Indigenous Voices Fund Grant Recipients

We are overjoyed to introduce and congratulate the recipients of our second round of Indigenous Voices Fund grants! We can’t wait to follow along as their projects come to life, and help share them with the community.

Shyanne Brant has already used her grant to reach new audiences by participating in the December 2024 Akwesasne Indigenous Fashion Show. She designed, created, and presented a new line featuring gowns with acrylic paint, beadwork and quill work, silkscreen and natural-dyed fabrics, and re-cycled garments to share the harms and environmental impacts of fast fashion.

Marleen Murphy will use the IV Fund Grant to design and create a batch of the first environmentally-friendly smudge bowls with an acceptable and alternative source to using abalone, a traditional material that is now endangered in Canada.

The IV Fund Grant will help Alyssa Bardy cover materials and other costs to help her prepare and display her work in upcoming exhibitions, with the aim of expanding and increasing visibility around her non-commercial photographic practice.

Angela Wiggins will use her grant to fund the research and creation phases of a major new project, enabling her to create 30 medium and large scale acrylic and mixed media works for an upcoming exhibition at Belleville’s John M. Parrott Gallery.

We are so thankful to everyone who supported this year’s grants program:

– Elderberry Fund (Sarah Crawford & David Kirkwood), our Indigenous Voices Fund donor, for making this unique and important program possible and providing matching funding for our June 2024 fundraising campaign. Thanks to the Elderberry Fund and our other wonderful community donors, we awarded $13,000 in grants in 2024!
– Rotary Indigenous Peoples Partnerships Cluster, for their $1000 contribution
– The Meeting House – Sandbanks who donated $600 AND chose the Indigenous Voices Fund as their beneficiary of $500 in donations from a July 2024 event
– Many other wonderful donors including Julia Howell, Joan McBride, Madeline Smolarz, Kelly Cade, Liam Greig, David Dawes, Sharon Hart, and Joyce Mark-Brant

Our sincere thanks also goes to the panel of Indigenous artists who formed this year’s Peer Assessment Committee, and to all of this year’s applicants. For more information on the Indigenous Voices Fund, please visit countyarts.ca/indigenous-voices-fund.