The Northwest Area Foundation has announced a three-year, $1 million grant to the First Peoples Fund in Rapid City, South Dakota, to help reduce poverty and strengthen local reservation economies in the region.

Working through its Native Arts Economy Building Pilot Project, First Peoples will use the grant to offer Native American artists affordable loans, comprehensive entrepreneurship training, and better access to arts markets to help them become economically self-sufficient. The pilot project will focus on three sites: the Confederated Tribes of Colville Reservation in Washington State, the Blackfeet Nation in Montana, and the Oglala Lakota Nation in South Dakota and surrounding regions.

The pilot is informed by evidence in a recent FPF report, Establishing a Creative Economy: Art as an Economic Engine in Native Communities, which found that many Native artists are capable of transforming their market-based activities into businesses that provide greater self-sufficiency for themselves and their families by improving their access to capital, financial and business training, markets, and distribution networks. According to the report, 30 percent of all Native people are practicing artists, and most live below the poverty line. At the same time, the report found that artists who received FPF training in basic financial management, use of the Internet, product pricing, and marketing were able to sell their art at higher prices, obtain financial services and credit, and strengthen their support network. In addition, those artists who have employed entrepreneurial strategies in marketing their artwork have been able to travel farther and more often to shows, art markets, and galleries.

"Native art is beautiful and holds a significant place in the cultural life-ways of Native people. Now we also have data that further shows the economic potential Native arts holds in supporting thriving reservation economies," said Northwest Area Foundation president and CEO Kevin Walker. "We are pleased our grant can play a role in strengthening Native-owned local economies through Native arts and cultural bearers. We encourage other funders to join efforts to build this promising economic lever."