Last month, Chi Ishobak had the pleasure of giving back to the native artist community through the Native Arts Ecology Building Grant from First Peoples Fund. We were awarded the grant through an application process and were allowed to distribute the funds to native artists in our community in any way we saw fit. After much deliberation, we came up with a pitch event that would allow the artists an opportunity to showcase their work to the public and explain how they would use the funds to progress their art and business. 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners were selected by a panel of First People’s Fund judges, along with five crowd-favorite winners selected by the audience.
We had an amazing variety of artists participate in the event. Among the participating artists were Illustrators, digital artists, fashion designers, and video game makers. Also presenting their pitch were culture bearers, whose mission is to maintain their native heritage through education and display of their culture, history, and dance.
1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners of the Chi Ishobak Pitch Event
This event was truly a group effort. The ladies from the First People’s Fund were a huge help, they helped us immensely while giving us the freedom we needed to put the event on how we wanted to. And we were able to bring in other businesses from the community to help with food and refreshments.
It was great to have the opportunity to give back to the community with no strings attached and see how it will change these artists and culture bearers’ lives and their ability to share their talents.
We were very fortunate to be selected for this opportunity and would be excited about the possibility of doing it again in the future. We would like to thank the people at the First Peoples Fund.
First People’s Fund supports the cultural, artistic and ancestral practices of American Indian, Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian artists, families and communities, helping them to thrive, heal and carry forward Indigenous creative expression, teachings and lifeways. If you are a native artist and would like to learn more about the opportunities provided by the First People’s Fund we encourage you to visit their website at https://www.firstpeoplesfund.org.