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Native Artist Resources

Discover grants, fellowships, and artist residencies designed to support Native artists and culture bearers in their creative and cultural endeavors. Explore opportunities to receive financial aid, mentorship, and development resources to sustain and grow your artistic journey.

Opportunities for Native Artists & Culture Bearers

Welcome to the First Peoples Fund Artist Resource page! We're here to champion and support Native artists and culture bearers. At First Peoples Fund, we understand the profound influence of art and cultural practices on our communities. Our commitment is to foster growth, creativity, and cultural preservation. Below is a list of artist opportunities, including grants and fellowships, which are updated monthly. It has a special focus on supporting BIPOC artists and culture bearers through additional resources and support.

If you’d like to add an opportunity, please send all relevant information to programs@firstpeoplesfund.org with the subject line: “FPF Artist Resource Page”

current opportunities

First Peoples Fund Yéigo Action Grant

The Yéigo Action Grant provides support for the growing landscape of Native artists and culture bearers who need financial assistance with a professional development opportunity or towards a hardship that is hindering their creative practice. This program offers grants between $100 and $5,000 for individual Native artists and culture bearers. First Peoples Fund (FPF) finds it essential to support artists in their times of need...

Lewis Center for the Arts at Princeton University

Open to early-career artists demonstrating extraordinary promise, fellows receive a $92,000 yearly stipend and benefits to spend two academic years at Princeton as active community members, engaging in formal teaching or alternate assignments.

American Indian Family Empowerment Program

For 30 years, Tiwahe Foundation's American Indian Family Empowerment Program (AIFEP) has invested in Native changemakers through microgrants funded by a community-built endowment. We use 100% of our annual endowment capacity for AIFEP microgrants and actively fundraise for all program activities and operations. Our American Indian Empowerment Program will be making 50 investments (grants) into the community this grant round.

U of MN, Weisman Art Museum - Native American Artist in Residence Program

The Weisman Art Museum invites applications for its Native Artist-in-Residence (NA AiR) position. This two-year residency supports meaningful art-making, research, and interaction with University of Minnesota students, staff, faculty, and the MniSota Native community. The residency involves both remote and in-person engagement, culminating in the creation of a new work(s) of art which will be displayed at the Weisman...

First Peoples Fund Native Performing Arts Fellowship

The Native Performing Arts Fellowship provides grants of up to $10,000 for Native individuals who practice/work within the performing arts landscape (theater, dance, music, etc.). This is not a project based grant.

First Peoples Fund Native Performing Arts Production Grant

The Native Performing Arts Production Grant (NPAP) supports Native-led performing arts productions that include multiple Native performers and artists. “Production” means the artist(s) are actively engaged in creating a live piece of work, either in person or virtual. Grant amount: $30,000

The Betsy James Wyeth Fellowship in Native American Art

The Betsy James Wyeth Fellowship in Native American Art carries a stipend of $53,000 and an allowance of up to $5,000 for short research trips. One fellowship will be awarded annually in support of a 12-month residency for a scholar at the predoctoral level or a 9-month appointment for a postdoctoral or senior-level researcher. Residencies must take place between June 1, 2025, and August 31, 2026, and begin on the 1st or 15th of the month.

New Mexico Arts & the Military, 2025 Mini Grants

The $2,500 Mini Grants program assists organizations creating and expanding arts programming for military connected participants via a streamlined granting process. Mini Grants can also be used to build organizational capacity towards the goal of creating and expanding opportunities for veterans and active-duty service members to engage with the arts.

Plains Art Museum Youth Scholarships

Scholarships provide free access to Plains Art Museum art classes for school-aged youth (ages 6-18) with identified financial need. Youth are eligible for scholarships if they receive free or reduced lunch through the Title 1: National School Lunch Program. Scholarship recipients will receive art supplies to take home and four class credits to use at Plains Art Museum.

past opportunities

Center for Cultural Innovation - Investing in Artists

The Investing in Artists: Tools & Equipment program (the Fund) will award grants of $1,000–$5,000 to individual craft artists to purchase artistic tools, materials, or equipment that support their ability to make object-based work. The Fund is open to individual craft artists, craftspeople, and folk and traditional artists in the United States and its Territories, with geographic eligibility rotating over the 2024–2026 funding cycle.

Multiple States (US)

Eighth Generation's 2024 Wool Blanket Design Contest

One Grand Prize winner will create a wool blanket design to be sold by Eighth Generation, and will be awarded $3,000 (USD) for creating a custom wool blanket design with Eighth Generation and thirty (30) of their blankets with an approximate retail value of $7,000.

Kūhana Business Accelorator Program - Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement

KūHana helps local and Hawaiian-owned entrepreneurs in early to mid stages of development get clear on their business strategy by hosting an 8-week business plan development class with all the tools and technical assistance needed to create a plan.

First Peoples Fund Cultural Capital Fellowship

The CC Fellowship is a yearlong program that offers financial support and guidance to culture bearers and artists who are deeply rooted in their communities and committed to passing on ancestral knowledge within their Native communities.

