Seeking Alaska Native Artists
SJ Museum 2024 Residencies in Sitka
Calling all Alaska Native artists and culture bearers!
The Friends of Sheldon Jackson Museum invite Alaska Native artists to submit an application for the 2024 Alaska Native Artist Residency Program. There are five residency positions and the deadline to apply is Jan. 15, 2024.
For an application, visit museums.alaska.gov/artist_opportunities or call (907) 747-8981.
Residencies are 20-22 days long and occur:
- June 10 – July 2
- July 29 – August 18
- August 19 – Sept. 8
- Sept. 12 – Oct. 2
- Oct. 3 – 24 with time off for attending Alaska Federation of Natives Convention (if desired)
All residency positions include a $2,000 artist stipend, a $840 food stipend, 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, and 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 local Sitka community members while working in the museum gallery.
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.
While in-residence, artists are encouraged to give artist talks: (such as) biographical presentations, sharing their art form (and) speaking about specific artifacts at the museum… Artists may opt to present on a wide variety of topics from decolonization and cultural appropriation to personal reflections and research on Sheldon Jackson… All artists give an informal presentation at the end of the residency.
If you have questions about the program or application, please email Jacqueline.Fernandez-Hamberg@alaska.gov or call (907) 747-8904. Once again, Applications are due by January 15, 2024.
Ed. note: Images above and below represent three former SJ Artists-in-Residence. Photo #1, above, shows cedar bark, spruce root and Chilkat and Ravenstail weaver Stacey Williams (Tlingit) demonstrating for a student how to make cedar bark rope. Photo #2, below, shows a painting by Robert Hoffmann (Tlingit), artist-in-residence in 2021, when he used the opportunity to create multiple works for an upcoming exhibition, including this painting “Introspection.” Photo #3, below, shows artist-in-residence Golga Oscar (Yup’ik) who gave a talk on Indigenous People’s Day, Oct. 9, 2023, entitled “Indigenizing the Mind in Western Spaces.”
