Thank you to the panels for all of your hard work in reviewing the applications. We appreciate you volunteering your time and expertise to the grant review. We couldn't do it without you!

And a huge thank you to Rasmuson Foundation for their 20th year of funding our AAF grants and their 10th year of funding our CMF grants.

In this round, we awarded $163,813.19 to twelve museums and cultural organizations across Alaska through the AAF and CMF grants.

Without further ado, congratulations to the following grant recipients:

Collections Management Fund (CMF) - Round 2 Grants - $122,613.19

• $8,404.33 - The Sheldon Jackson Museum will bring in Yup'ik culture bearer Chuna McIntyre and State conservator Ellen Carrlee to advise on how to best address bead disease in Yup'ik material in a culturally sensitive and appropriate way.

• $20,000 - The Morris Thompson Cultural and Visitor Center will retain an exhibits expert to review the existing offerings, engage with partners of the facility on their needs and expectations of the exhibits, and facilitate community feedback so that an exhibits plan can be developed to update outdated exhibitions.

• $6,588.86 - The Kodiak Maritime Museum, with the help of the Kodiak History Museum, will photograph, pack, and move Kodiak Maritime Museum’s Uganik Cannery Collection to new storage space, and monitor the new space.

• $19,994.02 - Ketchikan Museums will improve collections storage at the Tongass Historical Museum by purchasing two storage cabinets for textiles.

• $14,920 - The Bristol Bay Historical Society will complete a collections assessment and rehousing project which aims to sort, group, catalog, store, and engage their tribal and community residents in the society's collection to increase stability, access, and contextual knowledge.

• $20,000 - The Alaska Native Heritage Center will support off-site storage of critically important cultural objects for the Alaska Native community amidst a renovation project that is improving the existing storage spaces and main exhibition space at ANHC.

• $15,682 - The Fairbanks Children's Museum will improve their exhibits and collections storage that serve their camps and class attendees.

• $11,500 - The Jensen-Olson Arboretum will update their plant collection database by funding a project-based contractor, and purchase collections software and equipment to support the work.

• $5,523.98 - The Alaska Jewish Museum will catalog new museum acquisitions such as books, photos and artifacts into Past Perfect; box and shelve newly acquired historical artifacts and photos for the archives room; and add documents to their print history files.

Alaska Art Fund (AAF) - Round 2 Grants - $41,200

• $15,500 - The Alutiiq Museum will commission a set of 11 watercolor paintings of Alutiiq ancestors from Alutiiq artist Cheryl Lacy. These paintings will be inspired and informed by historic watercolors of Alutiiq people painted by Russian artist Mikhail Tikhanov in 1818. Lacy will reinterpret the paintings, capturing portraits of early 19th-century Kodiak Islanders in a way that celebrates each person in a fresh, decolonizing style.

• $11,000 - The University of Alaska Museum of the North will purchase two masks carved by artist Kathleen Carlo-Kendall, Love on the Other Side and Enaa, Enaa, which will join earlier Carlo-Kendall masks in their collection, allowing the museum to demonstrate the evolution of the artist.

• $7,500 - Ketchikan Museums will purchase DaKl’aweidi (2023), a vest made by Tlingit artist Christy Ruby composed entirely of legally harvested sea otter fur from the Ketchikan area. Christy Ruby is an artist not currently represented in the collection and her vest is applicable to three categories of collecting priorities: Social History (especially women’s and Indigenous history), Outlying Areas (her hunting territory spans from Ketchikan to Prince of Wales), and Culture and Art (harvesting and endangered materials).

• $4,700 - Ketchikan Museums will purchase two pieces of engraved silver jewelry from local master artist, Norman Jackson. The purchase will increase the limited number of engraved silver objects in their collection—none by a Tlingit artist, nor any from a Ketchikan artist. These pieces are by a Tlingit artist who is also from Ketchikan, allowing the museum to improve their collection representation in multiple ways.

• $2,500 - The Alaska State Museum will purchase The Extinguishing by Gail Priday to improve their collection through the unique subject matter, by adding a prominent Alaskan artist to their collection, and by representing art created during this time period.

Congratulations to everyone on their successful grant applications! We can’t wait to see the progress.