Like I mentioned in my last blog about “Museums: I thought they were like haunted houses”, during the weekend of March 24th through the 26th. I was one of the grant awardees to receive the First People’s Fund “Artist in Business Leadership” program. For three days, several Native American artists from around the country met for a marketing seminar in Minneapolis at the new “All Our Relations” gallery/coffee shop facility.
I was impressed with the information from the presentations by FPF with our hosts, the Native American Community Development Institute. Visit their wesbite to find out more information about the NACDI.
The following are images of this year’s FPF artists.
All the artists were asked to prepare a 10-minute presentation on where we were from, what kind of work we do, and how we were going to use the funds from our First People’s Fund grant. Since I was sitting at the very end of the table, I was the first to do my presentation. I am fortunate to have taken a Marketing class and an Introduction to Digital Media class at the Institute of American Indian Arts during the Spring Semester 2010. I took pride in presenting some of my marketing tools that I created in my classes: my first brochure, my business cards, and my power point presentation which kind of tells it all.
My favorite part about the entire seminar was watching my fellow artists introduce themselves and their work. I am always interested in meeting other artists and seeing their work. (This was one of the main motivators as to why Preston Singletary and I started the biennial “Northwest Coast Artists’ Gathering” in Juneau, Alaska back in 2006.) I was thoroughly impressed with the quality and artistry of each individual’s work. I am proud of my fellow artists. It was an honor to be rubbing shoulders with some of the most influential artists of their communities. I introduce them here:
To find out information about First People’s Fund there is a part two to this blog entry entitled with the same name, but includes “Part II” to the title…AND there are additional photographs…check it out in next week’s blog entry…
Hi What a great job! Thanks for doing this for us. Stay well and work hard, with love, Lillian
Great pictures, I had the time of my life.Although cold, it was great meeting everyone, and very uplifting! Thanks to the first peoples… Hope to see everyone again soon. Paul Peterson