Individual Artist Awards
Grants to artists to support the time, reflection, immersion or experimentation beneficial to the development of their artistry.
Meet the 2020 Individual Artist Award recipients
Every year Rasmuson Foundation recognizes some of Alaska's best artists with Individual Artist Awards. Learn who is receiving an award this year — and how they plan to use the money to grow as an artist.
Mary Ida Henrikson
The Tongass National Forest in Southeast Alaska has long been home to painter Mary Ida Henrikson. Her nuanced artwork documents her connection to the temperate rainforest and her concern for the environment.Abigail Kokai
Fiber artist Abigail Kokai creates works that reflect her interest in illustration, graphic design and interaction with objects around her. Her quilts narrate lived experiences, preserve places and times, and communicate the significance of individuals and communities.Merry C. Ellefson
Playwright Merry Ellefson of Juneau has been haunted for 20 years by the story of three Iñupiaq hunters who drifted away on an ice floe. Only one survived. The fragility of ice has etched tragedy into her own life, too.
Ana Gutierrez-Scholl
Ana Gutierrez-Scholl grew up in Mexico with a love for traditional dance. She helped form the Anchorage-based dance group Xochiquetzal-Tiqun in 2002 to share a passion for Mexican culture and Mexican folkloric dance. By showcasing the group’s artistic achievements, she hopes to inspire the next generations of instructors and dancers.
Dolores Catherino
Composer Dolores Catherino explores audio soundscapes that reach beyond the familiar black and white keyboard of a piano. With innovative instruments, she plays notes between notes to open musical experience like a new palette of color.
Susan Stark Christianson
Susan Stark Christianson began interviewing grandmothers in 2008 to better understand the source of their resilience — and herself. She now has traveled around the world capturing women’s voices, specifically indigenous voices, to document the wisdom that has been there all along.Paul Andrew Lawrence
From his pilot seat in a Bush air taxi, Paul Andrew Lawrence saw Alaska's changing ecosystem and turned to photography and film to document it. He produced and directed "Boneyard Alaska," a film about Alaska miner John Reeves's find of a massive fossil deposit of bison, woolly mammoths and prehistoric bears.
Susan Joy Share
A multimedia visual and performance artist, Susan Joy Share uses traditional and innovative bookbinding techniques to create kinetic sculptures that unfurl and unfold, morphing from ordinary looking books, boxes and satchels into playful, polychromatic folding screens, puppets, masks, costumes, creatures and other surprises.Media Mentions
- A new stained-glass inspired mural in downtown Anchorage aims to raise awareness about climate change - Anchorage Daily News September 23
- Residents begin moving into their new homes at Juneau's expanded Housing First facility September 14
- Identity before comfort: Ethan Lauesen explores queer Indigeneity in award-winning prints | Local News | newsminer.com September 8
- Filling the gaps in Anchorage’s safety net - Anchorage Daily News September 4