RHETORICA - The Rasmuson Foundation is an organization established in 1955 by Jenny Rasmuson to honor her late husband E.A. Rasmuson. It awards grants to projects which create a positive catalyst to promote a better life for Alaskans. They have a program called the Individual Artist Awards of the Arts and Culture Initiative, which is a ten year old program, involving some $20 million of grants to Alaskan artists.

Recently the foundation has decided to expand its presence into Second Life. 

Jeffronius Criss heads the Second Life endeavor. "SL is a very rich medium which allows us to tell ( and show ) the stories of Alaska, its issues and our grantees in new and unique ways to current and new audiences. We consider SL to be an incubator and center of creativity and felt that the Gallery, which is a demonstration of creativity in and of itself, would help show the influence of place and culture on local expression," he said.

It's clear from the wide range of artists that the foundations has award grants to this year ( ranging from photographers, watercolourists, three dimensional artists, to writers, composers and video artists ) that the foundation supports diversity in the arts. So far none of the artists involved have investigated the medium of Second Life as an artistic platform, but as Criss explained "..that sounds like a logical outcome of Alaskan artists' introduction to SL"

There is a reasonably strong Alaskan community within Second Life, represented by such groups as Alaskans Of SecondLife. Criss was positive about the possibilities of the foundation supporting art created within Second Life, using the medium of SL itself, as long as it came from actual Alaskan residents.


You can visit and view the work of the wide range of artists represented by the foundation at the Rasmuson Art Gallery here : http://slurl.com/secondlife/Rhetorica/220/236/73

http://www.rasmuson.org