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The elections are behind us and a new year looms, filled with hopes and dreams and anxieties on many fronts.

We have many questions — and probably not enough good answers. But certainly some of the inspiration and answers for what ails us lie in the healing, transformative power of art.

That is why the Native Arts and Cultures Foundation is gearing up to give its 2015 regional awards soon to Hawaii artists.

So, during this busy season of giving and getting together with friends and family, Native Hawaiian artists and cultural practitioners who have a body of high-quality work would do well to look up from their creative labors and mark their calendars.

The deadline is just about a month away. Artists in traditional arts, music, dance, and visual (2D and 3D) arts, whose work has already won the attention and respect of their peers, are invited to compete for eight awards worth up to $20,000 each. Applications must be in by Jan. 15, 2015, and should be submitted online at Your.CultureGrants.org.

This effort builds on investments in Hawaii’s artistic community that NACF has already made. This year we were pleased to recognize the enormous contributions made by Micah Kamohoali’i and Patrick Makuakāne in dance; by Keola Beamer in music and Kaili Chun in the visual arts.

This kind of cultural practice that weaves together science and Hawaiian knowledge has the power to inspire and tap the creative impulse in students, strengthening their critical thinking skills and unleashing their ideas.

These were the 2014 awardees from Hawaii in our national program. We hope their accomplishments will be matched and complemented by those who apply this year in our new Native Hawaiian Artist Fellowship Program.

We anticipate the awardee selection will be hard — but rewarding. And so it should be, if the works of art are delivering on their promise of being transformative, uplifting and empowering.

The Native Arts and Cultures Foundation was conceived as a community of artists, cultural practitioners, philanthropists and advocates dedicated to nurturing indigenous art. Its mission is a recognition of how native art speaks to our humanity and helps build more resilient communities. Yet native arts and cultures are under threat from inadequate funding, attracting less than one-tenth of 1 percent of charitable giving to the arts nationally.

Another NACF pilot initiative, the Community Inspiration Program, to be launched in 2016, is to support the creative innovation of artists engaging communities on issues of social change and seeding new approaches to tackling tough issues.

NACF will help to fund artists who are encouraging inclusion across diverse constituencies to address seemingly intractable challenges such as land stewardship, climate change, gender discrimination, trans-border migration and youth development.

A particularly striking example of this is NACF’s funding of the work of Hawaii poet laureate, Kealoha. He is using spoken word, dance, chant, music and visual arts in a one-of-a-kind hour-long performance to inspire young people and multi-generation audiences to contemplate where they come from, and where their dreams might take them.

His partnerships with high schools and his spoken word performances exemplify his passion to make scientific knowledge more accessible.

This kind of cultural practice that weaves together science and Hawaiian knowledge has the power to inspire and tap the creative impulse in students, strengthening their critical thinking skills and unleashing their ideas.

NACF looks forward to supporting the work of artists and cultural practitioners with its new Native Hawaiian artist fellowships.

But to do so, artists must come forward to present themselves and their work. NACF hopes more Hawaiian artists and cultural practitioners will go online to Your.CultureGrants.org and tell us why we should be paying attention to what their work says about Hawaii, who we are and how we might shape a better world for our children. Mele Kalikimaka!