The National Endowment for the Arts is a federal government agency that helps support and fund arts and arts education throughout the country.
In late August, the chair of the endowment, Dr. Maria Rosario Jackson, visited Alaska to hear from artists and arts organizations in Bethel, Anchorage, and Juneau.
While in Bethel, Jackson sat down to talk with KYUK’s MaryCait Dolan on Aug. 22 about what she’d done and seen in Alaska and how arts can be a part of daily life.
Read a transcript of the conversation below. It’s been lightly edited for clarity, and may contain transcription errors.
KYUK (MaryCait Dolan): Thank you so much for speaking with me today, Dr. Jackson. Welcome to Bethel and welcome to Alaska. I would love to hear about your time in Anchorage yesterday and what you've been up to today in Bethel.
Dr. Maria Rosario Jackson: Well, thank you for inviting me to talk with you. It's such an honor to be in Alaska. First time for me. I came with a team from the National Endowment for the Arts, and we're very excited to learn about what's happening with artists and arts organizations here and beyond, to get a sense of the landscape and how things work here. This is a big, beautiful place that operates a little differently from the lower 48, and so it's really wonderful to be in a space to meet new people and be open to understanding how things happen here.
KYUK: Absolutely. And I think one thing that I have come to appreciate about Alaska in my time living here is how rich the arts and the culture is, and how intertwined they are, in so many ways, with the history of Alaska and the present of Alaska. How have you seen that thus far, in your –
Jackson: Well, you know, one of the things that I'm very passionate about in this position as chair of the National Endowment for the Arts is for all Americans to have the opportunity to live artful lives. And when you think about what it means to live an artful life, what you said about how it's part of everything is so true, right? So it doesn't exist in a bubble or on its own. At its best, it's part of our everyday lived experience, and it connects to health and wellbeing. It connects to community development, to education, to how we think about vibrant places. So it's really wonderful to be here and to understand how the arts are a way for people from here to tell their story. In some cases, it's about recovering stories and recovering ways of being creative and ways of being expressive and honoring our full humanity in that way. So it's been really beautiful to learn about some of the projects that are going on here, many of them with Indigenous communities and communities that are on fire about telling their storytelling, talking about their way of seeing the world, and sharing that with others as well.
KYUK: Absolutely. I think the piece about art and how it ties into healing and recovery and well being is such a vital part of the conversation, as you were saying. I know today you had a meet and greet type thing with John Oscar here in Bethel. I was lucky enough to be able to work with him. We have a series called Arctic Artists where we profile different artists around the region, and I was super fortunate to get to sit down with John and talk about his work. And I think he's a prime example of that, with how he incorporates so many different media and his approach to Yup’ik culture, while combining it with a more contemporary approach and just intertwining all of that. I think that's a really great example of how art continues to heal, but it can also help us connect with our history and our livelihoods. And I know the mural that he created for the hospital here in town, that, along with all the other art that is present at the hospital, is just so indicative of how alive and how passionate people are for their history and their culture and their stories. And personally, I love that it's so present in so many different places here in town, just when you walk into the hospital you can see there are cases of grass baskets that people have sewn and woven. I just think it's really special to be able to be reminded of that in such a casual way. Yeah, art is so enriching in so many ways. And I saw that the National Endowment for the Arts coined the term ‘creative placemaking,’ about how we can incorporate art into our communities and neighborhoods, and how it can become that visible part of our daily lives. How can we incorporate that in a place like Bethel that has such – I think we can have challenging conditions with our weather. It's such a rural place. But how can communities all around continue to incorporate art and creativity into our infrastructure and our daily lives?
