professional membership

Featured Member

A participant enjoys the Kicaput (pronounced Kih chah put) dancers Photo: Sven Haakanson

In the state of Alaska, 14 percent of the population is American Indian or Alaska Native, compared to less than 1 percent of Americans nationwide. Community organizations in the state, including the Alaska State Council on the Arts (AKASCA), take serving the Native people of Alaska with great responsibility. Last October, AKASCA joined with the Alaska Native Heritage Center and numerous other Native arts organizations to sponsor the first Alaska Native Artist Summit.

The daylong meeting, held during the annual Alaska Federation of Natives conference, was the first event of its kind in the state. Drawing more than 250 Native artists and craftspeople from across Alaska, the summit taught attendees valuable tools for making a profession out of their craft. Six interactive sessions organized by theme allowed artists to ask specific questions about their work in the marketplace.

Artists learned how to market their work and were offered a legal review of copyright and trademark and how to apply the laws to their work. An important objective for the summit was to connect Alaska Native artists with staff from a multitude of federal, state, nonprofit, and private agencies to get their creative needs met. As an unexpected bonus, enforcement agency representatives gained a broader understanding of the challenges Alaska Native artists face in creating and marketing their work. A number of fraud cases were investigated as a result of conversations artists were able to have with enforcement staff.

Efforts to organize a second summit in Fairbanks, in conjunction with regional “minisummits” throughout the state, are underway. A list of recommendations generated from the summit has been the guiding outline for organizing additional statewide and regional summits. As one artist put it, “All Sitka participants were extremely impressed with a great summit experience you all provided! We look forward to assisting/hosting the SE Regional Art Summit in March 2007.”