Northwest Coast Arts Degree Program

SHI in 2016 partnered with the University of Alaska Southeast (UAS) to develop and offer an Associate of Arts (AA) degree with an emphasis on Northwest Coast arts. The undergraduate program, which was launched in 2020, includes a wide spectrum of classes—from tool making to design, basketry, and weaving, among others. The program, which is offered at the university’s Juneau, Ketchikan, and Sitka campuses, is part of a larger effort to establish a four-year degree track through UAS and the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Thanks to a memorandum of agreement between SHI, UAS, and IAIA, and a resulting articulation agreement between UAS and IAIA, students who earn an AA degree with a Northwest Coast arts emphasis have the option to transfer credits and pursue a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from IAIA. Students can also work toward a bachelor’s degree in arts and sciences or education at UAS or the broader University of Alaska system.

In addition to art classes, the program requires students to complete courses in Alaska Native studies, Indigenous performing arts, and a language class on beginning Tlingit, Haida, or Tsimshian, as well as Northwest Coast design, art history and culture, art theory and practice, and career development for artists.

Several of SHI’s NWC arts classes are offered for UAS credits that count toward the UAS AA degree with a NWC arts emphasis and are transferrable to IAIA.