Jackson: Yeah. So the [National Endowment for the Arts] certainly has been involved over the years in advancing the concept. We didn't coin it, but we we certainly have had a hand in advancing the concept of creative placemaking and building from it also, and really thinking about how the arts are part, again, as I said before, of our everyday lived experience and how from even things that we may take for granted or not always notice, like the design of a city or the design of a town, there are aesthetic choices that are made at their best intentionally with the goal of helping people thrive, helping people feel like they belong, helping people understand that they're connected. There are so many different ways that the arts can be integrated into a place again, from the design of the place itself to the way a place may have points of access for people to express themselves or to see the expressions of others. There are many different ways that artists, for example, can show up, not just on stage or on a screen or working in a studio, but working at the intersection of the arts and environmental issues, health issues, and sometimes in places that are not so commonly understood is where you might find artists, you know, artists working with scientists or artists working with medical professionals, again, because artists can help us see things differently, understand the world a different way, and arrive at solutions and ways of approaching important challenges that you know, we may not otherwise think of right there. So there's a role for artists and people who are committed to thinking creatively and with imagination to help us get unstuck. And a lot of that, I think, is evident in the concept of creative placemaking. And there's an evolution where I think at the [National Endowment for the Arts], in addition to continuing to advance those kinds of creative placemaking practices, we're also thinking more expansively about arts integration. So where is it that the arts can show up in ways that are beneficial, that in addition to the traditional ways that we often see the arts present in towns and cities and communities, what are some of the less expected ways that the arts can be present and beneficial? So certainly your examples of arts in hospitals or creative arts therapists working with people who are healing, right? And there's a there's a big interest, from my perspective and the perspective of the [National Endowment for the Arts], on the intersection of the arts and healing and wellness, and some of that work we were able to witness and discuss. Yesterday, when we were in Anchorage at Joint Base Elmendorf Richardson, we were able to talk with some of the medical staff and also connect with the creative arts therapists and even witness and participate in some of the sessions that were being held with patients, and saw the importance and impact of music therapy, for example, and got to hear from military personnel who are benefiting from those therapies about why it has been valuable to them. And that's affirming for us, and also we're always trying to learn how we can continue to do better, and how we can be supportive of those kinds of programs, and also understand how they might be beneficial for other populations as well. So that was a really wonderful experience to to meet with some of the military personnel that is here in Alaska, and also to have interaction with medical professionals creative arts therapists, and understand where they see those practices going, and what are some of the things that they've had to learn in the process of developing those really beautiful and impactful programs.
KYUK: Mmhmm. With music therapy, I think it's always so interesting and just incredible to see how deep those connections go. When someone, a patient, is given a piano and they haven't played in years and years, but they just know how to play a Bach piece right off the top of their head, without even thinking. It's so interesting to think of that intersection and pretty special, because I think I'm someone who feels a deep connection to music and have for most of my life, and to know that that kind of follows you and can be accessed in ways that help you is just really beautiful.
Jackson: Yeah, and it's part of what you may need to feel healthy or feel well. And I think that some of the work that we're doing at the [National Endowment for the Arts] is really emphasizing our relationships to other parts of federal government as we try to help the integration of arts and culture along. So for example, we have a relationship with the [United States] Department of Health and Human Services, and there's a really, I think, important perspective that is coming out of that department that is not only about battling disease, but about promoting wellness. And hear Secretary [Xavier] Becerra talk about the promotion of wellness, and I appreciate that there's an inherent understanding from him and many of the staff and leadership within HHS, Health and Human Services, about the role of arts and creativity in wellness. So it shouldn't be a surprise that these partnerships with hospitals, with clinics, with people who are thinking about public health more broadly, that the arts begin to be a more regular and important part of that conversation, or those sets of conversations around, 'how do we promote wellness?' There's that. There's some other work that we're doing, for example, with the Environmental Protection Agency, looking at issues related to climate change and environmental issues. And there's an interesting program that is an artist in residence program that we're doing in collaboration with them. And it's about understanding the role of artists, creative people, in helping to imagine different ways of addressing stewardship of our environment, stewardship of our planet. And I think that's a really beautiful opportunity too, right? How do we, how do we continue to push on that really important responsibility that we have as humans on Earth, to be good stewards of the planet? So those are a couple of examples of the of arts integration work, and I see evidence of it here, sometimes in very organic ways, particularly when we talk with Indigenous community members, and there's there is inherently an appreciation for how creativity has something to do with connecting with Earth, with spirit, with the things that that allow us to thrive. And I think there's a lot to learn, actually, from that worldview. So part of the reason for visiting, certainly, we want to hear about challenges that are being faced in Alaska, opportunities where we may be helpful, you know, challenges where we may also find a way to be helpful. But we're also looking for what's happening here that the rest of the country needs to know about. You know, where is it that Alaska might be leading in terms of especially around this arts integration work?
KYUK: My mind is immediately drawn to the importance of dance here in this region, traditional Yup’ik dance is known as yuraq. And I'm not from here originally, I've only been in Bethel – I think I'm starting my third year here, but from the start, at any community event, there are groups of Elders, and adults, and children alike just getting up and dancing together. And it's really powerful, and connects to so many things that you mentioned, of healing, of storytelling, of connectedness with each other, of working together in groups. And every year, there's a dance festival called the Cama-i Dance Festival.
Jackson: We heard about that today.
KYUK: Yeah, it's wonderful. If you ever have the chance to come back out here, I highly recommend it, because it's just group, after group, after group, getting on stage and the pure joy that you see emanating from every dancer is really powerful. And I think that that's something that I had never really experienced until coming here to Bethel.
