Native-Led Foundation Offers $15,000 Arts Grant to Support Indigenous Creative Voices

The Walker Youngbird Foundation, a Native-led nonprofit dedicated to supporting emerging Indigenous artists across North America, has announced the Emerging Native Arts Grant, offering $15,000 twice annually to early-career artists at critical stages in their development.

Founded with a vision to honor and uplift Indigenous voices, the foundation strives to create opportunities for Native artists to reshape cultural perceptions, preserve heritage, and drive societal change through artistic innovation. The organization operates under the principle that art serves as both memory and movement, with work grounded in reciprocity, community, and Indigenous knowledge systems.

The grant supports artists completing projects that can be shared publicly through exhibitions, installations, publications, or other visual presentations. Priority is given to work that explores the intersection of tradition and innovation while demonstrating cultural integrity, creative experimentation, and contemporary relevance.

Eligible disciplines include 2D visual arts such as painting, drawing, photography, and printmaking; 3D works including sculpture, ceramics, and installations; time-based media featuring short video, sound art, and digital works; multi-disciplinary approaches; and traditional arts like beadwork, quillwork, textiles, and carving that incorporate innovative approaches.

The program does not support performing arts, musical composition or performance, screenplays, or full-length film projects.

The foundation recognizes that Native artists are often underrepresented in mainstream arts funding and gallery systems, particularly those working within traditional frameworks or from non-federally recognized communities. The grant aims to address this gap by elevating Indigenous voices beyond regional boundaries, supporting cultural continuity and innovation, and providing national recognition to emerging Native talent.

Eligibility is open to artists who are enrolled members of U.S. federally or state-recognized American Indian tribes or Alaska Native corporations, of Native Hawaiian ancestry, or members of recognized First Nations in Canada. Documentation of eligibility is required for applications.

The foundation is named in honor of Hans Walker Jr., a Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara lawyer who spent his career advocating for Native nations. His legacy of cultural stewardship, expressed through collecting art and building relationships across Indian Country, inspired his son Reid Walker to establish the organization.

The “Youngbird” family name speaks to emergence: “a generational call forward, a belief that new voices are rising and ready to be heard.”

Applications for the Emerging Native Arts Grant are currently open. Artists interested in connecting with the foundation can reach out via email at info@walkeryoungbird.org or follow their work on Instagram @walkeryoungbirdfoundation.

Apply here.