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Moab Music Festival

Our Grantees & Fellows

Meet Creative West’s grant awardees and fellows—artists, culture bearers, arts agencies, and organizations fostering creativity in their communities.

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Grants awarded from FY 2021 - FY 2023

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Leaders of Color alumni

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of FY 2023 Tourwest grants supported arts participation in rural areas

Thank you and si Yu'us Ma'asi for supporting Indigenous art and artists, and for giving me this opportunity to build a very special traditional canoe for our community!

Pete Perez

2024 BIPOC Artist Fund | Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands

It was an amazing experience that fueled me to work toward my goals in arts and culture. I hope that the connections we built throughout the last year will continue with support from the program. I'm grateful for all the work from the staff and am inspired by their passion for making a difference. The program certainly made a difference in my life.

Sam Zhang

23-24’ LoCF Fellow | Michigan

These funds will kick start a 2 year long process of become a Certified Economic Developer by the International Economic Development Council. My focus is on small business, entrepreneurship, placemaking, tech and how to finance small businesses including those in the creative economy. My goal is to obtain my credential over the next 2 years and transition in to a professional economic developer or chamber director role

Brandy Reitter

ELC 2014 | Eagle, Colorado

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Grantees & Fellows

Grantee Grant/Fellowship Year Awarded Location
Bo Shimmin Native Arts and Heritage Fund 2027 Tucson, Arizona

Bo Shimmin, a lyric tenor and member of the Pueblo of Acoma, is known for performances on national and international stages. A graduate of the University of Michigan, DePauw University and Arizona State University, he brings both technical skill and expressive range to a wide repertoire. He is also committed to supporting the next generation of Indigenous artists through educational outreach and mentorship.

Shimmin is a two-time Fulbright Scholar to Italy, where he taught English and studied 20th-century Italian vocal chamber music. In 2022, he made his professional recital debut at the Lyceum Club in Florence, Italy. Most recently, he completed his second Wheels of Harmony tour with Opera Montana and appeared as Prince Charming in the company’s mainstage production of Pauline Viardot’s Cendrillon.

In the upcoming season, Shimmin will perform with Arizona Opera, Passion Project: Opera, Renegade Opera and Wilmington Concert Opera. He is based in Tucson, Arizona.
Carrie McCleary Native Arts and Heritage Fund 2026 Hardin, Montana

Carrie Moran McCleary is the owner of Plains Soul studio and a fashion designer, beader and doll maker from the Little Shell Chippewa Tribe of Montana. Her collections have been featured at Native Fashion in the City, the Celebration of Native Plains Fashion Show, the Montana Folk Festival and the Seattle Art Museum.

Her beadwork has exhibited at the Brinton Museum, Field Museum in Chicago, Museum of the Rockies and internationally at Massey Arts and Seymour Art Gallery in Vancouver, as well as in the virtual exhibition “Stories from Bead Night.” She created the Fierce One Doll Collection to celebrate the value of contemporary Native people. McCleary has completed residencies with Adele Arseneau and the Yellowstone Tribal Heritage Center, with upcoming residencies at the Yellowstone Tribal Heritage Center and the Eiteljorg Museum. Plains Soul studio is located in her backyard, close to family.
Chelsea James Native Arts and Heritage Fund 2026 Lakewood, Colorado

Chelsea Kaiah is a multidisciplinary artist whose work spans sculpture and community-centered projects. Born on the Northern Ute Reservation, she is White River Ute and White Mountain Apache. Her creative process is rooted in material exploration, often making her own materials and upholding traditional craft practices such as beadwork, quillwork and hide work. Kaiah regards her materials as sentient collaborators, believing care and intention elicit stories of identity, history and family.

Committed to sustainable ethics, Kaiah invites others into dialogue and reconnection through her artistic practice. She earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Watkins College of Art and Design in Nashville, Tennessee, and lives in Denver, Colorado. In 2025, she received the Social Impact Award from Bonfils-Stanton Foundation and Denver Arts & Venues, which supported the creation of a hide camp for the local community.

