Grants Awarded

Awards given for Alaska's Statehood Experience!

Click on logo for ASE grants

Rasmuson Foundation and the Alaska Humanities Forum have partnered to award 24 projects which commemorate the 50th Anniversary of Alaska Statehood. These statewide and local community projects explore the history of statehood, the circumstances that brought it about, and projects that address the meaning of statehood as Alaska looks ahead to the next fifty years. ASE is also supported by corporate and private support and the National Endowment for the Humanities “We the People” program. These 24 projects include: Media, Public Meetings/Exhibits, Oral History, Research, Planning, and Creative Expression. Click on logo to view the projects awarded!

Click here to view ASE awards.

General Grants

The Forum Grant Programs award approximately $130,000 yearly to non-profit organizations and individuals for projects that seek to explore the humanities in our state. For more information about any of the Forum’s grant programs, please contact the Grants Officer at 907-272-5373 or via email at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

2012 General Grant Awards- Total $155,344

Project Title	Project Director : Sponsoring Organization	Grant Award
Hoonah's Heroes	Samantha Farinella: Women Make Movies	$10,000
The Peratrovich Legacy	Carolyn V Brown MD MPH: League of Women Voters Alaska Educational Fund	$7,000
Alaska Statehood Pioneers: In Their Own Words	Tim Olson: Capital Community Broadcasting, Inc.	$7,500
Homer Communities of Memory Project Jukebox	Karen Brewster: University of Alaska Fairbanks	$5,000
Sharing Our Knowledge: A Conference of Tlingit Tribes and Clans	Gerry Hope: Tlingit Readers Inc.	$5,000
Kachemak Bay Writers' Conference	Carol Swartz: Kachemak Bay Campus-Kenai Peninsula College	$7,000
Kodiak's Filipino Community Stories	Marie Acemah: Kodiak Historical Society / Baranov Museum	$8,500
Working Name: Alaska Native Hybrid, Documentary Planning Grant-Exploring Contemporary Native Identity	Robert Kinneen	$2,000
ICEBOUND	Daniel Anker: API Arts and Outreach	$10,000
Aleutian History Ledgers Digitizing and Transcribing Project: Lost Aleutian Logbooks 1875 - 1907	J Pennelope Goforth	$4,470
Formline Interpretation Project	Sarah Dybdahl: Sealaska Heritage Institute	$7,000
Lower Koyukuk River Traditional Place Names	Catherine Moncrieff: Yukon River Drainage Fisheries Association	$7,000
Prince William Sound Museum Exhibit Model Construction	Ted Spencer: Prince William Sound Economic Development District	$5,000
Sitka Lutheran Church Oral History Project	Harvey Brandt: Sitka Lutheran Church	$4,536
Documenting Art Technologies: Connecting Alaska Native artists and our museum collections	Nadia Jackinsky: Friends of the Sheldon Jackson Museum	$8,000
The Alutiiq Word of the Week Book	Amy Steffian: Alutiiq Museum & Archaeological Repository	$8,483
Moose Jaw's Cabin	Joe Rizzo: Alaska Children's Institute for the Performing Arts	$7,305
Development of THE DEFENDERS OF ALASKA NATIVE COUNTRY and related workshop, readings, & discussions	Art Rotch: Perseverance Theatre, Inc	$8,000
Dena'ianq' Huch'ulyeshi: The Dena'ina Way of Living Catalog	Suzi Jones, Ph.D.: Anchorage Museum Association	$8,000
20th Annual Last Frontier Theatre Conferenc	Dawson Moore: Prince William Sound Community College	$6,000
Traveling by Story Through Copper River Country	Kristin Carpenter: Copper River Watershed Project	$8,000
Traveling Exhibition of “When Crab Was King: Faces of the Kodiak King Crab Fishery 1950-1982.”	Toby Sullivan: Kodiak Maritime Museum	$4,000
People, Place, & Parkland: Oral Histories of Pre- and Post-Park Wrangell-St. Elias National Park	Jeremy Pataky: Wrangell Mountains Center	$7,550

