RedLine is a proud partner and administrator of the Arts in Society grant. This collaborative program provides grants to both individuals and organizations that use art as a vehicle to promote social justice and community welfare. 

We love highlighting our Arts in Society (AiS) grant recipients and all the unique and impactful projects made possible by their grant.

We’re excited continue this series with the 2023 AiS Grantee: Storytellers of the Ancestral Red Road (SOAR).

Learn all about SOAR and how they share cultural wisdom and practice well-being and community-focused healing through creative expression.

Tell us about your organization

Storytellers of the Ancestral Red Road (SOAR) is a Southern Colorado collective of traditional Indigenous teachers and allies, sharing cultural wisdom in multi-generational educational settings, and practicing well-being and community-focused healing through creative expression.

The organization was co-founded by three Pueblo community members who are committed to providing sustainable examples of cross-cultural collaboration.

Led by Indigenous leader Sam Gallegos, B.S., M.E. (Mescalero Apache and Southern Cheyenne); Karen Yescavage, Ph.D..; and Grant Manager Annie Drysdale, DU MA Museum Studies Graduate Student, the team has focused on trust, accountability, creativity, and healing to create the community we wish to live in.

Tell us about your first project that will utilize your AiS grant

The Arts in Society Grant (AiS) has allowed Sam, Karen, and Annie to create a ripple of real visibility for Indigenous issues, the artistic practices of healing, and communal collaboration.

There has been a significant amount of progress made with the funding we received from AiS. To-date, we have completed two-thirds of the proposed programming, and will complete the remaining one-third over the next six months. Reaching multiple generations meant diversifying our outreach.

Sam and Annie created a museum based youth curriculum to teach 12 fall classes, and one-week of Hands-on-History programming with K-6 students at El Pueblo History Museum.

Sam and Karen taught a Creative Wellness course for Colorado State University Pueblo. That course, Indigenous Health & Wellness, was taught during the spring 2023 semester, and will be taught again by Sam Gallegos in the spring of 2024.

This experiential class included guest speakers, providing research presentations to the community, assisting with community programming, attending the Denver Pow Wow, visiting History Colorado’s Sand Creek Massacre exhibit, and participating in a horse-human relationship excursion. 

SOAR hosted four free community events; three speaker series events and an Earth Day Indigenous Music & Arts festival. The three Speaker Series events all included an opening blessing and community meal; topics presented were:

• Walk in Balance: The Path of the Sacred Hoop to Heal and to Live in Harmony with Earth Mother - standing room only with 120+ in attendance 

• Need for Healing: Acknowledging Historical, Generational, and Cultural Trauma - 78 community members came out on this cold February night

• Practicing Holistic Healing: Understanding Mind-Body-Spirit Connections - again we had standing room only with 120+ in attendance.

The cherry on-top of our 2023 programming was an Earth Day Indigenous Music & Arts Festival, featuring: six local performances - three traditional and three contemporary; headliner Ed Kabotie & Tha Yoties from Arizona; more than twenty-five artist vendors; and five earth-education presentations.

Despite Mother Nature blanketing the stage in snow and pushing the event indoors, the festival had more than 800 community members in attendance.

The greatest accomplishment of our team of three committed community members is that we have done what we set out to do, reaching a breadth and depth that astonishes us all as we look back.

We have connected with more than one-thousand community members. Several of those community members joined us for the complete series, and we hear regularly from many more that have enthusiasm in supporting future events.

What’s next in the pipeline for your organization? What other projects are you dreaming up for next year, and how will your AiS grant help to support these efforts?

Currently SOAR is working with local Tewa artist, Tonio LeFebre, to help design a mural for the Pueblo Levee Project. This 24 x 24 mural, focuses on the idea of Coming Home, and has been created through a collaborative storytelling process with other Indigenous community members who are finding their way back to tradition.

These community members, their friends, and family will all be welcome to contribute to the creation of this visual Coming Home story.

The permanent painting will be featured along the Arkansas River as a part of the historic revival project led by past AiS grantee Cynthia Ramu, who is the creator of the Pueblo Levee Project and supporter of SOAR. As a part of a fall 2023 Creative Wellness course taught by Karen Yescavage, Ph.D.., there will be an experiential opportunity for CSU Pueblo students to participate in the painting of the mural along the levee.

Additionally, as a part of the Denver University Art History community, Annie will also be able to invite fellow DU students and alumni to participate in the creative storytelling process.

This November, SOAR is excited to support the Pueblo Heritage  Museum’s Native People’s Exhibit Revival with AiS funds assisting in the renovation participation. Sam Gallegos will also offer his prayers of song and dance as the SOAR representative  participating in the First Friday Indigenous Fusion event on November 3rd, where the Native People’s Exhibit Revival will be unveiled. We look forward to further collaborating with this new community partner in 2024. 

The final project funded through our AiS grant will be Coming Home, a community feast of traditional foods, and a moderated panel discussion between SOAR members and Tewa mural artist and language researcher Tonio LeFebre, and Shirley Romero-Otero of the San Luis Land Rights project.

This is an opportunity for community members of all identities and backgrounds to gather, commune together in conversation, listen, laugh, and heal together. We anticipate 300 community members to join us in this final celebration of Indigenous visibility and community-focused healing.

While this may be our last grantee event, the ripple of healing we as a SOAR team has had the honor of initiating with our grantee funds will move outward beyond this time and the space, to perpetuate artistic visibility and healing for the people of Southern Colorado for generations to come.

What was your experience like when applying for an AiS? What tips would you share with artists looking to apply for an AiS grant?

Applying for the Arts in Society grant was the first grant application experience I had participated in, and I greatly appreciate the unique situation it was to apply for funding as an individual.

The Arts in Society website provides detailed information about the grant opportunity, complete with a video presentation that outlined the application requirements and grantee processes. The actual proposal was submitted through an online, user-friendly, platform.

This same platform was used later for the reporting requirements, which were easier than I had anticipated. After we applied, communications from the Arts in Society team were great. Art Grant Manager Lares Feliciano provided information and links to documents right away, and always responded with answers to any questions we had.

Having the opportunity to meet, both virtually and in person, with the rest of our AiS cohort provided valuable connections and allowed us to share solutions to shared challenges.

These meetings also allowed us to get to know our AiS and Redline support team members on a more personal level, adding a further layer of comfort that our organization was well supported for the duration of our grantee experience, and for the future to come.

I have already recommended the AiS grantee experience to others, and encourage any readers interested in the opportunity to apply.