Grace Rosario Perkins awarded Walker Youngbird Grant

Grace Rosario Perkins’ (Diné and Akimel O’odham) proposal for new, large-scale participatory sculpture was awarded the Walker Youngbird Foundation’s Emerging Native Arts Grant. The artwork will debut in Circles, Spokes, Zigzags, Rivers, her solo exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art (October 18, 2025–February 8, 2026), and the project also includes youth programming with workshops engaging Indigenous and LGBTQ+ teens in shared storytelling and creative exploration.

Working with friends and family members near the Navajo Nation and Gila River Indian Community, Perkins will combine detritus from sites impacted by addiction and environmental harm with medicinal plants as a ritual act of alchemy and healing. Perkins commented on her process: “Working through intuition guided by my plant studies, together we are transmutating a wide range of materials that hold both personal and collective stories. Rather than make these narratives legible, abstraction invites us all to form connections with our own experiences.”

The Emerging Native Arts Grant is a cornerstone initiative of the Walker Youngbird Foundation, created to support early-career Native artists who are honoring tradition while boldly shaping the future of contemporary Indigenous art. Reid Walker, founder of the Walker Youngbird Foundation, noted that Perkins is “building a language of her own,” adding, “There’s a certain electricity in Grace’s work—a mix of memory, ritual, and refusal that you don’t come across often.”

The award of $15,000 is offered over six months along with mentorship from Foundation staff and Advisory Council members. Acknowledging that Native artists are underrepresented in mainstream arts ecosystems, the grant aims to elevate Indigenous voices beyond regional boundaries, support cultural continuity and innovation, and provide national recognition to grantees.