The Helen Walker Performing Arts Fund Grant is named for Helen A. Walker, a major arts advocate in the state until her death in 1996. Ms. Walker was a recipient of the Governor’s Award for the Arts in 1984, a founder of the Fairbanks Arts Association and the Sitka Summer Music Festival, as well as Arts Alaska. She served as a board member for numerous cultural groups, including the Alaska Repertory Theater, the Fairbanks Library Foundation, the University of Alaska’s KUAC Advisory Board, and Fairbanks Commissions for Urban Beautification, Parks and Recreation, and the Library.
Arts Alaska provided professional management services for the state’s performing arts tours and other programs from 1975 to 1988. Since that time, the Arts Alaska Endowment Fund awarded over $100,000 to qualifying sponsors/presenters for performing arts projects in small Alaskan communities.
In 2006, the Arts Alaska Board of Directors voted to dissolve the organization and invest the funds through the Alaska Arts and Culture Foundation. Each year, interest from this fund will provide grants to support presenting and touring in Alaska.
Visit the Alaska State Council on the Arts’ Grants to Organizations web page for contact information and application.