Since launching the Native Arts Emergency Support Project in April, we have been able to provide $150,000 in support to 50 artists and five organizations from 29 Native/Tribal groups in 21 states. Your support will allow us to continue helping Native artists and culture bearers during this challenging period. There are so many in need right now.
Will you consider donating today?
Aloha Friends,
We are a few months into the stay-at-home and social distancing restrictions of this pandemic and still feeling the impacts. Tell someone you love them today, reach out to a friend you haven’t connected with in a while, drop off food at your neighbor’s door. We all need more acts of kindness.
As we move through these unparalleled times, the Native Arts and Cultures Foundation (NACF) is concerned for the welfare of everyone, but especially committed to the well-being of Native peoples and culture bearers. Many of our artists are reliant on a gig economy, and due to the COVID-19 pandemic have lost jobs that enabled them to be practicing artists. Many don’t know how they are going to pay their bills next month, care for their children, or pay for medicine for an elderly parent. Mental distress and anxiety are taking a toll on Native families and communities.
In response to the stress this virus has brought to our communities, we have taken immediate action to alleviate the hardship on NACF artists and organizations by reallocating funds to create the Native Arts Emergency Support Project (NAESP). Since launching the NAESP in April, we have been able to provide $150,000 in support to 50 artists and five organizations from 29 Native/Tribal groups in 21 states. Your support will allow us to continue helping Native artists and culture bearers during this challenging period. There are so many in need right now.
I can’t tell you all how grateful I am for this support. I am in tears. I can never thank NACF and the people who make all of this happen enough for your support and what it has meant for me, my family, and my work. Your email lifted such a weight today.
― Kelli Jo Ford (Cherokee Nation), Writer and NACF National Artist Fellow
Let us continue to rise together in the spirit of compassion and generosity so that we can withstand this crisis. Let us stand strong for justice and what’s right in a time where there seems to be a crisis of leadership at the highest levels. Although we are forced to be apart, this is more than ever a time for genuine service, diligence, and fortitude, not inaction.
We cannot do this important work without supporters like you. Your gift—no matter the size—is valuable and will be put to immediate use in the Native Arts Emergency Support Project to provide income support and health-related cost coverage for artists and culture bearers, as well as operational support for Native arts organizations.
Will you consider donating today? The success of the NAESP depends on generous supporters like you. Donate today, and you will help a struggling artist or keep an arts organization alive.
A big thanks to the Hawaii Community Foundation, First Nations Development Institute, Rainbow Pineapple Foundation, and individual donors for your generous support.
May we all prevail in uplifting our families, communities, and nation.
T.Lulani Arquette (Native Hawaiian), President & CEO