2011 General Grant Awards - Total $126,000

Project Title	Project Director : Sponsoring Organization	Grant Award	Project Location
Paisavut Oral History Project	Leland Barger & Sarah Hobart: Aqqaluk Trust	$5,000	Kotzebue and NANA region villages
The 19th Annual Last Frontier Theatre Conference	Dawson Moore: Prince William Sound Community College	$6,500	Valdez
Meaning Through Tradition: the Glory Hole Mural and Lecture Project	Mariya Lovishchuk: Juneau Cooperative Christian Ministry dba The Glory Hole	$4,000	Juneau
Yupiit Piciryarait Museum Permanent Exhibits	Vivian Korthuis: Association of Village Council Presidents	$7,000	Bethel
Connecting Cultures Phase 2	Jimmie Ware	$7,000	Barrow/ Anchorage
2011 Kachemak Bay Writers' Conference	Carol Swartz: Kachemak Bay Campus-Kenai Peninsula College	$7,000	Homer
2011 Dry Bay Celebration: Remembering Our Ancestors	Bertrand J. Adams Sr.: Yakutat Tlingit Tribe	$7,000	Yakutat/ Dry Bay
The Eyak Language Project: q'aayaa tl'ihx (A New Beginning)	Laura Bliss Spaan: Eyak Preservation Council	$9,000	Cordova
PHASE II: The 3-Country (Alaska-Japan-Yukon) Jujiro Wada Global Archiving Program (GAP) Project	James H. Sinnett: City of Seward, Alaska	$5,000	Seward
Nikolai Collaborative Youth and Elder Documentary Film Project	Marie Acemah: Atheneum School	$7,000	Nikolai/ Anchorage
Revitalizing our ancestral language "Alutiiq"	Kari Sherod: Native Village of Afognak	$6,000	Afognak
Strengthening Community through Conversation: Difficult Dialogues about Homelesness in Anchorage	Dr. Susan H. Bomalaski: Catholic Social Services	$4,500	Anchorage
Baskets and Branches: a Portrait of Delores Churchill	Ellen Frankenstein: Artchange	$7,000	Sitka
Kwethluk Children's Home	Katie Basile	$4,500	Kwethluk/ New York City
Aswituuq's Dream, An Alutiiq Story	April Laktonen Counceller: Alutiiq Heritage Foundation	$4,000	Kodiak
Bethel Communities of Memory Project Jukebox	Dr. William Schneider: University of Alaska Fairbanks	$7,000	Fairbanks/ Bethel
Ouzinkie Oral History Project	Sharon Anderson: Spruce Island Development Corporation	$7,000	Ouzinkie
Seasons of Subsistence: Native Life in Bristol Bay	Nick Hall	$8,000	Dillingham/ Togiak/ Seattle
Northwest Arctic Inupiaq Language Planning	Ukallaysaaq Tom Okleasik: Northwest Arctic Borough	$6,000	Kotzebue
Kodiak King Crab Fishery Photo Portrait Project	Toby Sullivan: Kodiak Maritime Museum	$3,500	Kodiak
Sailing for Salmon	Tim Troll: Nushagak-Mulchatna / Wood-Tikchik Land Trust	$4,000	Dillingham

2010 General Grant Awards - Total $135,909

Project Title	Project Director : Sponsoring Organization	Grant Award
King Island Book Research	Alison Stein Wellner: Alaska House, New York	$10,000
Seasons of Subsistence: Native Life In Bristol Bay	Nick Hall	$7,260
Baskets and Branches: A Portrait of Haida Weaver Delores Churchill	Ellen Frankenstein	$9,850
Gunaaxoo/Guseix Field Trips	Bertrand J. Adams, Sr.	$5,100
THE BLUE BEAR: Creation of an Alaskan-inspired dramatic text and related workshops and discussions	Arthur Rotch: Perseverance Theatre, Inc.	$10,000
2010 Kachemak Bay Writers' Conference	Carol Swartz: Kachemak Bay Campus-Kenai Peninsula College	$8,000
In Her Footsteps: "The Best Stories Have Never Been Told!"	Michelle L. Dent, Ph.D.	$3,500
Living By The Tides: Sense of Place and Identity in Kachemak Bay	Holly Cusack-McVeigh, Ph.D.: Pratt Museum/Homer Society of Natural History, Inc.	$7,199
Alaska Anthropological Association Public Education Lecture Series	Karlene Leeper: Alaska Anthropological Association	$2,400
50 Years of Northern Light	Caven Keith: Presbytery of Yukon	$8,000
Stories from the Eagle Flood	Jesse Dukes	$4,850
Juneau Communities of Memory Project Jukebox	Dr. William Schneider: University of Alaska Fairbanks	$5,000
Preserving Our History: Digitizing Alaska Native Stories and Traditions from ANS 401	Dr. Jordan Lewis: University of Alaska Fairbanks	$5,000
Caroline or Change - A musical play that addresses questions of culture, community, race, and class.	Sandy Harper: Cyrano's Theatre Company	$2,500
Up For Discussion: What Makes a Sustainable Community?	Dorik Mechau: The Island Institute	$7,000
Alaska State Parks 40th Anniversary History Project	Claire Holland LeClair: Friends of Eagle River Nature Center	$7,500
Ahtna Heritage Foundation Website Development Project	Liana Charley John: Ahtna Heritage Foundation	$5,000
The 18th Annual Last Frontier Theatre Conference	Dawson Moore: Prince William Sound Community College	$6,000
Northern Review Special Literary Issue 2010	Dr. Eric Heyne: University of Alaska Fairbanks	$2,000
Chief Son-I-Hat Whale House Documentation Project	Richard J. Peterson: Organized Village of Kasaan	$9,750
Chenega Diaries Project	Karen Rogina: Chenega Heritage Incorporated	$10,000

