Bill Holm Center Grants

Grant Offerings

Visiting Artist/Researcher Grant

The Visiting Artist/Researcher Grant Program is intended to give non-University of Washington artists and other researchers access to Burke Museum resources for research on art from the Pacific Northwest region (Alaska, British Columbia, Washington State, Idaho and Oregon). Proposals from artists and researchers whose projects would benefit from the study of the Burke Museum’s Ethnology collection, including paper and photographic archives (and other UW resources), are encouraged.

Workshop/Community Art Project Grant

The Workshop/ Community Arts Grant Program is intended to provide funds for artists, communities or arts organizations to host workshops or community art projects. This grant supports projects that involve or benefit the community and address understanding and creation of Native arts in the Pacific Northwest region (Alaska, British Columbia, Washington State, Idaho and Oregon).

Graduate Fellowship
We encourage University of Washington graduate students to apply for the Bill Holm Center Graduate Fellowship by April 19, 2013. This fellowship will fund UW graduate students doing research and writing on Native art of the Pacific Northwest region.

How to Apply

Bill Holm Center Grant Opportunities

We’re excited to announce the Connections to Culture: Resources for Native Art and Artists grant program will allow us to expand the Bill Holm Center grant offerings for both Native and non-Native visiting researchers and artists. Grant applications will be accepted starting in February, 2013.

• Apply Now

Recent Visiting Research Grant Recipients

Da-ka-xeen Mehner
In January 2013, Tlingit artist Da-ka-xeen Mehner visited the Burke Museum to study objects in the Ethnology collection. Da-ka-xeen is an Assistant Professor of Native Arts and Alaska Native Art History at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks. He is an award-winning photographer and well known for his large-scale dagger and innovative mask sculptures. He studied photography at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, received a BFA from the University of New Mexico in 2003, and an MFA from the University of Alaska Fairbanks in 2007. His work has been exhibited widely in Alaska and across the United States. He received the Best of Division award in photography at SWAIA Santa Fe Indian Market in 2009. His research at the Burke focused on Tlingit warriors' gear and masks as well as a broad range of other Tlingit objects.

Alison  Bremner
In December 2012, Yakutat Tlingit artist Alison Bremner visited the Burke Museum to study the objects in the Ethnology collection. Alison is an art student at Emily Carr University of Art and Design, where she has participated in Ravenstail weaving, drum making, and beadwork workshops. Her work has been exhibited in an Emily Carr Aboriginal student exhibitions in 2012.  While at the Burke Museum she examined Ravenstail and Naaxiin weaving as well as other Tlingit objects.

Greenwald, James and Sheakley
Three Tlinigit artists from Hoonah, Alaska, visited the Burke Museum in early November, 2012: Gordon Greenwald, Kaach Yaas, Chookaneidi Clan, Owen James, Kaa tlaax, Kiks.adi Clan, and Herb Sheakley, Yun Dus, Shungukeidi Clan.They are currently involved in a 5–year project to carve the components of a Tribal House to be built in Glacier Bay National Park at Bartlett Cove. When it is completed the Tribal House will provide Huna Tlingit people with a place where they can gather for learning, sharing and ceremonies. The Tribal House will also be a meeting place where conferences are held under the auspices of Hoonah Indian Association, other Native organizations, and the National Park Service. And it will be a place where both Native people and non–Native vistors can learn about Huna Tlingit Culture. Bill Holm Center Advisory Board member, Steve Brown, worked with them during their visit. This opportunity to study both traditional and contemporary carved objects at the Burke collection was focused on learning more about styles, techniques, and methods that they can bring back to their community to teach and incorporate within current and future projects.

Sonny Assu
Sonny Assu studied the Kwakwaka'wakw collection at the Burke Museum in July 2012. Assu is Ligwilda'xw of the We Wai Kai First Nation (Cape Mudge). An interdisciplinary artist, Assu merges Northwest Coast iconography with the aesthetics of popular culture to challenge the social and historical values placed upon both. His work explores his mixed ancestry and appropriates or transforms items of consumer and popular culture to trace the lineage of his own personal life. He is interested in ideas around Indigenous issues and rights, branding and new technologies. Assu's work has been featured in several solo and group exhibits over the past years, notably Don't Stop Me Now! and Comic Relief at the National Gallery of Canada, Beat Nation and How Soon is Now? at the Vancouver Art Gallery and Changing Hands: Art With Reservation Part 2 at the Museum of Arts and Design in New York City.

Lance Twitchell
X'unei Lance Twitchell, Tlinigit/Haida/Yup'ik artist and educator, received a visiting research grant at the Burke Museum in early July 2012. An Assistant Professor of Alaska Native Languages & Studies at the University of Alaska Southeast, Lance teaches the Tlingit language and Alaskan Native Studies courses, and hopes to develop a Northwest Coast art program there. He has been a digital media artist, and his research on low relief carving and flat design at the Burke Museum will help him to move from digital design into low relief carving. His research was also focused on distinguishing between the Haida and Tlingit styles of art. While at the Burke he was able to consult with Bill Holm Center Director, Robin K. Wright, about Hydaburg genealogy.

Recent Graduate Fellowship Recipient

Yve Chavez
Yve Chavez received a Bill Holm Center Research Fellowship for Winter Quarter 2012 to begin writing her master's thesis entitled "Indigenizing Southern California Indian Basket Studies: Unpacking Issues of ‘Mission’ and ‘Tradition’ " based on research conducted in California last summer. This fellowship allowed her to attend the Native American Art Studies Association conference in Ottawa in October.

Past Grant Recipients

Past Visiting Research Grant Recipients
Past Graduate Fellowship Recipients