Native Arts
Supporting Native Arts, Languages, And Cultures
American Indian communities face the risk of losing traditional arts, tribal languages, and cultural knowledge.
Strong Native communities are built on tribal languages, cultural knowledge, and traditional arts. With many communities facing the risk of loss of language, culture, and traditional arts, we provide grants and support for communities to restore, sustain, and pass on traditional knowledge.
Native Arts Enrichment and Expansion
Active Program Dates: 2020 – 2023
The Native Arts Enrichment and Expansion program purposes to enrich, enhance, and expand traditional and contemporary Native arts knowledge and skills at tribal colleges and universities (TCUs) and the communities that they serve.
High School Equivalency Community Building Grant in Native Arts
Active Program Dates: 2022 – 2023
The High School Equivalency Community Building Grant in Native Arts was a pilot program that supported TCU grantee partners to incorporate Native culture into their high school equivalency (HSE) programming through implementation of Native Arts community workshops hosted by their HSE programs and students. The purpose of the program was to encourage HSE student and alumni engagement in community building and support the transfer of intergenerational knowledge and skill.
Restoration and Preservation of Traditional Native Art Forms and Knowledge
Active Program Dates: 2013 – 2020
The American Indian College Fund has created a re-granting opportunity for Tribal Colleges and Universities (TCUs) to enhance the capacity of traditional Native art forms and knowledge at participating TCUs in the upper-Midwest.
National Endowment for the Humanities Grant
Active Program Dates: 1997 – Ongoing
The College Fund was awarded the Challenge Grant in 1993 by the National Endowment for the Humanities which led to the establishment of the NEH Cultural Preservation Endowment Program. The NEH Cultural Preservation Endowment supports cultural preservation and revitalization efforts for all 35 TCUs.
The Anheuser Busch Foundation Cultural Preservation Grant
Active Program Dates: 2014 – 2017
The Anheuser Busch Foundation Cultural Foundation Preservation Grant program was introduced in early 2014 and provides one-time annual awards to a selected tribal college or university (TCU) for the purpose of supporting cultural preservation.
Related Blogs
Connecting, Learning and Growing: Native Arts Convening
The American Indian College Fund (the College Fund) hosted a Native Arts convening in Seattle, Washington in September, 2018. Seven program Administrators of the Restoration and Preservation of Traditional Native Art Forms and Knowledge Grant participated in the Native Arts convening from the College of Menominee Nation, Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwa Community College, Leech Lake Tribal College, Nueta Hidatsa Sahnish College, Sisseton Wahpeton College, Sitting Bull College and United Tribes Technical College.
Place-Based Learning as a Framework for Building Native Student Success
This is a collaborative series developed by the College Fund’s Environmental Sustainability, Native Arts and Early Childhood Education program initiatives. This is the first blog of a six-part series focused on place-based education.
Navajo Rug Weaving: Learnings from the Loom
Bridget Skenadore, Project Officer of Native Arts and Culture at the American Indian College Fund, had the opportunity to participate in the Heard Museum’s Navajo rug weaving workshop in November 2017. In her job capacity she has had the opportunity to learn about Traditional Native Art forms from the upper-Midwest and with this opportunity from the Heard Museum she was able to learn about a Traditional Native Art form from her culture.
Traditional Native Arts Sister Site Visit: Sitting Bull College’s Skirt-Making Workshop
This weekend, Denise McKay, a Tribal Elder from Fort Yates, North Dakota, brought me to a point in my life that inspired me to look differently at life and my surroundings. Listening to her stories, how she spoke about her mother with love, how she cradled everything that was taught to her, and how she spreads her knowledge to anyone who wants to learn put such a joy in my heart and my soul, I felt as if I would burst when I told my family.
