Koahnic Hosts 30th Alaska Native Art Auction Gala in Anchorage This March

Three decades after its founding, the Alaska Native Art Auction Gala marked its 30th year Saturday evening at Hotel Captain Cook in Anchorage, where Koahnic Broadcast Corporation gathered more than 400 collectors, community leaders, and supporters for a live and silent auction benefiting Native-led journalism and storytelling.

Proceeds from the gala support KNBA 90.3 FM, National Native News, and Native America Calling, the three cornerstone programs of Koahnic Broadcast Corporation, a nonprofit based at 3600 San Jeronimo Drive in Anchorage. Together those programs carry Indigenous voices to listeners across Alaska and to a national audience.

The 2026 event brought back the Alaska Native Art Auction Indigenous Fashion Show, a runway program that framed Indigenous designers within a context of regalia, contemporary fashion, and cultural storytelling. The show honored what organizers described as the deep connections between art, identity, and the living transmission of cultural knowledge through design.

Among the artists whose work appeared in connection with the event, Britt'Nee Kivliqtaruq Brower brought pieces rooted in traditional Qupak motifs updated with contemporary styling. Brower, an advocate for the revitalization of Iñupiat language, art, and tattoo traditions, creates work intended to teach about Iñupiat culture and pass down traditional knowledge to younger generations. Also featured was Bobbie A Meszaros, known by her artist name GarnetAnn, a Coast Salish and Tlingit weaver from Wrangell's Shtax'Heen Kwaan who works in handspun and hand-dyed merino wools using Salish, Ravenstail, and Chilkat techniques. Meszaros, an emerging fashion designer who has appeared on multiple Alaska runways, advocates for culturally based arts as an economic resource for women and supports the Wrangell Natives Without Land.

For the 2026 auction, Koahnic worked with a new partner, Alaska Premier Auctions and Appraisals, to collect and inventory donated artwork. Artists who completed their donation packages by March 13 were automatically entered into a $500 Artist and Donor Giveaway, with no additional entry required. Koahnic employees were ineligible for that drawing.

For ticket and sponsorship inquiries, contact Larry Cleland at LCleland@knba.org or Shappelle Thompson at Shappelle.Thompson@Koahnic.org. The KBC Newsroom can be reached at 907.743.8803.