Established in 2002, the Alaska Native Arts Foundation is a non-profit organization formed to support the Alaska Native Art

Alaska Native Art

Alaska Native cultures are rich and diverse, and their art forms are magnificent representations of their history, skills, tradition, adaptation, and nearly twenty thousand years of continuous life in some of the most remote places on earth. Yet these art forms are largely unseen and unknown...

 community. The organization, headed by Jonella Larson White, engages in many efforts to increase public awareness of the art and to create a vibrant and growing market for their work. The Anchorage gallery, located at 500 West Sixth Avenue in downtown Anchorage, has monthly exhibits of new works of art by contemporary Alaska Native
artists in mixed media, paintings, sculpture, wood carvings, fused glass, cast bronze and other forms. In addition, the Foundation maintains extensive inventory of Native art and utilitarian, hand-made items of all sorts, based on the "subsistence" lifestyle of its makers: walrus ivory

Walrus ivory

Walrus tusk ivory comes from two modified upper canines. The tusks of a Pacific walrus may attain a length of one meter. Walrus teeth are also commercially carved and traded. The average walrus tooth has a rounded, irregular peg shape and is approximately 5cm in length.The tip of a walrus tusk has...

 carvings, baleen

Baleen

Baleen or whalebone is a filter-feeder system inside the mouths of baleen whales. The baleen system works when a whale opens its mouth underwater and then water pours into the whale's mouth. The whale then pushes the water out, and animals such as krill are filtered by the baleen and remain as food...

 etchings, whalebone sculpture, salmon

Salmon

Salmon is the common name for several species of fish in the family Salmonidae. Several other fish in the same family are called trout; the difference is often said to be that salmon migrate and trout are resident, but this distinction does not strictly hold true...

 and halibut

Halibut

Halibut is a flatfish, genus Hippoglossus, from the family of the right-eye flounders . Other flatfish are also called halibut. The name is derived from haly and butt , for its popularity on Catholic holy days...

 skin baskets, caribou antler

Antler

Antlers are the usually large, branching bony appendages on the heads of most deer species.-Etymology:Antler originally meant the lowest tine, the "brow tine"...

 dolls dressed in traditional sealskin clothing; and wearable art and accessories: jewelry, baskets, traditional "ulu

Ulu

An ulu is an all-purpose knife traditionally used by Eskimo women, both Yupik and Inuit. It is utilized in applications as diverse as skinning and cleaning animals, cutting a child's hair, cutting food and, if necessary, trimming blocks of snow and ice used to build an igloo...

" knives,
fur parkas, hats, gloves, mittens, traditional "mukluks", summer parkas, bolo ties, "scrimshaw

Scrimshaw

Scrimshaw is the name given to handiwork created by whalers made from the byproducts of harvesting marine mammals. It is most commonly made out of the bones and teeth of sperm whales, the baleen of other whales, and the tusks of walruses...

" belt buckles, silver, gold and copper jewelry, and hair ornaments.

The Foundation is also a grant-making organization, awarding small artist support grants.