Native Arts and Cultures Foundation

New Group Is Formed to Sponsor Native Arts

By Robin PogrebinEven as arts groups around the country are cutting back because of declining endowments and donations, a new foundation to support the work of American Indian, Native Hawaiian and Alaska Native artists is being established with an initial $10 million from the Ford Foundation.

Called the Native Arts and Cultures Foundation, the organization, formally opened on Tuesday, says it will be the first permanently endowed national foundation of its kind.

“We needed our own endowment for native arts and culture in this country in the coming century,” said Elizabeth Theobald Richards, the program officer at Ford who has overseen the project and is a Cherokee. “The indigenous peoples of this country have an incredible wealth of cultural heritage and cultural expression that very few people know about. And it’s also incredibly underfunded.”Comment:  I hope this foundation will fund tribal comic books. We need more of this vital art form. <g>

Below:  "Walter Echo-Hawk, chairman of a new cultural foundation."