The Juneau Community Foundation and the Brady family of Skagway announce that the Margaret Frans Brady Fund awarded $11,000 in scholarship funding in 2025 to twenty- one qualifying area residents pursuing artistic excellence at camps, conferences, schools, or colleges in the coming months.
ARTS CAMP AWARDS
• Skagway – Three students from Skagway School were awarded $500 each to attend Sitka Fine Arts Camp this June: Amara Fielding, Anika Thole, Naomi Klug.
• Juneau – Two students from Juneau were awarded $500 each to attend Sitka Fine Arts Camp this June: Kiana Twitchell, Taylor Steele.
COLLEGE/UNIVERSITY PROGRAM AWARDS
SKAGWAY
• Evelyn Borst – Evelyn, a 2025 graduate and state Drama, Debate, Forensics champion from Skagway High School, will be pursuing a psychology degree and continuing to hone her speech and writing skills at the University of Oregon. $750.
• Chloe Miller – Chloe, a 2023 Skagway High School graduate, has spent the last two years working toward a degree in film studies at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. $500.
• Calvin Miller – Calvin, a 2025 graduate and student government leader at Skagway High School, specializes in woodworking and will be minoring in art while pursuing a business degree at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. $250.
HAINES
• Emma Dohrn – Emma, a 2025 graduate of Haines High School, is a multi-talented artist and will be pursuing a BFA in graphic design at Montana State University in the fall. $1000.
JUNEAU
• Cagney Davis – Cagney, a 2025 graduate of Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé, has excelled in art, animation, music, and robotics while also taking college courses and will be attending the Savannah School of Art and Design in the fall. $1000.
• Georgia Post – Georgia, a 2024 graduate of Thunder Mountain High School, will continue working toward her BFA degree at San Jose State University with a focus on animation. $1000.
• Amara Murray – Amara, a 2025 graduate of Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé, who specializes in digital fine arts, will attend the University of Alaska Fairbanks in the fall. $250.
• Ellie Yerkes – Ellie, a 2025 graduate of Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé, plans to major in elementary education with a focus on art at the University of Alaska Southeast. $250.
SITKA
• Rita Christianson – Rita, a 2025 graduate of Sitka High School, is a multi-talented student with a flair for costume design. She will be taking her skills to DePaul University in Chicago in the fall. $1000.
• Fiona Ferguson – Fiona, a 2021 graduate from Sitka High School, has been an excellent student artist at Western Washington University and will be gaining her Arts Education degree in the fall. $750.
CONFERENCES, OTHER AWARDS
• Skagway – A violin prodigy since the age of 3, Mina Yee, who is now in high school, will continue her professional lessons in Yukon through a grant to the Skagway Arts Council. $750.
• Juneau – Five students from Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé were each awarded $200 towards their school’s registration at the National Speech and Debate Association Tournament at Des Moines, Iowa, in June. All were top qualifiers at the recent Alaska State Drama, Debate, and Forensics Tournament: Madeline Bass, Peyton Edmunds, Elijah Goins, Alivia Gomez, and Cadence Ward.
“We had a record number of applicants this year, and the level of artistic talent in our area continues to grow and impress our scholarship committee,” said Jeff Brady, MFB fund advisor.
The Margaret Frans Brady Fund was established in 2012 at the Juneau Community Foundation to support arts and education projects and programs in Skagway and northern Southeast Alaska. A separate MFB Arts Scholarship Fund was established a year later to assist students and artists in our area with scholarships to help them improve their creative abilities.
Including this year’s awards, more than $98,000 has been awarded to more than 100 area students of the arts since the MFB Arts Scholarship Fund was created.
The Margaret Frans Brady Fund continues to accept arts and education project applications from non-profit entities, based on the availability of funds. Grants are usually awarded in the fall.
The fund has supported design work for the Tlingit Street Sign Project in Skagway; assisted in the development of Theater Alaska’s upcoming production tentatively titled There’s These Birds; approved education grants to preserve Yéil Koowú, Ravenstail Robes in Juneau and cedar weaving in Haines; assisted Skagway Arts Council in purchasing a new sound system for events; and granted the Klondike Corridors nonprofit funds for emergency roof repairs on the historic Rapuzzi House in Skagway.