First Peoples Fund Artist-In-Business Leadership Fellowship

The ABL Fellowship is a yearlong program that helps independent Native artists pursue art as a way to build a business to support themselves and their families. The program provides them with network-building, professional development guidance and funding towards business needs.proposed project that supports the artist or culture bearer's work in their community. Applications are open to artists at all stages of their career.

Bemis Center for Contemporary Art, Artist-in-Residence, Fall 2025

The Bemis residency is a process-based experience–residents have the ability to research, experiment, and explore free from expectations. Bemis residents enjoy generous sized, private live/work studios and have 24-hour access to extensive installation and production spaces; the Okada Sculpture & Ceramics Facility, a 9,000 square foot industrial workshop used for large-scale sculpture fabrication; and a Sound Studio for rehearsing and recording.

Midwest Culture Bearers Award

The Midwest Culture Bearers Award honors and amplifies the work of nine Midwestern culture bearers each year. Each selected individual will receive a $5,000 unrestricted, non-matching award. Arts Midwest will create feature stories about each awardee and their work. Awardees can also join relationship-building activities, group conversations, and other opportunities for connection and discussion.

2025 BANF Artist Awards

The BANF Artist Awards will provide a one-time investment of up to $20,000 each to 25 artists who are members of Greater Houston's Black, Indigenous, Latinx, Asian American, Pacific Islander, Middle Eastern and/or other communities of color. The award recipients engage in an eighteen-month learning cohort that will build space for dreaming and for action in order to transform our BIPOC arts ecosystem.

Greater Houston, TX

Minnesota Parks Artist-In-Residence Program

The goal of the Minnesota Parks Artist-in-Residence Pilot Program is to enhance a sense of welcoming and belonging to park users. We hope that this pilot helps foster deeper community engagement and relationship-building in state and regional parks, improves access to Minnesota parks and trails, and increases collective appreciation for park uses, outdoor recreation, and natural resources, especially in underserved communities.

Grand Canyon Residency Program

The Grand Canyon Artist in Residence program elevates the cultural legacy of the park through innovative artwork and compelling programs that create emotional and intellectual ties between the public and this precious natural resource. Duration: 3-10 weeks.

UCross Spring 2025 Open Call

The residency program is open to visual artists, writers, composers, choreographers, interdisciplinary artists, performance artists, and collaborative teams. Applicants must exhibit professional standing in their field; both established and emerging artists are encouraged to apply.

Jennifer Easton Community Spirit Award

Named after FPF's founder, the annual Community Spirit Awards program offers grants of $50,000 to four to six Native artists who have worked selflessly throughout their lives to share their cultural knowledge and ancestral gifts with their communities. The award is designed to support these essential bearers of cultural practice to carry forward their wisdom and help Native communities heal and thrive.

NDN Collective Changemaker Fellowship

The NDN Changemaker Fellowship is a two-year fellowship designed to invest ($150,000 USD) in the visions, leadership, and personal and professional development of 21 Indigenous Changemakers working in their communities.

Chaco Culture National Park Artist Residency

An entire ancient metropolis, and one of the vital crossroads of Anasazi-Chacoan culture, the ancestral culture to today’s Rio Grande Pueblos. Chaco Culture NHP consists of ten+ ancient village complexes nestled in a long valley of dramatic cliffs and buttes. This park, because it is one of the least visited, is truly a secret jewel for artistic inspiration. Open to all artists, writers musicians, or performance artists.

Native Art Market 2024

Native artists to apply for a table at the Fall 2024 Native Art Market at Arts + Literature Laboratory. The market will take place Saturday, November 16, 2024, 10am to 5pm.

Madison, Wisconsin

Hide Tanning and Parfleche Residency

This three-week visual arts residency focuses on hide scraping, bone tool making, and working with parfleche with the support of faculty, elders, and knowledge keepers. This program welcomes Indigenous visual artists with traditional and/or contemporary art practices.

Vilcek Prizes for Creative Promise in Design and Curatorial Work

The Vilcek Foundation will award three Prizes for Creative Promise of $50,000 each to young immigrant visual artists and three Prizes for Creative Promise of $50,000 each to young immigrant curators who demonstrate outstanding early achievement in their field.

News > Native Artist Resources

Explore our grants and awards

Native artist, Richard D. York (Citizen of the Cherokee Nation) painting in his studio.

Yéigo Action Grant

The Yéigo Action Grant provides support for the growing landscape of Native artists and culture bearers who need financial assistance with a professional development opportunity or towards a hardship that is hindering their creative practice.

A portrait of Native artist Chanelle Gallagher (Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe) throwing pottery in her studio.

Artist in Business Leadership Fellowship

Our yearlong program that helps independent Native artists pursue art as a way to build a business to support themselves and their families. The program provides them with network-building, professional development training and funding to launch them into success.

A portrait of Native artist, Lance Twitchell (Tlingit & Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska) standing in a forested area in front of a raven sculpture.

Cultural Capital Fellowship

Our yearlong program that offers financial and technical support to culture bearers and artists to further their work of passing on ancestral knowledge within their Native communities. Participants receive support to strengthen their community's commitment to nurture our shared humanity and honor our connection to one another