Kalikopuanoheaokalani Aiu is a māhū/bakla dancer, choreographer, writer, multi-media artist, and community organizer who co-founded Nā Maka ʻEkolu, an up and coming māhū-led and centered Asian-Pasifika arts, education, and community-building organization.
The Native Arts and Cultures Foundation (NACF) is pleased to announce the awardees in 2023 for the LIFT–Early Career Support for Native Artists program.
NURTURE, ELEVATE, UNFOLD
LIFT – Early Career Support for Native Artists program will provide invaluable support to early career Native artists with one-year awards to develop and realize new projects. Support for burgeoning artists is critical in developing fresh voices and envisioning the future of our respective Native practices. LIFT encourages artists to uplift communities, advance positive social change, point courageously toward environmental sustainability, and foster communal meaning making.
Following extensive research and strategic planning, LIFT refocuses NACF’s programmatic efforts to expand the potential of emergent Native artists. LIFT consists of a suite of activities that includes financial support, artist professional development, evaluation, and communications/marketing support. It is essential that artists in these stages of their practices be provided the opportunity to improve their craft, build their careers and cultivate their place as creative people within their communities.
We encourage artists who are shaping their practices and for whom the award may serve as a launching point in their career to apply.
Click here for more information about the LIFT program’s eligibility, application process, criteria, FAQ, and a link to the application.
We are what we imagine. Our very existence consists in our imagination of ourselves. Our best destiny is to imagine, at least, completely, who and what and that we are.
—N. Scott Momaday (Kiowa)
2023 LIFT AWARDEES
Jared Andreas
Jared Andreas is a painter whose surrealistic works explore themes of cultural identity, otherness, and constructed reality.
Angelique Kalani Axelrode
Angelique Kalani Axelrode creates experimental film content that focuses on movement and performance rather than a traditionally structured narrative.
Kyle “Hokona” Kootswatewa
Kyle “Hokona” Kootswatewa is an enduring practitioner of Traditional Ecological Knowledge, Hopi pottery maker, and a rising traditional weaver of natural fibers.
Ayuthea LaPier
Ayuthea LaPier is applying their skills in basketry, commercial beadwork, and ancestral cultural burning practices to their evolving artistic practice.
Agalisiga “chuj” Mackey
Agalisiga “chuj” Mackey is a singer-songwriter dedicated to perpetuating the Cherokee language through his original country-folk music.
Kanani Miyamoto
Kanani Miyamoto is an artist, curator, and passionate educator whose works include large-scale murals and mixed-media installations.
Alica “Sheyahshe” Mteuzi
Alica “Sheyahshe” Mteuzi conjures Afro-Indigenous futurisms to challenge systemic annihilation through film.
Golga Oscar
Golga Oscar is a culture bearer and self-taught artist who seeks to revitalize traditional Yup’ik work with contemporary materials and designs.
Mikaela Shafer
Mikaela Shafer’s paintings tell a story of disconnection— generational, cultural, and spiritual.
Alana Tiikpuu
Alana Tiikpuu is a non-binary Nez Perce and Navajo writer, director, and animator.
Ashley Young
Ashley Young’s honest songwriting addresses self-discovery, tribal values, and matters of love.
PAST LIFT AWARDS
NACF is grateful to our sponsors for their support of the LIFT program.
