The Juneau Community Foundation is proud to announce recipients of the 2026 Artist Awards. Through the Foundation’s Arts Vibrancy Endowment, the Artist Award program supports local artists creating original, community-minded work. This year, we received a record number of applications and selected six projects for funding. Grants range from $2,500 to $5,000, and were awarded to artists pursuing music, Lingít beadwork, documentary filmmaking, theater, pigment making, and photography. Congratulations to our six grantees, and thank you to everyone who submitted an application!
JAMM students and teachers hard at work making music!
JAMM Lingít Lullabies for Juneau Families
In collaboration with JAMM school sites, local indigenous organizations, and Carnegie Hall, JAMM will conduct a community-wide lullaby project over the 2026-2027 school year. George Holly will work with Juneau families to compose lullabies that reflect family and cultural values and words of encouragement parents would like to impart to their children. Holly will compose these conversations into a series of lullabies. Local composer and musician, Elena Levi, will work with Holly to orchestrate lullabies for JAMM musicians, teaching artists, and local musicians to perform and record. Local sound engineer and videographer, Josh LaBocca, will help produce tracks and a music video, which will be published on YouTube after a live premiere at Carnegie Hall in May of 2027.
James’ Wolf Design (2017), one of Tl’aagunk’s vest designs for a private collection.
Renee (Tl’aagunk) Culp Carrying Stories Forward: Continuing a Contemporary Lingít Beaded Robe
Tl’aagunk will be continuing work on an original contemporary Lingít beaded button robe. Building upon work begun during her Sealaska Heritage Institute Artist Residency, she willcontinue developing the robe over a nine-month period while advancing her practice in large-scale Northwest Coast beadwork. Tl’aagunk’s work, which is inspired by the strength and knowledge of her ancestors, is intentional and relational. Her beadwork reflects movement, form, and narrative. Each piece is thoughtfully constructed using traditional teachings and stories. Her work will carry stories forward, strengthen connections, invite reflection, and support cultural knowledge in everyday life and ceremonial spaces.
Teaching filmmaker Scott Burton (photo taken by Sydney Akagi.)
Scott Burton Sitting at the Storytellers’ Fires
Scott Burton is a teaching filmmaker who has produced six documentary films in addition to a large selection of shorter video and audio pieces. His most recent documentaries include two collaborative projects with local fifth graders and Sealaska Heritage Institute on the legacies of Lingít elders Daniel Brown and Dr. Walter Soboleff. His grant funding will allow him to participate in a collaborative film residency with one of the world’s leading documentary filmmakers, which will include artistic mentorship, draft development, and possible presentation at a major film festival. Burton’s Artist Award Grant will help teach Juneau’s next generation of documentary filmmakers, increasing local opportunity for networking and mentorship.
Bostin Christopher as The Poet in Perseverance Theatre’s 2014 production of “An Illiad”.
Bostin Christopher The Christians
Bostin Christopher, known to Juneau especially through his work as a company member for Perseverance Theatre, will be producing Theater Alaska’s production of Lucas Hnath’s “The Christians.” The play is about faith, doubt, conviction, and how challenging long-held beliefs can fracture people and their relationships. This show will be performed in several Juneau churches. Grant funding will help with the significant audio demands of this production, which will use microphones creatively as a tool for expressing both inner and outer thoughts. As is characteristic of Theater Alaska’s work in community spaces, there will be post-show dialogue about the themes of the show, increasing the impact of the performance.
Christine Carpenter binding watercolor paints in her studio
Christine Carpenter The Alaska Pigment Project
Christine Carpenter is a natural pigment and watercolor artist. She will be creating an online pigment library, allowing Alaskans to see how their natural surroundings can be transformed into usable paints and dyes. The Alaska Pigment Project is a multi-phase initiative encompassing field foraging, studio color extraction, and the creation of an online color database mapping Alaskan botanical pigments. This project will establish the digital infrastructure needed to elevate physical foraging and studio research into a lasting, accessible resource.
Aurora over the Mendenhall Wetlands; April 2024 (Digital Photograph by Damon Stuebner.)
Damon Stuebner Dusk to Dawn
Damon Stuebner is the Juneau Arts and Humanities Council’s artist for January 2027. His photography exhibit, “Dusk to Dawn”, will feature original photographs of Juneau’s ever-changing night skies, accompanied by a selection of facts, quotes, and poems meant to help viewers think about human relationships to nature. This project will encapsulate a community relationship with nature: we’re all under the same skies, but we all see something different.
To date, the Artist Awards program has awarded $124,000 to 33 Juneau artists. Now in its seventh year, this funding is made possible by the continued generosity of local individuals and businesses. Their support allows the Arts Vibrancy Endowment to grow, helping the Foundation respond to the evolving needs of artists and the broader arts and culture landscape in Juneau.
Learn more about the Artist Awards grant program.
