Out of the 20 artists recently awarded a 2026 Rasmuson Foundation Individual Artist Award Fellowship, five of them currently call Juneau home. Decided by a nationwide panel of 16 art professionals, this fellowship gives $25,000 to mid- to late-career artists with the intent to fully immerse themselves in an ongoing creative endeavor and lifestyle.
“It makes me tear up every time I talk about it,” said Rachael Juzeler, one of the six Juneau recipients. “It’s so amazing that people like the Rasmuson Foundation completely support things like this and my crazy idea. I’m so honored.”
In addition to Juzeler, Juneau’s Sydney Akagi, Renee Culp “Tl’aagunk,” Ernestine Hayes, and Lily Hope were other local recipients. Talented across a wide array of disciplines, this group represents artists working across the Folk and Traditional Arts, Literary Arts/Scriptworks, and Crafts fellowship categories.
Throughout the course of their respective fellowships, the Juneau artists will explore a diverse array of themes as they embark on their ambitious projects. Sydney Akagi, for example, will weave a kimono using Chilkat weaving technique in honor of her Tlingit/Japanese family members interned in camps during World War II. Acclaimed author Ernestine Hayes plans to finish her memoir titled “Bury These Stories,” while Renee Culp plans to create a beaded giant octopus robe that tells the Lingit story of Kahtushtu’ who sacrificed himself to save those around him.
Juzeler’s plan is to complete a remodel that will eventually be able to accommodate visiting artists for a residency program here in Juneau. As an artist in the land-locked state capital, Juzeler said she often finds herself traveling as an antidote to Juneau’s geographic isolation and as a way to find inspiration for her glasswork.
“I’ve been going on what have been research trips for many years, and then last year went to an art residency in Spain,” Juzeler said. “I went and did that and realized that I can completely do this myself. I really want artists to come and work with me and be inspired by where we live and how amazing it actually is.”
Juzeler’s plan is to use the year to finish rebuilding the upstairs of her house in such a way that can accommodate two artists-in-residence at a time. Built before 1910, she is excited to host folks from around the world in her historic mining home and use the space as a means for collaboration, inspiration, and cultural exchange.
Similarly for Lily Hope, who applied with a proposal titled “Terrified to Make Art for Joy,” the fellowship is providing an opportunity to work with and learn from other artists.
“The focus is really on building a new body of interdisciplinary work,” said Hope, world-known for her weaving work. “I want to translate the Chilkat and Ravenstail design systems into experimental forms like woven paper, or printmaking, collage, expressive and abstract painting work that allows for speed, risk and play outside of 2500 hours of weaving.”
In experimenting with how woven designs can move across mediums, a process she has already played with a bit through collage and, more recently, relief printmaking, Hope plans to study with folks around the country who have mastered their mediums. From a Hawaiian pattern maker in New Mexico to an abstract painter in Portland, Hope is excited for the opportunity this year will provide to learn from others and expand her creative practice. As a mentor herself, working with others is crucial to the process.
“I don’t love making art in a closet. I think that’s why I’m a mentor, because I learn so much from the people who come to study with me, and I feel like the work that is made in that co-creative space is stronger sometimes than trying it out on our own,” she said.
An exciting year of experimentation, work, and creativity lies ahead of each of the five Juneau recipients. To learn more about any of their respective projects, visit rasmuson.org.
Rachel Levy is a Juneau-based photojournalist whose work culminates at the intersections of environmental justice, arts and culture, and sustainable tourism. A 2022 graduate of Harvard University's Environmental Policy program, she is also the director of the award-winning documentary "Hidden in Plain Sight" that exposes the labor exploitation and colonial framework burdening Tanzania's safari industry.
