2025 Native Performing Arts Fellowship Application
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First Peoples Fund Overview
Founded in 1995, First Peoples Fund is guided by our belief in Collective Spirit. Collective Spirit is a commitment to nurture our shared humanity and honor our connection to one another, the lands around us, those who came before us, and the spirit of all things. The Collective Spirit moves each of us to stand up and make a difference, pass on ancestral knowledge, and extend a hand of generosity. The Collective Spirit is essential to sustaining the cultural fabric of Native communities and our ability to thrive. Our mission is to honor and support the Collective Spirit of First Peoples artists and culture bearers. Our work recognizes the power of art and culture to bring about positive change in Native communities, beginning with individual artists and their families.
2025 NATIVE PERFORMING ARTS FELLOWSHIP GUIDELINES
The Native Performing Arts (NPA) Fellowship is a yearlong program that helps Native Artists create, practice and work within the Performing Arts (theater, music, dance, etc.). The program provides them with network-building, professional development training and funding to build a sustainable career within the Performing Arts landscape.
The NPA Fellowship offers a one-year $10,000 grant to Native performing artists each year. The program's purpose is to develop independent, satisfied, and credible Native performing artists, who are generous in spirit and their craft to cultivate ways they can share their knowledge and gifts with both Native and Non-Native audiences. Applications are open to artists at all stages of their career.
The NPA Fellowship is not a project based grant. Proposed budgets should be grounded in needs to further artistic career or creative goals rather than providing financial support toward a new or existing creative project. Developing or completing a creative project can be a component of your fellowship year, but should not be the primary goal or outcome. Consider what resources you will need in order to start or grow your artistic career or presence, and what you will be able to accomplish with the grant funding provided.
Examples of artistic career needs or creative goals can include (but are not limited to), building a stronger relationship with existing collaborators/potential collaborators while increasing business and/or visibility on social media platforms, creating an effective web presence, consulting, legal, and financial professionals (agent, publicist, tour manager, etc.), creating a performance portfolio, both physical and digital, getting professional headshots, taking classes, seminars, workshops, private lessons with professional experts in any field of performing arts.
This is a one-year program and we expect that your application clearly details your proposed development within a one-year timeframe.
FELLOWSHIP INFORMATION
Grant amount: $10,000.
- 90% (or $9,000) will be disbursed once initial paperwork and orientation measures are completed.
- The remaining 10% (or $1,000) will be disbursed in December 2025 upon completion of closing measures.
Award year: January 1, 2025 - December 31, 2025.
Selected artists should expect to attend an annual fellowship convening where all FPF fellows are brought together for a multi-day event. This is normally held in the spring and past convening locations have included Santa Fe, Phoenix, and Minneapolis.
ELIGIBILITY
- Must be at least 18 years of age at the time of application.
- Applicants must be an enrolled member of, or provide proof of lineal descendancy from, a U.S. federally-recognized or U.S. state-recognized tribe, or be able to provide proof of ancestry as an Alaska Native or Native Hawaiian.
- Native practitioners of all performing arts mediums are welcome to apply. This includes theater, music, dance, theater, music, spoken word and more, in both traditional and contemporary forms.
- Artists and culture bearers may not apply to the same program in succession. For example, if you are a 2025 NPA Fellow, you are not eligible to re-apply to the NPA Fellowship program in 2026.
- If you are a previous grantee with First Peoples Fund (FPF), you must have submitted a final report for any previously awarded FPF Grants.
APPLICATION PROCESS
A completed Fellowship application includes:
- Application
- Proof of Tribal Affiliation
- Two Letters of Reference (Examples: Professional or community reference; current mentor)
- Career Goal/Milestone Budget
- Resume
- Artwork Samples (5 to 10 examples of your recent artwork)
- Description of Artwork Samples
- One high-quality photograph of yourself, either a professional headshot or a clear picture of your performing/creating your art medium. If selected, this image may be used for FPF promotion and announcement materials.
Work Samples
- You may upload video, audio, and/or photo files, or a document listing links to files. Please limit video and audio files to no longer than two minutes or indicate a two minute section for each sample that the selection committee should review. Your Description of Artwork Samples should include the following for each file: a) Title; b) Medium; c) Year Created; d) Timestamps for section of the submitted file for selection committee to review (if applicable). If submitted audio/video examples are longer than two minutes and no specific times are called out for review, the selection committee will only review the first two minutes.
TIMELINE
- Application Opens: August 12th, 2024
- Application Closes: September 23rd, 2024
SELECTION ANNOUNCEMENT: Applicants will be notified in December 2024
QUESTIONS?
Contact Natalie Benally, Program Manager of Performing Arts, with any questions by calling 505-278-0412 or via email at: natalie@firstpeoplesfund.org.