First Peoples Fund

Artist in business leadership and cultural capital are similar programs which are grouped together for reporting purposes. Cultural capital is designed specifically for master artists who have been practicing their art for 10 years of more. Artists; 1) share a commitment to teaching their craft in their community to keep cultural expression alive; 2) have a plan to document their ancestral knowledge for the next seven generations; and 3) seek ways to sustain cultural sharing as a way of life within their tribal community. Grants of between 5,000 and 10,000 offer artists an opportunity to delve deeper into their art - sharing their artistry will all who to learn. Each year, cultural fellows teach and share their knowledge with more than 100 community members. Benefits of the fellowship: First Peoples Fund's artist in business leadership fellowship does not just help artists grow a business, it helps inspire them to fully honor their cultural creativity and grow the impact it has on their people. An artist applicant for the artist in business leadership and cultural capital programs mustbe native Hawaiian or a member of a united states tribal nation. Fpf has specific geographic focus areas as well. Each artist receives individualized technical assistance and professional development guidance, as well as a grant to offset capital expenses associated with growing a business. Impact of the fellowship: our artist alumni tell us the program does more than just support an entrepreneurial spirit - it stimulates a renewed energy to challenge themselves and each other to create new work that pushes boundaries. Grants to individuals for disaster relief were also made in 2022 given the impact of the covid-19 pandemic.

Community development: trainings, workshops, and re-grants: First Peoples Fund community development work includes several sub-programs designed to build the capacity of community-based organizations to support the development of creative, leadership, and entrepreneurial skills of individuals. Rolling rez arts is a mobile art unit with the capacity to provide artists access to the resources they need to be successful across all nine districts on the vast pine ridge reservations. Launched in march 2016, the rolling rez arts provides targeted support to artists in their communities, helping clost gaps in access to supplies, markets, training, networks, credit, capital and space. Rollin rez arts is equipped as a mobile bank and lakota federal credit union regularly offers banking services from the mobile unit across the reservation. Native american professional development training (napd) which is designed for artists or community members at any stage of their careers, equips enterprenuers with knowledge, tools, and confidence to navigate their professional careers and lead fulfilling personal lives. Fpf's values-based education sees the business of art and expression as cultural leadership and positions artists to actualize a vision of success that fits within their cultural principles. Community-based certification is designed for both financial and nonprofit professionals wishing to work directly with artists, and for artists who want to become mentors or trainers locally. This program trains participants to offer expertise to artists wishing to start or grow a business. All of fpf's trainers have participated in both the native artists professional development training and the community based certification training. Fpf-certified trainers are also eligible to participate in the artist in business leadership fellowship and cultural captial fellowship programs. Fpf trainers represent professional artists and entrepreneurs - from musicians to visual artists, business owners to loan officers - from all across the country. Native arts economy building grants support community-based native nonprofit organizations, including native community development financial institutions. The program's objects are twofold: 1) develop partner's understanding of the critical role of native artists can play in building economies, generating assets, and constructing effective and culturally appropriate networks; and 2) build partners' success including credit and capital, markets, supplies, creative space, informal networks, and training. Indigenous arts ecology grants program reaches into tribal communities with grants and technical assistance to community-based organizations, supporting them to assist native artists to grow as entreprenuers and leaders in their local indigenous arts ecosystem. Through the indigenous arts ecology program, fpf partners primarily with native community development financial institutions. The two-year cohort-based program builds an understanding of the critical role of artists and culture bearers in tribal communities and helps build capacity to better support artists with services, training, and mentoring. Dances with words is a youth-development intiative of fpf that works with young people, adult mentors, high schools, and nonprofit partners of the pine ridge indian reservation empowering participants to become engaged students and community leaders through literature, spoken work, and other art forms. Fpf understands the cultural and historical significance of oral traditions for native Peoples, and dances with words connects young people to these traditions through the study and creation of literature, poetry, spoken work, and music. At the same time, the program recounts participant's sotries within their communities and beyond.

National programs: First Peoples Fund is a prinicipal partner in intercultural leadership institute, also known as ili, along with alternate roots, the national association of latino arts and culture and the pa'i foundation. These four core partners have shared a commitment to pursue cultural equity and to support artists, culture bearers, and other arts professionals as change- makers in their communities. The initiative annually selects a cohort of artists and arts administrators from communities of color and convenes them throughout the year to learn about their shared histories, build networks, and gain leadership skills. Our nation's spaces (ons) initiative provides opportunities for native artists to create and showcase their work outside of predominately native arts spaces and into the network of ford foundation's diverse space grantees. This initiative strengthens and develops the relationships between diverse arts spaces organizations and the communities they represent with native artists: visual (contemporary and traditional mediums, performance artists, musicians, dance, and spoken work.