2022 Grants

COMMUNITY-ENGAGED MEDIA GRANTS (new for 2022)

Now closed. See who was awarded a 2022 Community-Engaged Media Grant!

This year, we are launching a new grant program to fund community-engaged media projects in Alaska. Alongside this launch, we are working to restructure our grantmaking program in alignment with the recommended practices of the Equitable Grantmaking Continuum developed by NonprofitAF.com and RVCSeattle.org.

Since 2019, the Alaska Humanities Forum’s Community | Media | Possibility initiative has been hosting programming designed to reimagine the relationship between media-makers and communities in Alaska. Between fall 2020 and spring 2021, the Forum organized a range of programming focused on the question: what’s possible when community and media connect?

Inspired by recommendations and learnings from that programming, the Forum is launching the Community-Engaged Media Grant, a cohort-based grant program to support projects that bring community stakeholders and journalists/media makers together to tell stories that reflect and serve lived experience across Alaska.

Learn more and apply on our Community Engaged Media Grants page!

2021 Grants

SHARP Operational Grants

Now closed. See who was awarded a SHARP Grant!
As Alaska’s state humanities council, the Alaska Humanities Forum is honored to distribute and administer funds allocated to the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) as a means of Supporting the Humanities through the American Rescue Plan (SHARP).

Funding was made available in an effort to prevent, prepare for, respond to, and recover from COVID-19. The Forum will manage Alaska’s share of the funds directed to the 56 state and jurisdictional humanities councils to assist affected cultural nonprofit institutions and organizations across our state. Applicants must clearly demonstrate that their initiative is undertaken to prevent, prepare for, respond to, and recover from the coronavirus.

Eligible applicants include Alaska nonprofit organizations with 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status, accredited public and 501(c)(3) institutions of higher education, and federally recognized tribal organizations.
Organizations must have a demonstrated commitment to public humanities and/or cultural or civic programming – including, but not limited to, historical societies, libraries, cultural centers, literary groups, museums, educational organizations, historical preservation groups, and media groups that report on culture.
Other factors related to accomplishing the mission of the Alaska Humanities Forum will also be considered as part of decision making, including geographic and cultural diversity, increasing equity and inclusion, as well as reaching communities that currently or historically have been underserved with humanities programming.
Funds may be used to cover general operating costs (e.g., rent and facility expenses, utilities, staffing) related to preparing for, responding to, and recovering from the coronavirus.
Funding will not be given to organizations whose mission falls outside of the humanities and the humanistic social sciences, including the creation or performance of art; creative writing, autobiographies, memoirs, and creative nonfiction; and quantitative social science research or policy studies.
Organizations that have already received CARES Act funding from the Forum or an annual grant in 2021 are eligible for this additional funding.

Grant Recipients

2022

Community-Engaged Media Grants

In October 2022, the Alaska Humanities Forum awarded $50,000 in grants to 5 media/community partnerships.

Áak'w K̲wáan Coalition Council: Haa Shagoon At.óowu Teen Anal’eix: Dance With Our Ancestors' Regalia
This project will photograph Indigenous artists in their element sharing their connection to their ancestors through their various mediums. How each artist dances with their ancestors' regalia when they share their histoires, stories, and perspectives through art.

Alaska Public Media (Annie Feidt & Tegan Hanlon)/Young Kim & Victoria Petersen
Anchorage journalists Victoria Petersen and Young Kim, in partnership with Alaska Public Media, will explore stories of labor, culture, community and more through the lens of food. The multimedia project will focus on the city’s food system, particularly in Anchorage’s underreported and underrepresented communities.

Alaskan Films/Alaska Children's Trust: Sharing Alaskans' Experiences with Child Abuse and Neglect
In partnership with an advisory group of those with lived experience of child abuse and neglect, our project will work to provide a safe way to break the silence on child abuse and neglect in Alaska. Child abuse and neglect is a taboo subject, and the silence surrounding it can prevent individuals, families, and communities from healing. Storytelling provides a pathway for us to process past events while simulatenously shining a light on our lived experience for others. The benefits of storytelling are twofold, a potential for healing and building community for those who have experienced child abuse and neglect, and a chance to reduce stigma and increase awareness to lead to prevention for Alaska's children. Learn more about the project or get involved: https://www.alaskachildrenstrust.org/lived-experience

See Stories/Sound Artist Kaitlin Armstrong: Unsettling Alaska
Unsettling Alaska is a documentary podcast series about the myths that shape how Alaskans view our history and ourselves. Afro-Indigenous activist Amber Starks says that “behind every settler project is a settler myth.” This eight-episode sound-rich documentary series will revisit key moments of Alaska’s history - such as the gold rush, Russian colonization, the development of the commercial fishing industry, Alaska’s civil rights movement, and the oil boom - examining how these periods are popularly remembered and misremembered, and upturning the ways in which Alaska’s history is often told in the shape of settler myths. Each episode will feature interviews with experts and everyday Alaskans of diverse backgrounds, exploring the intersections of Alaskan identity and Alaska’s history. See Stories will collaborate with educators to create a curriculum that adapts the podcast and the themes it raises for use in social studies and Alaska Studies classrooms.

SouthWest Alaska Arts Group/Katie Basile Photography
This project will explore how culture and identity are expressed through artistic creation. We are excited to learn about traditional art forms that have been passed on through intergenerational knowledge, as well as how art practices may (or may not) have transformed with influences from: individual perspective, modern adaptations/tools, or blending of contemporary ideas with ways-of-being from old.

2021

SHARP Operational & Project Grants

In September 2021, the Alaska Humanities Forum awarded $482,500 in grants to Alaska organizations through the Supporting the Humanities through the American Rescue Plan (SHARP) program. Through SHARP, the NEH provided funding opportunities to rapidly distribute American Rescue Plan (ARP) Act funding to cultural organizations and educational institutions adversely affected by the coronavirus pandemic.

Affinityfilms, Inc.
Alaska Aviation Museum
Alaska Historical Society
Alaska Jewish Campus
Alaska Jewish Museum
Alaska Native Heritage Center
Alaska Veterans Museum
Alaska World Affairs Council
Alutiiq Museum & Archaeological Repository
Anchorage International Film Festival (AIFF)
Anchorage Museum
Artchange, Inc.
Athabascan Fiddlers Association
Best Beginnings
Bethel Council on the Arts
Bristol Bay Historical Society
Bunnell Street Arts Center
Center for Alaskan Coastal Studies
Clausen Memorial Museum
Denali Arts Council
Denali Education Center
Fairbanks Children's Museum
First Alaskans Institute
The Folk School
Fraternal Order of Alaska State Troopers
Homer Council on the Arts
Identity, Inc.
Juneau Arts and Humanities Council
Juneau Community Foundation
Juneau-Douglas City Museum
Koahnic Broadcast Corporation
Kodiak Historical Society
Kodiak Maritime Museum
KTOO Public Media
KUAC Friends Group
Morris Thompson Cultural and Visitors Center
Museum of Alaska Transportation and Industry
Museum of the Aleutians Association Inc.
NATIVE Program Inc.
Outer Coast
Pioneer Air Museum
Pratt Museum
Qizhjeh Heritage Institute
Sealaska Heritage Institute
See Stories
Sheldon Museum and Cultural Center, Inc
Sitka Historical Society & Museum
Spirit of Youth
Story Works Alaska
Talkeetna Historical Society
University of Alaska Museum of the North
Valdez Museum & Historical Archive Association, Inc.
Yukon River Drainage Fisheries Association