Native Arts Background

In 2005, the Ford Foundation invited NEFA to design a support system for New England’s Native artists. NEFA, in association with the Maine Indian Basketmakers Alliance (MIBA), conducted gatherings with Native American artists and leaders throughout the region in 2005-2006. The recommendations heard at those meetings informed NEFA’s design of a program with staff leadership by a member of the Native community, created to serve a marginalized, underserved, and often invisible community of Native artists and organizations.

IllumiNation Cohort Members

The IllumiNation cohort is comprised of seven organizations across the U.S. brought together by the Ford Foundation’s Indigenous Knowledge and Culture program to strengthen and expand the national philanthropic network supporting Native arts and culture. Each of the distinguished cohort members has developed national programming that complements the programs of the other cohort members.

Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian
First Peoples Fund
Seventh Generation Fund
First Nations Composer Initiative
Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art
Evergreen State College Foundation Longhouse Education Cultural Center