Nome artists receive Rasmuson grants for indigenous projects

The Rasmuson Foundation awarded two Nomeites with $25,000 each through the Individual Artist Award Grants to fund their creative indigenous projects.

On Friday September 15, recipients Katie O’Connor and Kunaq Marjorie Tahbone traveled to Anchorage for the awards ceremony.

The Rasmuson Foundation has been providing yearly grants directly to artists across Alaska for 20 years. This year, out of 417 project applicants 36 grants were awarded. The grants vary in amount depending on the length of the project, both O’Connor and Tahbone received the $25,000 Fellowship Award.

Yup’ik coloring book

O’Connor will work with her friend Nikki Corbett, a Yupik artist from Bethel, to create an educational Yup’ik Alphabet coloring book.

O’Connor has been an artist since fifth grade. She works as a full-time artist selling prints, stickers and more in her online shop.

“I’ve always wanted to illustrate a children’s book so when she [Corbett] approached me about this I was game on because it’s not only a children’s book, but it’s indigenous and based on traditional language,” O’Connor said in a phone call with the Nugget.

“Being locals and working with a culturally based language books is a huge goal, we need more local artists,” O’Connor said.

The Alphabet book will have a different Yup’ik letter on each page with a graphic design of something local that starts with that letter. O’Connor said her designs will be based off things seen in everyday life, with a whimsical twist. She wants the book to have images Alaskan kids can recognize.

“I want them to feel connected to the book so they aren’t just coloring, they’re learning about their language and culture,” O’Connor said.

O’Connor and Corbett hope to bring the book into local school districts.

“I envision —once the book is done —volunteering in classrooms, introducing myself as an artist and reading the book to little kids,” O’Connor said.

The funding for this project is kicking off the beginning of a greater idea O’Connor and Corbett plan to work on. An Inupiaq language coloring book would be the next step, with a language learning app later down the line.

O’Connor said for a long time she put her artwork to the side for a traditional job. Once she realized there were many ways to make money as an artist she found herself more fulfilled dedicating her life to her artwork.

“I want to inspire people to not put the things they’re so passionate about on the backburner, like I did,” O’Connor said. “There’s so much grant funding out there, especially for Alaska Natives, you can actually generate an income doing what you love.”

Seal processing

Tahbone is receiving a grant from the Rasmuson Foundation for the second time. Her project is focused on teaching people in the Nome region how to prepare and store seal meat and oil and then create mukluks from the seal skin.

“I wanted to be able to provide a place of learning really focused on Indigenous women,” Tahbone said.

The seals will be provided by a local hunter in the spring. In the program the women will learn to butcher and take the skin off the seals, prepare them for drying, learn how to process the intestines, learn to make seal oil and tan the hide so they can make their own pair of mukluks.

Tahbone has done this program before but had to stop because of COVID. “This fellowship is really helping me get it kickstarted again,” Tahbone said.

Tahbone says she’s seen a great need of people in her community wanting to learn traditional skills but there’s a block.

“The idea is to get a strong foundation here in Nome, it would be nice to bring people in from other communities as well,” Tahbone said.

Tahbone plans to recruit women based on interest in the project. It’s very long term and people need to be invested in the work over a period of months. She hopes to bring multiple generations together, supporting the indigenous family structure.

“I want to make it as indigenous as possible,” Tahbone said.

When it comes to being a fulltime artist, Tahbone also expressed the importance of applying to grants and other funding programs.

“It’s not something that you should be intimidated by the process of applying for fellowships or grants,” Tahbone said, “I just want to encourage artists who have a passion for the work they do in their community to really go for these things.”