Partner Highlight: SouthWest Alaska Arts Group

As part of Gather Round, we will be highlighting AKHF partners, participants, and grantees on a regular basis. We are excited to launch our first partner highlight with a 2022 grantee, the SouthWest Alaska Arts Group! 

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The SouthWest Alaska Arts Group (SWAAG) is a vibrant nonprofit working to support, promote, and preserve the arts in the Yukon Kuskokwim region. SWAAG has a long history of: presenting performing arts, concerts, and the beloved Cama’i Dance Festival, supporting regional artists/culture bearers, providing arts educational opportunities for all ages, and promoting intergenerational knowledge transfer with indigenous arts classes.

The need to gather as a community is key to sustaining traditions, strengthening culture and supporting a healthy community. SWAAG enjoys providing offerings that focus on community connection through creative endeavors. There is an ever-present need to celebrate culture, dance, music, and the many different forms of artistic expression. SWAAG believes the arts are a wonderful venue to make Bethel more connected, more inclusive, and a more vibrant place to live!

The largest event that SWAAG sponsors each year is the Cama’i Dance Festival, which has a long history of celebrating Yup’ik culture through dance, song, arts and crafts, and gathering together as a region. The beloved event has been a staple for the region for over 35 years, and has an attendance of more than 4,000 people over the festival weekend.

SWAAG hosts an art camp each summer for kids which is a great way to introduce kids to art concepts, dumpster mural painting, working with clay, Indigenous arts, and a fun time to express creativity. Each year, rain, shine, or snow, the kids head outside to paint beautiful murals on the side of the dumpsters throughout town.

The SWAAG Gift Shop should be on your list to swing by and visit while in Bethel. The gift shop, located in the Yupiit Piciryarait Cultural Center, has been a safe and secure place for regional artists to sell their artwork.

In 2023, SWAAG undertook a media project aimed at amplifying local artistic voices and enhancing visibility of Indigenous artists. The project, funded by the Alaska Humanities Forum, profiled nine local earring artists through a series of portraits and interviews, showcasing the creative process and cultural inspirations behind their work.

Be on the lookout for one of SWAAG’s newest artist award programs, The Best in the West, which is an annual competition that provides training and financial reward to selected artist entrepreneurs ready to move their business ideas forward in the YK region.

By supporting and promoting the arts, SWAAG works alongside other community partners and individuals to ensure traditional arts and contemporary expressions thrive for future generations.

Website: www.swaagak.org

Facebook: www.facebook.com/southwestalaskaartsgroup

Instagram: @swaag907