NATIVE ARTS AND CULTURES FOUNDATION ANNOUNCES OPEN CALL FOR REGIONAL MENTOR FELLOWSHIP APPLICATIONS

VANCOUVER, Wash., Oct. 10, 2016 – The Native Arts and Cultures Foundation (NACF) has issued an open call for applications for a new Mentor Fellowship in the Pacific Northwest, Southwest and Upper Midwest regions of the United States. Applications will be accepted online no later than 5 p.m. Pacific Standard Time on Tuesday, Nov. 22, 2016.

The Mentor Fellowship is open to accomplished Native artists of 10 years or more in the Traditional Arts or Contemporary Visual Arts categories. An applicant must be at least a five-year resident and enrolled in an American Indian tribe or Alaska Native corporation located in Alaska, Arizona, Minnesota, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Southern California (Imperial, Kern, Los Angeles, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and Ventura counties), Washington and Wisconsin. American Indian and Alaska Native affiliation/descendancy is part of the application process and documents of enrollment are required.

Through a selection process, the Mentor Fellowship is intended to support American Indian and Alaska Native accomplished artists to mentor an emerging American Indian or Alaska Native artist apprentice for one year. The program's goal is to improve creative development, artistic rigor, and intergenerational cultural and traditional knowledge perpetuation by fostering the growth of Native artist mentors and apprentices, and empowering them to play an intergral role in their communities. To assist in developing lesson plans, each mentor and apprentice is required to attend up to two training days prior to beginning the mentorship. To demonstrate the experience and success of the mentoring, a completed joint mentor/apprentice art project is required at the end of the fellowship period.

Emerging American Indian or Alaska Native artist apprentices may ask an accomplished American Indian or Alaska Native mentor artist to apply or assist a mentor artist in applying. However, emerging artist apprentices are ineligible to apply on their own.

The Mentor Fellowship award is $30,000 - $20,000 to the mentor, $5,000 for the joint art project and $5,000 for the apprentice's participation expenses. Fellowship awards will be announced in spring 2017. The mentoring period is July 1, 2017 through June 30, 2018. Apply online at your.culturegrants.org. For more details direct your questions to Francene Blythe, NACF director of programs, at francene@nativeartsandcultures.org or (360) 334-7271.

The Native Arts and Cultures Foundation's mission is to promote the revitalization, appreciation and perpetuation of American Indian, Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian arts and cultures through grant making, convening and advocacy. To date, NACF has supported 180 artists and organizations in more than 26 states and Native communities. To learn more about the National Artist Fellows and NACF's work-nurturing the passion and power of creative expression, visit: http://www.nativeartsandcultures.org.