Call for Applications
for the 2025
Alaska Native Artist Residency Program

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 Jan. 15, 2025. Download the packet here. Residencies are 18-22 days long and occur:  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, 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, 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.

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 tremendous 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.

While in-residence, artists are encouraged to give several artist talks. Artists give biographical presentations, sharing their art form(s) and cultural background; speak in detail 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 Sheldon Jackson, the museum founder, his collecting, and the boarding school, the Sitka Industrial Training 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 creating during their time at the museum.

Individuals who wish to obtain an information packet on the Alaska Native Artist Residency Program outlining pay and benefits, position expectations, the residency schedule, and other details may call the museum at (907) 747-8981 and request a packet be emailed or mailed. The packet is also available at  https://museums.alaska.gov/artist_opportunities.html

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. 

History of the Alaska Native Artist Residency Program

In 1988, Janice Criswell, a Tlingit basket weaver, volunteered her time to share her culture with Sheldon Jackson Museum’s summer visitors and the Native Artist Residency Program was born. As residents, Alaska Native artists create artwork, traditional and nontraditional, demonstrate their techniques, and discuss their artistic process with visitors at the museum. They offer a hands-on workshop or lecture or lead another outreach or community engagement activity to creatively connect with the locals and visitors from near and far. While here, the artists often find inspiration in the museum’s collection and augment museum staff’s knowledge and understanding while more closely examining, researching, and discussing the collection in collections storage and on exhibit in the gallery.

The thirty-six-year-old residency program has grown and expanded since its inception, largely due to financial and in-kind support from the National Endowment for the Arts, Alaska Airlines, Alaska Arts Southeast Inc., the Friends of Sheldon Jackson Museum, other local arts organizations, volunteers, and the general public. The museum has most notably partnered with the Sitka Sound Science Center and the Sitka Fine Arts Camp and has annually co-hosted one artist with the latter to teach classes to youth and adults.

Artists-in-residence are selected on a competitive basis in the spring. For an application or answers to questions about the program, contact the Sheldon Jackson Museum Curator by calling 907-747-8981 or emailing Jacqueline.Fernandez-Hamberg@alaska.gov.

The Alaska Native Artist Residency Program is underwritten by the Friends of Sheldon Jackson Museum and is made possible with support from the Friends, the National Endowment for the Arts, Alaska Airlines, and private donors. Individuals interested in donating to the residency program or sponsoring housing for the program should contact the Friends of the Sheldon Jackson Museum by calling 907-747-6233 or emailing friendsofsjm@gmail.com.