Some of you may know that every year the Longhouse receives about $80,000 from the Ford Foundation to be portioned out into two seperate grants: The National Native Artist Master Initiative: Artist Teaching Artists and the National Native Creative Development Program.
Tina Kuckkahn-Miller, Director at the Longhouse, said, "There are two different [grant] projects; one is a $5000 grant where a master artist teaches other artists - this can be visual art or performance art. The other one is a $2000 professional development grant to help artists take their art to the next level. Often times people need funding to buy their materials in order to create art."
In fact, Kuckkahn-Miller just came back from San Francisco where she got to congratulate and award the money to the 2011 grant recipients. To view the list of grant recipients from this year, and some of their art, go to http://www.evergreen.edu/longhouse/grantprograms.htm
Not only did the Longhouse recieve its normal grants from the Ford Foundation this year, but it also received an additional grant also from the Ford Foundation - the Diverse Art Spaces grant. Applying in April of last year, the Longhouse competed with applicants from Canada, the USA, Mexico, and Egypt. The grant amount is $500,000, the largest grant the Longhouse has recieved from the Ford Foundation.
According to Kuckkahn-Miller, the main purpose of this grant is to "give tribal artists diverse art spaces." The money from this grant will be used to build a wood-carving and weaving studio behind the Longhouse where the temporary Bookstore used to be. The space will be 800 sq. ft. with 20x40ft dimensions and will look similar in structure to the Longhouse. The studio is projected to take 90 days to build and is scheduled to begin in late-fall, early-winter of next year.
Along with creating a carving and weaving studio, the grant will also be used to help fund Longhouse staff as well as their Artist in Residence Program. This program is designed to bring artists to the Longhouse studio to "activate our diverse art spaces, like weavers and carvers and performers." Kuckkahn-Miller explained. "Once we've built the space," she continued, "we're going to use another grant to put on a series of workshops to make gifts for the Squaxin tribe to give out at the end of the Tribal Canoe Journey [this summer]."
The Tribal Canoe Journey occurs every year among the Salish Sea tribes and is one of the largest tribal events in the Pacific Northwest. This year the Tribal Canoe Journey will end here in Olympia, hosted by the Sqauxin tribe. When the canoe of the various different Salish tribes arrive on shore, it is custom to hold a welcoming ceremony and give gifts. The Longhouse plans to use some of the money from the Diverse Art Spaces grant to hold workshops to create art, drums, and paddles - to name a few - that will then be given to the Squaxin tribe so that they can give them out as gifts at their ceremony.
"We wouldn't have a Longhouse [on campus] without [the Squaxin tribe]." Said Kuckkahn-Miller, "They literally put the blanket on the floor and asked people for donations at annual fundraiser dinners...and they've continued to partner with us ever since so this is our opportunity to reciprocate and help them."
The first three workshops to be held once the studio is built are screen printing, drum making and canoe paddle making.