CIRI shareholder Gretchen Sagan is not one to draw attention to herself or her artistic talents. For the past two years, she has helped Alaskan artists grow professionally and creatively as the art director of the Alaska Native Arts Foundation. Through her work, Sagan’s goal was to present the best of Alaska Native art to the rest of the world.
She studied at the Estonian Academy of Art and majored in printmaking. “It was a period of tremendous personal growth. By being away from Alaska, I was closer to my culture because I was sharing it with people who had no prior knowledge of Alaska and Alaska Natives. It was a responsibility I took very seriously.”

The classic art education gave Sagan a broad spectrum of skills: printmaking, painting, photography, and book binding. She continues to work in different mediums and donated a copper plate etching with dry point technique to the KNBA Art Auction last year. This year Sagan plans to donate another piece from the same series called “Ties.”

Sagan was involved with the Alaska Native Art Foundation from its infancy and is starting a new chapter in her life. She was recently commissioned by CIRI to paint a portrait of Carl Marrs to hang in the CIRI building. As a CIRI Foundation scholarship recipient, it seems that things have come full circle for Sagan.

“I was proud that I had gotten the education and the ability to create a work for my corporation. It was an honor to share my talents with my people.”