2009 General Grant Awards - Total $114,187

Project Title	Project Director : Sponsoring Organization	Grant Award
Kachemak Bay Writers' Conference	Carol Swartz: Kachemak Bay Campus-Kenai Peninsula College	$7,000
Reclaiming the Griot, Awakening Tradition	Jimmi Ware: Black Feather Poets	$6,000
Alaskan Ethnographical Collections Made by Finnish Shipmasters: Bartram, Juselius and Krogius	Prof. Glynn R Barratt	$3,500
Sak Anni' (Land of the Hooligan): Traditional Harvest and Preparation of Upper Lynn Canal Hooligan	Morgen Smith: Chilkoot Indian Association	$4,000
Sail Fishery and Fox Hunting: Bristol Bay 1940	Harald Backman	$2,000
Kayaking Traditions	Dr. Sven Haakanson, Jr.: Alutiiq Museum & Archaeological Repository	$7,000
Stampede! The Story of the 1898 Valdez Gold Rush	Raymond Voley: Kenny Lake School	$4,000
Communicating Across Cultures II	James Mahan: Capital Community Broadcasting, Inc. (KTOO)	$5,000
Cordova Maritime Center - Document Research & Cataloguing	Beth Poole: Cordova District Fishermen United	$4,500
Who Was Who in Russian America: A Comprehensive Biographical Dictionary	Andrei A. Znamenski: Cook Inlet Historical Society	$7,000
Ahtna Athabascan Kenaege' Sae/ (Language Box)	Gabe Carmen: Chickaloon Native Village	$6,500
Sailing the Bay: 125 Years of Commercial Fishing in Bristol Bay	Tim Troll: Nushagak-Mulchatna / Wood-Tikchik Land Trust	$4,000
17th Annual Last Frontier Theatre Conference	Dawson Moore: Prince William Sound Community College	$5,000
Aleutian Island Jukebox	Dr. William S. Schneider: University of Alaska Fairbanks	$7,937
Reviving the Sheldon Museum Oral History Program	Jerrie Clarke: Sheldon Museum and Cultural Center	$5,750
Good Friday Earthquake: Seward Alaska on March 27, 1964	Patricia Linville: City of Seward - Seward Community Library	$3,500
Chaqenq'a - Dena'ina Fish Camp: A Collaborative, Community-Based Approach to Exhibit Design	Holly Cusack-McVeigh, Ph.D.: Pratt Museum/Homer Society of Natural History, Inc.	$8,500
Inupiaq Ingenuity Through Time - An Oral History Made Fresh for the Youth	Allison Warden	$3,000
Images of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill on Kodiak Island	Toby Sullivan: Kodiak Maritime Museum	$9,000
Sharing Our Knowledge: A Conference of Tlingit Tribes and Clans	Dr. Richard Dauenhauer: Tlingit Readers	$5,000
Haida Cultural and Historic Records Preservation	Dr. Stephen J. Langdon: Hydaburg Cooperative Association	$6,000

