NACF Announces New Programs

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After a year of strategic planning and working closely with our network of artists, grantees and stakeholders, NACF moves into its second decade announcing its new and engaging programs SHIFT– Transformative Change and Indigenous Arts . More information on the launch of this program plus an additional early career support program to come in early 2021.

The SHIFT- Transformative Change and Indigenous Arts program supports artist-and community-driven projects responding to social, environmental and economic justice issues through a Native lens. The program focuses on efforts that are built upon community cultural assets, resilience and strengths and draw increased attention to Native communities, perspectives and challenges, shifting a national narrative of invisibility, misunderstanding and misappropriation. SHIFT provides critical resources for project development, production and presentation for the artist(s) and their collaborators. The program will consist of a suite of support services that includes financial resources, professional development, artist/stakeholder convening, cross-sector collaboration, evaluation, exhibiting and presenting.

Following extensive research and strategic planning, SHIFT refocuses NACF’s programmatic efforts to embolden Native artists and stakeholder voices, to nurture their brilliance, to draw upon the resilience of our ancestors, to uplift the innovative spirit in our Native communities, and ultimately to foster education and healing for ourselves and our allies. NACF understands that the work of Native artists is critical to the greater contemporary arts discourse, the stewardship of our planet, and equity in our greater society. SHIFT then builds a more intensive body of support to limit constraints and provide critical time and space for the realization of the artists’ work in partnership with other critical partners. The program includes multi-year services for Native artists, cultural practitioners, and community partners, and allows for artists to consider more expansive projects and broad-based platforms for community engagement and presentation, while continuing to drive critical conversation on national and global issues.

We are also launching an early career support program for Native artists, which will provide critical resources to emerging artists with one-year awards for developing and realizing new projects. The program encourages artists to uplift communities, advance positive social change, point courageously toward environmental sustainability, and foster communal meaning making. The program will consist of a suite of activities that includes grantmaking, artist professional development, and artist convening. The primary objectives of this opportunity are to support artists who are developing their voices and for whom the award may serve as a launching point in their career.