The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is the federal agency that works with states, territories, and other partners so all Americans enjoy and benefit from the arts. The NEA supports state arts agencies and arts organizations, and creates opportunity and promotes economic development on behalf of the American people. The NEA also recognizes the work of our nation’s artistic geniuses, applauding talented Americans whose work is amazing. Those who are honored as NEA National Heritage Fellows serve as role models and inspire young people which helps ensure the artistic vitality of the United States in the 21st century.
The National Heritage Fellowships began in 1982 during the Reagan Administration, and focuses national attention on culturally distinctive forms of expression, traditional and folk arts. In the past three and half decades, 422 American masters from many folk art forms have been awarded National Heritage Fellowships. Earlier this month, a talented and courageous Alaskan joined their ranks when she was honored with this prestigious award in our nation’s capital at the Library of Congress.
Anna Brown Ehlers is a lifelong Alaskan, born in Juneau to parents from Klukwan. In her youth she learned many traditional Tlingit art forms, including tailoring, beading, and weaving. From these roots she has evolved into an expert and genius as a Chilkat weaver. The multi-generational effect of the National Heritage Fellowship program is evidenced by Anna’s having been taught by Jennie Thlunaut, who was named an NEA National Heritage Fellow in 1986.
For about the same period of time the National Heritage Fellowship program has existed, Anna Brown Ehlers has developed her expertise in Chilkat weaving, which Southeast Alaska Natives have practiced for countless years. Chilkat weaving is very complex, and requires intense harvesting of base materials before the actual weaving process begins. Mountain goat wool is harvested, processed, and made into a usable form while the other essential ingredient, cedar bark, is painstakingly collected and meticulously transformed into delicate layers. The two components are blended together into the warp, the lengthwise part of the fabric placed on a loom, into which the weft is woven and interlaced. Ehlers has augmented the centuries-old traditions of Chilkat weaving with modern features, including the use of gold wire and silk in her unique and inspiring creations.
Beyond creating dazzling Chilkat blankets, Anna Brown Ehlers has imparted skills and knowledge to hundreds of students in a wide variety of educational contexts. She has appropriately been recognized with an array of prestigious honors, including the Governor’s Award for Alaska Native Arts in 2006 and the Rasmuson Foundation’s Individual Artist Award in 2009.
Anna Brown Ehlers is the twelfth Alaskan to be named an NEA National Heritage Fellow. She follows in the footsteps of some truly amazing practitioners of the art of Chilkat blanket weaving. It was only last year that Juneau’s Clarissa Rizal was bestowed with a National Heritage Fellowship, and back in 2009 Teri Rofkar of Sitka was the recipient of this same great honor. Tragically, both of these outstanding Alaska Native women passed away in the past year. It is wonderful that Anna Brown Ehlers continues to work in this same unique art form which brightens the world for all.
This month’s ceremony at the Library of Congress saw seven other American folk art masters honored, from a wide variety of artistic traditions and many different parts of the country. Anna Brown Ehlers was part of a distinguished group that included a Hawaiian slack-key guitar player, an Armenian metal artist from North Dakota, and a septuagenarian buckdancer from Tennessee. But among the eight honorees only one had the distinction of having a member of her congressional delegation in attendance at the awards. Sen. Lisa Murkowski came to the Library of Congress to participate in the ceremony and to honor Anna Brown Ehlers personally. This reflects Sen. Murkowski’s ongoing commitment to the important work of the NEA, which requires continued support from Congress in these challenging times in our nation’s capital.
All Alaskans can take pride in Anna Brown Ehlers and her vitally important artistic endeavors, and those of us fortunate enough to reside in Alaska’s Capital City should be especially grateful that she is our friend and neighbor.
• Ben Brown is a lifelong Alaskan and Juneau resident, and serves as chairman for the Alaska State Council on the Arts.
