(Application period is closed
for the 2025)
The Friends of Sheldon Jackson Museum thank all who applied for the 2025 Alaska Native Artist Residency Program. The application period closed on January 15, 2025. We received many applications and appreciate all who have applied. The selection process has begun and the 2025 artist-in-residence for this upcoming summer will be announced in the spring.
There will be four artists in residence for the 2025 Alaska Native Artist Residency Program
- July 16-August 4, 2025
- August 11-31, 2025
- September 3-22, 2025
- September 23-October 14, 2025
While in residence, artists create art in an open studio-like format in the museum gallery and engage with the community through:
- Cultural Consultations
- Artist Talks
- Teaching an art form or art forms
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, 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.