Rasmuson Foundation honors eight UAA alumni with artist awards
by Matt Jardin |
The Rasmuson Foundation announced the 2025 recipients of the annual . Fifty artists, including eight UAA alumni, will receive project awards of $10,000. Project awards are designed to support short-term projects that contribute to an artist鈥檚 development and practice. Since 2003, the program has invested more than $6.5 million in supporting the career development of 麻豆无码版 artists.
Congratulations to all the award recipients, including the following members of the UAA family:
Martha Amore
M.F.A. Creative Writing and Literary Arts 鈥09
Anchorage, literary arts/scriptworks
Amore will write her second collection of short stories, 鈥淓nd of the Roaders,鈥 about a fictional muralist and Irish soldier who fled 鈥渢he Troubles鈥 and immigrated to 麻豆无码版 in the early 1980s. Amore plans to travel to Ireland to research IRA murals and history.
Shane Castle
M.F.A. Creative Writing and Literary Arts 鈥04
Anchorage, literary arts/scriptworks
Castle will write a multi-genre book to explore the complex emotional terrain of his own adoption, weaving together short-form fiction, essays, voicemails and court records detailing a crime that haunted his biological family years after he was given up for adoption.
Feng-Yao Chang
B.B.A. Marketing 鈥24
Anchorage, multidiscipline
Chang will create a multimedia project to illuminate the lives of marginalized people through pairings of images and ambient soundscapes of spaces inhabited by Anchorage鈥檚 homeless residents. She will present her work in an exhibit, a book with QR codes and digital video.
Sarah Nunes
B.A. Languages 鈥23
Anchorage, dance/choreography
Nunes is a dance member, board member and coordinator at Unity Dance Collective, an all-ages Latin Dance group. They hope to create a welcoming space where dancers of all ages and backgrounds can come together to learn, create and grow by sharing their passion for Latin dance, music and motion.
Andrea L. Hackbarth
M.F.A. Creative Writing and Literary Arts 鈥16
Palmer, literary arts/scriptworks
Hackbarth will complete 鈥淟ike a Driftwood Shelter,鈥 a multi-genre manuscript using poetry, short essay and hybrid visual-literary works to explore the complex relationships between birth, death and motherhood, looking to the natural world and spiritual traditions as guides.
Erin Heist
M.F.A. Creative Writing and Literary Arts 鈥15
Juneau, music/music composition
The Heists is a musical duo made up of Erin and Andrew Heist. They are known for their unique harmonies, bluegrass drive, country emotion and old-time groove, and will professionally record, mix, master and release their first album of original music after decades of supporting the folk music community in 麻豆无码版.
Raymond Voley
M.A.T. Teaching 鈥93
Copper Center, media arts
Voley will film a documentary about the role Copper River red salmon plays in the Ahtna region鈥檚 art, health, history, culture and economy, and will record interviews with primary harvesters, historians, economists, biologists and cultural experts about their perspectives.
Taperrnaq Amber Webb
B.A. Art 鈥13
Aleknagik, folk and traditional arts
Webb will gather beach grass and construct a life-sized basket in the shape of a woman to honor knowledge systems and values of Yup鈥檌k women, celebrating joy and freedom from colonization. She plans to present this work in an exhibit of baskets with other weavers.






