First recipient of $50,000 residency expanding Indigenous access to neon fabrication

NEW YORK, May 21, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — The Walker Youngbird Foundation, a Native-led nonprofit supporting Indigenous artists, and Lite Brite Neon Studio announced Sarah Rowe (Ponca Tribe of Nebraska) as the inaugural artist-in-residence for Native Neon, a $50,000 residency expanding Indigenous access to neon fabrication. Rowe was selected from a competitive national pool by a panel that included Primary Advisor Marie Watt (Seneca Nation).

Structured as a teaching residency, Native Neon provides artists with hands-on training and full fabrication support. Rowe will spend 7–10 days at Lite Brite Neon Studio in Kingston, NY this fall, receiving a $10,000 stipend along with fully funded fabrication, materials, studio time, and technical instruction, bringing the total value of the program to $50,000. The completed work will remain her property with full intellectual property rights retained, and the project will culminate with a public presentation of the finished neon work

“Neon is bold and playful by nature. My work operates similarly, embodying a sense of curiosity with trickster spirit at its center. The idea of drawing with light is intriguing and new to me. The hum of neon is alive as it shines its message and invites us in. I look forward to embracing the element of neon as a way to animate my work and share a story through blazing color,” said artist Sarah Rowe.

Based in Omaha, Nebraska, Rowe is a painter and installation artist whose work draws from the energy of the Heyoka, the sacred clown figure of the Lakota tradition, using humor, satire, and vibrant color to challenge perception, build bridges of reconciliation, and invite viewer engagement. Rowe has not previously worked in neon, which is a core eligibility requirement of the program, but her practice is already deeply engaged with questions of light, scale, and spatial transformation. She references her fascination with neon as a child, tracing it back to memories of grass dancers at powwows whose neon fringe drew her in. Her practice spans two-dimensional painting, community-engaged workshops, and large-scale immersive environments. Recent projects include Starseeds, a mural spanning 15 grain silos and 27,000 square feet across Nebraska, and Water Ledger, a solo exhibition at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center featuring a 60-foot animated ceiling and live collaborative soundscape.

“Sarah Rowe’s multidisciplinary practice and site-immersive projects made her stand out immediately; she is uniquely poised to translate her ideas into neon. Fabrication expenses are a very real obstacle for any artist, and working in a material like neon often takes a grant or an award as a catalyst. The Native Neon residency brings together two organizations doing important work not just to support artists, but to bring about social change, and Sarah is exactly the kind of artist this program was built for,” said artist and Native Neon Primary Advisor Marie Watt.

Native Neon is an inaugural program from the Walker Youngbird Foundation, a Native-led nonprofit dedicated to supporting emerging Indigenous artists across North America through grants, fellowships, exhibition support, and strategic partnerships. The program addresses the gap Indigenous artists face in access not only to museum collections and gallery rosters, but also to the specialized infrastructure that has historically required institutional backing or commercial relationships. Native Neon offers a new model that underwrites access to these crucial resources.

“We’re always looking for ways to remove barriers that have kept Indigenous artists from fully realizing their work. Native Neon pairs artists with the resources, space, and tools to make something they could not make elsewhere. Sarah’s practice is already asking big questions, and we could not think of a better inaugural artist to push them further,” said Walker Youngbird Foundation Founder Reid Walker.

For more information, visit walkeryoungbird.org and litebriteneon.com.

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SOURCE Walker Youngbird Foundation