Kaiah has served on the Indigenous Advisory Council for the Denver Art Museum after her term as the museum’s 2022 Native Arts artist-in-residence. She continues to develop her public art portfolio through projects in Westminster and Breckenridge, Colorado.
Clarissa Mashburn Native Arts and Heritage Fund 2026 Reno, Nevada

Clarissa PaleMoon Mashburn is an enrolled member of the Owens Valley Paiute Tribe of Bishop, Calif., and a multidisciplinary Indigenous artist whose work is grounded in culture, community and storytelling. Through hairstyling, creative direction and traditional Native arts, she creates work that honors ancestral knowledge while reflecting contemporary Indigenous experiences.

With more than 25 years of professional hairstyling experience, Mashburn has contributed to Indigenous fashion shows and worked with designers to shape powerful visual narratives that honor identity, history and pride. She also produces creative photo shoots that address issues affecting Indigenous communities, using visual storytelling to spark dialogue and celebrate resilience.

In addition to her work in hairstyling and creative direction, Mashburn practices traditional arts including basket weaving, beadwork, jewelry making, sewing and the creation of Paiute cradleboards. Across every medium, her work reflects patience, cultural respect and a deep commitment to preserving and uplifting Indigenous culture.
Debbie Mekiana Native Arts and Heritage Fund 2026 Fairbanks, Alaska

Debbie Mekiana is a Nunamiut Inupiaq writer from Anaktuvuk Pass, Alaska. Her work is rooted in the land, language and stories of her people, drawing on intergenerational memory to explore identity, belonging and cultural continuity. Through reflective, place-based storytelling, she writes about the ties between people and the natural world, the weight of inherited histories and the responsibility of carrying knowledge forward.

Her writing weaves personal narrative with broader themes of Indigenous resilience, community and healing, creating space for truths that are both intimate and collective. As a mother of three, she is guided by a deep commitment to future generations and the preservation of Indigenous ways of knowing.
Inéz Nunez de Arco and Javier Stell-Fresquez Native Arts and Heritage Fund 2026 Oakland, California

Together, Inéz Nunez de Arco and Javier Stell-Frésquez are co-producers of the Weaving Spirits Festival of Two-Spirit Performance, where they create cultural space for Indigenous, queer, trans and Two-Spirit communities through multidisciplinary art, performance and collective care. Rooted in community organizing, experimental performance and cultural infrastructure, their work connects Indigenous futurisms, ancestral memory and contemporary movement practices in the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond.

Inéz Nunez de Arco (she/they, ella/elle) is a Q’iwa multidisciplinary artist and community infrastructuralist of detribalized Aymara, Eastern Slavic and French ancestry. Born and working on Chochenyo territory in Oakland, Calif., and rooted in Chuquiago Marka, La Paz, Bolivia, she has spent more than a decade organizing, painting and creating sound work centered on autonomous Q/T/2S+ BIPOC cultural spaces. Their practice is shaped by accountability to past and future generations.

Javier Stell-Frésquez, a two-spirit performance artist, dancer, curator, filmmaker, writer and cultural organizer, is of Piru and Tigua Pueblo and mixed-race, detribalized Xicanx heritage from El Paso, Texas. She holds a Bachelor of Science in environmental science with honors in Chican@ Studies from Stanford University and brings that interdisciplinary perspective to queer experimental performance, event production, outreach, development and strategic planning. She also serves Indigenous communities in the Bay Area as a board member of BAAITS.
Jacob Crane Native Arts and Heritage Fund 2026 Provo, Utah

Jacob Crane is a Native American grass dancer, singer, and hand drum maker whose artistry is rooted in the preservation and celebration of Indigenous culture. Dance, song, and drum making are interconnected practices that embody the resilience, beauty, and teachings of his people. Each step, each song, and each drum he creates reflect the land, the stories of his ancestors, and the spiritual balance carried forward through tradition.

Crane’s work extends beyond the stage into cultural education and community building. Through hand drum-making workshops, he shares teachings that help participants reconnect with their roots. His singing carries the heartbeat of his people into both sacred and public spaces. For Crane, these traditions are not only art forms, but also serve as meaningful pathways for healing, reclaiming identity and sustaining cultural continuity.
Kaylene Big Knife Native Arts and Heritage Fund 2026 Coeur d'Alene, Idaho

Kaylene J. Big Knife, a member of the Chippewa Cree Tribe from Rocky Boy’s Reservation in Montana, is a graphic designer and digital illustrator dedicated to design education, museums, Indigenous languages and community engagement. She serves as marketing associate director at the Intertribal Agriculture Council, bringing more than a decade of professional experience.