2008 General Grant Awards - Total $154,607

Project Title	Project Director : Sponsoring Organization	Grant Award
Yaabaa Teshai Stories of the Mendees Cheeg, as told by Ellen Demit, Matriarch of Healy Lake, Alaska	Connie Friend: Tetlin National Wildlife Refuge	$5,416
A Comparison of Eskimo Myth and Lore to Those of Other World Cultures	Elizabeth L. Dowdy: Northwest Christian College	$5,000
Symposium "Working Together to Create our Yup'ik Science Exhibit"	Evguenia Anichtchenko: Anchorage Museum at Rasmuson Center	$5,000
Kachemak Bay Writers' Conference	Carol Swartz: Kachemak Bay Campus-Kenai Peninsula College	$6,000
Phase 2 - Moving Image and audio collection inventory and access project	Dave Morgan: Alaska Aviation Heritage Museum	$6,000
24th Annual Sitka Symposium, To Have and To Hold: The Gifts of the Commons	Carolyn Servid: The Island Institute	$5,000
Life histories of Ethiopians during the Military dictatorship (1974 ï¿½ 1991)	Esther S. Antohin	$5,000
Collection-level Cataloguing of AMIPA's Archives	Michele Miller: Alaska Moving Image Preservation Association (AMIPA)	$5,000
The Torrent Shipwreck: Searching for Alaska's Underwater History (A Documentary Film)	Steve Lloyd	$10,000
Heinya: Southern Tlingit Dialect and Oral History Documentation Project	Sarah Dybdahl: Sealaska Heritage Institute	$3,000
Ahtna Anthology: Phase III	Cynthea L. Ainsworth, Ph.D.	$8,000
16th Annual Last Frontier Theatre Conference	Dawson Moore: Prince William Sound Community College	$5,000
Second Annual Alaska Book Festival	Robert Mandel: University of Alaska Press	$5,000
Fairbanks Communities of Memory	William Schneider: University of Alaska Fairbanks	$8,716
Alaska Native Heritage Month 2008	Michael Fredericks: Alaska Native Heritage Month, Inc.	$3,500
OurTime 2008: Our Values, Our Voice, Our Vote	Elizabeth Posey: Anchorage Urban League	$10,000
"Coming Home: The Story of the Alutiiq Masks," a production of Koahnic Broadcast Corporation	Dixie Hutchinson: Koahnic Broadcast Corporation	$8,000
Trails North: One Girl's Quest to Run the Junior Iditarod	Joe Rizzo: Alaska Children's Institute for the Performing Arts (Triumvirate Theatre)	$3,169
UAA/APU Book-of-the-Year: A Focused Collection by Alaska Native Writers	Libby Roderick: University of Alaska Anchorage	$5,000
Planning Grant: Fishing the Bay - 125 Years and Counting	Tim Troll: Nushagak-Mulchatna / Wood-Tikchik Land Trust	$2,500
The Lure of the Salmon Song	Dorothy Laigo Cordova: Filipino American National Historical Society	$5,450
The Making of a Champion: The Mindset of George Attla	Kathy Turco	$5,000
Post-Production preparation for broadcast of the documentary video, "Unraveling the Wind"	Beatrice Adler: Storyknife	$5,000
Weaver's Gathering 2008	Kay Field Parker: Ravenstail Weavers' Guild	$6,000
Traditional Knowledge, Values, and Language Preserved in Parts of Norton Sound	Henry Oyoumick	$5,000
The Vincent Soboleff Photograph Collection and the Cultural History of Killisnoo, a Tri-ethnic Community in the Heart of Tlingit Country	Sergei Kan	$3,000
Salmon trolling oral history panel presentation, slide show and photo display	Rebecca Poulson: Sitka Maritime Heritage Society, Inc.	$750
Traditional brain tanning of moose hides and other traditional methods of tanning hides.	Beckie Etukeok	$3,000
Maniilaq Assocation Digital Media Project	Lisa Savok: Maniilaq Association	$5,150
Ahtna Dipnet Project	Tana Finnesand: Ahtna Heritage Foundation	$1,956