Jackson: Well yesterday we were at the Alaska Native Heritage Center, and there were dancers performing from Bethel, and we got a taste of that. And it was really, it was mesmerizing. Actually, it was beautiful to see the tradition and to see the passion around reclaiming it and sharing it. So that was a really wonderful experience to be able to be close to that. When we were at the center, it was the Western Alaskan Yup’ik dancers that were performing there. And it was also beautiful to see the intergenerational nature of the group, where they were clearly Elders and young people who had learned and seemed very fluent in what they were doing. That was very beautiful to see.
KYUK: I love when every year there's always some tiny little baby who's up there on stage. And you would think that someone so young wouldn't fully have that grasp on the movements, but they're doing it, and it just speaks volumes to, I think, the connection between them and the ability of everyone in those groups, everyone involved in the dancing, to be able to pass it on to each other and to find that meaning in it. I wanted to ask a bit as well about the National Endowment for the Arts in a more general sense, and maybe what some of your goals have been in this visit to Alaska, and how the National Endowment for the Arts on such a larger scale can kind of winnow down and support more local, community based artists and arts?
Jackson: So the National Endowment for the Arts exists to ensure that everyone in our country has access to the arts and that people benefit from an excellent arts education. There are many ways to interpret that. Some of the work that we do is about funding organizations directly that apply for grants. We work with the state arts agencies as partners, and have been really grateful to the Alaska State Council on the Arts and leadership there that helped to organize the trip, but the state arts agencies all around the country are really important partners for us, and to some extent also local arts agencies when they exist in different communities. And the thing that I'm really passionate about in my role as chair is to ensure that people have artful lives, and that concept of artful lives is intentionally inclusive and elastic. And it includes, you know, participating as visitors in museums, as concert goers and audience members, and also activating people's creativity and making sure that their lives also include making, doing, teaching, learning, creative expression, which I think is a really important part of being well, and that communities have the kinds of resources available to residents so that they can access those experiences which are so important for not just our individual health, but our health as a society. I mean, one of the things that I think is so important about the arts is that it allows us to both express our full humanity as well as see humanity in others, to understand our similarities and commonalities and also our meaningful differences. And I think that that kind of understanding, it's like a precondition for being able to care for each other as a society. So I see it as really fundamental. It's not extra, it's not nice to have, it's a really fundamental part of a society that is able to care for each other, a society that has a viable democracy, the arts and participation in the arts, I think, are really critical to that, in addition to having other kinds of benefits, of course, there are benefits that have to do with economic development. We've talked about some of the health benefits, but as we think about the role of the arts more holistically in our communities. I think there are many facets that we have to pay attention to.
KYUK: I wanted to ask, have you had a chance to see some of the dumpsters around town?
Jackson: No, tell me about the dumpsters.
KYUK: Every summer, the Southwest Alaska Arts Group hosts a camp where kids get to paint the dumpsters around town. We don't have, like, a garbage by house pickup system, so on pretty much any corner around town, you'll see this brightly painted dumpster that could have been made by a kid anywhere from, I don't know what the age range is, but I would imagine, like, kindergarten through 12th grade. So if you have a chance to drive around town, there's some really fun ones.
Jackson: I have to be on the lookout for that.
KYUK: I think that maybe is one of the most unique and fun artistic expressions of the community of Bethel.
Jackson: Oh thank you for telling us about that, we’ll have to look.
KYUK: What will you be taking away from this trip?
Jackson: You know, I think I'll be taking away a lot of things. One: the people have been so welcoming and so warm and proud of where they come from, which is really inspiring. It's an inspiring thing to hear someone talk about a place that they feel passionate about and love. So I'll take that, I think that there's a through line here that's very consistent with something that I care about, and that's the role of the arts in healing and are helping to heal. And I see that in lots of places that we've visited on this trip so far, and I think, you know, we still have another day and a half or so to make some more visits, but the idea of people understanding the centrality of arts and creative expression in a healing process, whether it's healing from grief, or healing from other kinds of strain and stress and illness, or generational healing, when there has been harm done historically, and one is trying to repair that or recover. The examples that I've seen here are something that I'll take with me, and I also have been thinking about this a lot in the last several months, as I see more and more connections between the arts and different kinds of healing – what happens when you have a person or a community that can't heal, or even a country that can't heal and how important it is to look to the arts as something that is really essential right now? So I take that with me too, because I think that I see echoes of that or hear echoes of that here.
KYUK: Well, thank you so much for coming in. I really appreciate this conversation, and I wish you safe travels, and I know you have so much to experience in the coming day and a half.
Jackson: Well thank you. Thank you for inviting me into this conversation.