Big Knife holds degrees in interactive graphic design, Native American studies and Native languages and linguistics. She is based in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, where she continues her creative and educational work.

Her clients include Xbox, PBS, Nike N7, and the C.M. Russell Museum. Her art is recognized for bold linework, vibrant color palettes and contemporary floral designs.
Kristal Rupard Native Arts and Heritage Fund 2026 Duvall, Washington

Kristal D. Rupard is a multidisciplinary artist and a member of the Tulalip Tribes of Washington. She began her career in development and quality assurance testing before moving into the visual arts, where she now focuses on sculpture and woodworking.

Her work draws from her cultural heritage and explores identity, transformation and the natural world. Using traditional techniques, Rupard creates pieces that reflect ancestral stories and lived experience. Her art has been featured in regional exhibitions and is recognized for its detailed craftsmanship and strong sense of narrative.

Rupard holds a fine arts degree from the University of Washington, where she developed her technical skills and creative vision. Through her work, she seeks to strengthen connections to her roots and make a lasting impact in her community.
Natasha Norma Terry Native Arts and Heritage Fund 2026 Santa Fe, New Mexico

Tash Terry is a Diné (Navajo) musician, writer, nationally certified American Sign Language interpreter, and cultural arts leader based in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Her creative life is shaped by experiences moving between worlds: childhood summers on Black Mountain with her másání, absorbing the stories embedded in weaving and the land itself, and carrying the layered complexity of Diné and mixed heritage after the loss of her father.

As an interpreter, Terry’s work lives at the crossroads of sound and silence, guided by a Diné worldview that centers Indigenous values, disability justice, and the belief that access is a form of care. She approaches translation — whether across languages, cultures, or communities — as a sacred act honoring connection and respect.

In 2006, Terry co-founded the acoustic folk duo Indigie Femme with Elena Higgins. For nearly twenty years, their music has brought Indigenous women’s voices to audiences across Turtle Island and beyond. Their original songs speak to identity, resilience, and love, and have earned Indigie Femme recognition including the 2025 Native American Music Award for Best Folk Recording and multiple New Mexico Music Awards.
Sarah Ortegon Native Arts and Heritage Fund 2026 Fort Washakie, Wyoming

Sarah Ortegon HighWalking is an Indigenous artist and jingle dress dancer whose work centers her heritage and relationship to the land. Born in Denver into a family of 12 children, she earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts from Metropolitan State University of Denver in 2013 and also studied art history in Italy in 2012. That same year, she was named Miss Native American USA, using her platform to promote healthy living.

Ortegon HighWalking has performed widely with the Native Pride Dance Troupe in the United States and internationally. In 2020, she collaborated with Choctaw artist Jeffrey Gibson on She Never Dances Alone for Times Square’s Midnight Moment, and she later performed with Gibson and 26 other dancers at the Venice Biennale in 2024. Her work has also been featured at the MALCS conference at the University of Wyoming, where she held a solo exhibition, and she was selected for the National Museum of Women in the Arts’ Women to Watch exhibition.

She is featured in PBS’s The Art of Home: A Wind River Story, which was nominated for an Emmy in 2020, and appeared in Paramount’s 1923. Ortegon HighWalking is assistant director of human resources at the Native American Rights Fund and continues to balance her artistic practice, performance work and family life.
Sho Rilla (Ronald Kalama) Native Arts and Heritage Fund 2026 Warm Springs, Oregon

Sho Rilla (Ronald Kalama) is a conscious Native hip-hop artist and filmmaker from the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs in Oregon. His work addresses addiction, suicide, generational trauma and systemic neglect while emphasizing growth, accountability and cultural resilience.

After losing his father to alcohol-related violence at a young age and facing instability throughout his upbringing, Sho Rilla turned to music as a source of discipline and direction. He began writing and performing at 16, using his art to process personal experience and speak to broader community realities with honesty and purpose.

Since then, he has built his career independently, opening for DJ Yella of N.W.A and Masta Killa of Wu-Tang Clan, and touring throughout the Pacific Northwest.

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