2007 General Grant Awards - Total $103,100

Project Title	Project Director : Sponsoring Organization	Grant Award
Saving a Priceless Alaska Native Oral History Collection	Leonard Kamerling : University of Alaska Museum of the North	$8,594
Kodiak King Crab: The Rise and Fall of an Industry: An Oral History	Mike Pfeffer : Kodiak Maritime Museum	$7,500
Davenport Flagstop and the Case of the Golden Spike: A Railroad Mystery	Joe Rizzo : Alaska Children's Institute for the Performing Arts	$10,600
Kachemak Bay Writer's Conference	Carol Swartz : Kachemak Bay Campus - Kenai Peninsula College	$5,000
Carl E. Wynn Nature Center: ecology, landscape, and land use through time	Elizabeth Trowbridge : Center for Alaskan Coastal Studies, Inc.	$5,000
Ahtna Anthology: Phase II	Cynthea Ainsworth, PhD	$10,000
If Only These Walls Could Talk: Interpretative Storytelling of Homer Homesteading	Betsy Webb:Pratt Museum	$6,000
Nanwalek: Photographing Native Ways in Changing Times	Lisa Williams : Fotovision	$5,000
Alaska Sisters in Crime's Authors in the Schools Program for 2007	Dana Stabenow : Alaska Sisters in Crime	$5,000
Alaska Far Away: The New Deal Pioneers of the Matanuska Colony	Joan Juster : Palmer Historical Society	$3,684
Moving Image and audio collection inventory and information access project	Dave Morgan : Alaska Aviation Heritage Museum	$6,000
Russo-Tlingit Armed Collisions (1792-1804): Conclusion	Dr. Glynn deV Barratt	$3,900
The St. Herman of Alaska Film Project	Sean Bledsoe	$1,370
Pilot Point Oral History Project	Gregory Kingsley : Pilot Point Tribal Council	$4,000
2007 Alaska High School Mock Trial Championship	Ryan Fortson : Anchorage Bar Association, Young Lawyers Section	$1,000
The 23rd annual Sitka Symposium: Finding Beauty in a Wounded World	Carolyn Servid : The Island Institute, Inc.	$5,000
The Challenges and Successes of Preserving Indigenous Cultures in Alaska in the 21st Century	Ray Clements, Ph.D. : Older Persons Action Group, Inc.	$3,000
Taking Oral History to the Next Level	William Schneider : University of Alaska Fairbanks	$12,452

2006 General Grant Awards - Total $60,001

Project Title	Project Director : Sponsoring Organization	Grant Award
Finding Their Own Dance: Reawakening the Alutiiq Arts	Ellen Van't Hof: Calvin College	$6,000
Names: Keys to Our Past and Cultural Continuity	Kathy Miller: Sealaska	$5,257
Games of the North- Point Hope Shoot	Steven Alvarez: Alaska Native Heritage Center	$5,500
Kachemak Bay Writers	Carol Swarts: Kenai Peninsula College	$5,000
Research for Documentary Film: "We Wear Our History: Northwest Coast Regalia Stories"	Clarissa Hudson: Artstream Cultural Resources	$4,000
Children's Interactive Learning Center at the Sheldon Museum	Kathryn Friedle: Sheldon Museum & Cultural Center	$3,200
Computer Cataloging the HSHS Artifact Collection	Art Copoulos: Hope & Sunrise Historical Society	$2,000
The Kennecott Cadre Project	Ray Voley: Kenny Lake School, Copper River School District	$4,000
A Cultural and Historical Geography of Cambell	Cherie Northon	$3,550
North American Saints Series-DVD#1	Katherine Vitko, Alexandra Safchuck: Orthodox Chrurch in America, Department of History and Archives	$5,000
The Vincent Soboleff Photograph Collection and the Ethnohistory of Killisnoo, a Native Alaskan Community (1890's-1920's)	Sergi Kan	$2,000
Asiin… (translation from Inupiatun to English: And then…)	Elizabeth Saagulik Hensley : Inuit Circumpolar Conference of Alaska	$1,500
Tamamta Katurlluta – A Gathering of Native Tradition Media Project	Gale Parsons : Pratt Museum	$3,200
July 1915: Wickersham Meets the Tanana Chiefs	Thomas L. Alton	$2,000
Baranov’s Castle	Joe Rizzo : Alaska Children’s Institute for the Performing Arts	$2,000
Contemporary Art and Architecture of Alaska	Julie Decker : International Gallery of Contemporary Art	$2,000
Pioneering Alaska’s Conservation Movement: The Life Story of Ginny Wood	Karen Brewster: University of Alaska Fairbanks	$3,794

Contact Information

For more information about grants or for assistance with guidelines and the online application system, please contact the Grants Officer at 907-272-5373 or via email at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.