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The Northwest Native Development Fund recently received a $32,000 grant to grow its arts program, the lending agency announced this week in a press release.

The grant from the First Nations Development Institute of Longmont, Colorado, will support the efforts of the NNDF’s Plateau Native Arts Project.

“We are really excited to receive this grant from FNDI. This will greatly help our already growing arts program,” said Ted Piccolo, NNDF executive director. “This will help us expand our annual Art Show, open an arts gallery for tourists, and provide more training for our local artists.”

The expanded Plateau Native Arts Project will incorporate an arts gallery in the Grand Coulee Dam area during the high traffic tourist months that will become a training and gathering space for local artists in the off season, Piccolo said.

The additional funding from FNDI will help expand an already growing Plateau Native Art Show held over Labor Day weekend and will help the NNDF to provide more artists in business training for artists in our community.

“We have quite the artist population living quietly in our community right now,” Piccolo said. “We hope to be able to provide support for these folks and see this area eventually become a hub for artists in the Plateau Region of Washington state.”

The grant timeline for the project will run from this month to January 2019. The NNDF expects to host at least three training sessions that will match experienced artists with young artists.