives on Philanthropy’s Underfunding of Native Communities and Causes.” The Native Art Fellowship will serve as another step in the Wyoming Arts Council’s initiative towards equitable grantmaking practices.
For the fellowship’s inaugural year, the two jurors will be Molina Parker (Lakota), of Red Shirt, SD, and Adrienne Benjamin (Anishinaabe) of Isle, MN.
Further information can be found on the Arts Council website, wyomingartscouncil.org. The application and a complete list of eligibility requirements can be found on Submittable. Applications for the Native Art Fellowship will be accepted from April 15 – June 10.
