AIP ARTISTS
From 2018 to 2023, Advancing Indigenous Performance (AIP) made twenty (20) three-year fellowship awards - called Native Launchpad Awards - to Native performers nationwide. 40 additional applicants were recognized as program Associate Artists, and received professional development opportunities, such as participation in the AIP Symposium. As a result, a number of them were selected for Native Launchpad awards in subsequent years.
MEET THE NATIVE LAUNCHPAD ARTISTS
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2020 NATIVE LAUNCHPAD
ASSOCIATE ARTISTS
2023 ASSOCIATE ARTISTS
Brenda “G Precious” Atencio (Music) Pele Bauch (Dance) Chantil Dukart (Music) Olivia Komahcheet (Music) Christopher “Def-i” Mike-Bidtah (Music) Sondra Segundo (Music)
2022 ASSOCIATE ARTISTS
Kayla Banks (Dance) Jacob Helvick (Music) Jessica Mehta (Spoken Word)
2021 ASSOCIATE ARTISTS
Christopher “Def-i” Mike-Bidtah (Music) Byron Nicholai (Music)
2020 ASSOCIATE ARTISTS
Elexa Dawson (Music) Tau Peter Rockford Espiritu (Dance) Kevin Locke (Music/Dance) Christopher “Def-i” Mike-Bidtah (Music) Cary Morin (Music) James Pakootas (Music) Lee Mixashawn Rozie (Music) Kenneth Shirley (Dance) Preston Singletary (Music) Andrina Smith (Multidiscipline)
2019 ASSOCIATE ARTISTS
Ernest Briggs (Theatre) Frank Kaash Katasse (Theatre) Jacque Tahuka-Nunez (Multidiscipline) Lee Mixashawn Rozie (Music) Lumhe “Micco” Sampson (Dance) brooke smiley (Dance) Tash Terry - IndigieFemme (Music) Halemanu Villiarimo (Music)
2018 ASSOCIATE ARTISTS
Delbert Anderson (Music) Dawn Avery (Music) Ed Bourgeois (Theatre) Autumn Star Chacon (Multidiscipline) Maura Garcia (Dance) Moses Goods (Theatre) Thea Hopkins (Music) DeLanna Studi (Theatre) Halemanu Villiarimo (Music)
THANK YOU TO OUR FUNDERS
Native Launchpad and the Advancing Indigenous Performance (AIP) program were made possible by lead grants from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation (2018-2020, 2021-2024), with additional support from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation (2018-2023) and the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA, 2018-2025).
