Current Projects
Keya Lakota Artists Gift Shop
We have been working hard to help our Lakota Artists build successful businesses. This work will continue in the form of Educational opportunities, sharing opportunities and business learning. The Keya Foundation will begin purchasing art pieces for our own gift shop from Lakota Artists beginning May 2019. Please feel free to stop in and visit with Jaylynn or Cayla and check out our inventory!
Past Projects for Art
Resource Center with First Nations Development Institute Support:
This project is a way for the Keya Foundation to support the Lakota Artists in a larger capacity. We will be forming a resource page on our website focused on building capacity in our Artists Economy to begin. Our hope is that this resource center will grow to focus on non-profits across the Lakota nation in order to help support all programs and organizations and bringing them to the table to work together to strengthen Cheyenne River.
South Dakota Arts Council - 2014-2015, Growing the Lakota Arts Cooperative
The most important outcomes achieved were: the successful building of an Etsy website for helping increase sales and creating a larger market for Lakota Artists, the assistance of 6 different artists through the foundation (4 of which are still active with the project), the start of creating a successful business plan for a supply store as well as obtaining space and the beginning of supplies (we had to wait on additional funding to get the supply store operating - a First Nations Development Institute Grant was secured in April 2016).
The Artists working with the project were able to develop various Fine Art Prints, such as: Coffee Mugs, Mousepads, Greeting Cards, Poster Prints, Coaster and we were able to provide additional packaging material for sales. It has been a very eye-opening experience for the Artists to see how their income can increase with some assistance for initial product creation. The project is continuing on through the above mentioned First Nations Development Institute Grant for continued work on the Supply Store as well as developing a larger a market for Native American Artists through expanded marketing, website building, and product development.
FNDI - NACBI Grant 2015-2016 - Exploration and Expansion of the Lakota Artistry Cooperative on the Cheyenne River Reservation
This project was and is continuing to be developed in order to provide our Lakota Artists Coalition on the Cheyenne River Reservation with an Art Economy as well as Art Business education. The Lakota Artistry Cooperative is being created to support Artists in their Art Business, i.e. Financial education, marketing and promotional assistance and education, access to supplies, assistance in product development, assisting in growing a network of organizations assisting with the local Arts Economy.
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2015 Art of Packaging Program for Artists - Programming Partnership with Four Bands Community Fund.
Rediscovering Native Arts on Cheyenne River 2015-2016 - Four Bands Program, Keya Foundation named as the Artist Success Coach.
Running Strong for American Indian Youth - Dreamstarter Project - 2016 Mentoring Program for the "Chasing Your Art Dreams with Annie Chasing Hawk" project.
FNDI - NAI - Professional Development Mini-Grant 2016 - FNDI training Program for Non-Profit Leadership.
Native Arts Professional Development Mini-Grant 2016 - Further Development of the Lakota Artists Supply Store within the Lakota Cultural Center.
Native Arts & Culture Fund FNDI 2017-2018 Grant Partnership with Lakota Cultural Center - The Next Generation of Lakota Cultural Art Bearers - A Collaboration to Pass on Generational Knowledge
This project will help to pass on important cultural arts and knowledge from the Elder generation onto the next generations on the Cheyenne River Reservation. A series of 4 cultural arts courses will be sponsored and held at the Lakota Cultural Center during the year in order to begin building the next generation of Culture Bearers within the Lakota Community.​
FNDI - NAI - 2017-2018 Learning from the Best - Native Artists Succeed Together
The project is a based on 4 educational meetings focused on a peer learning style educational setting taking place on the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation. Established/experienced Native American artists along with other professionals from the communities will teach/mentor beginning/emerging artists on topics such as portfolio building, inventory management, gallery work, presenting yourself and your art, business preparation and skill building and as well as development.
Running Strong for American Indian Youth 2018-2020 - The Intergenerational Lakota History - Children's Book Project
The Intergenerational Lakota History - Children's Book Project is a series of 8 children's books, with stories told by Lakota Elders on the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation. The stories will be broken out into pages with Lakota language translations too assist in the language revitalization movement. The stories will be illustrated by youth living on the Cheyenne River reservation using the middle and high school art classes. Books will be published, 500 of each for giveaway and also available for sale to continuing expanding the project. The stories will also be orally recorded and made available through the internet for learning/teaching purposes.