Our Vision
The Center for Native Futures brings together Native artists to imagine ourselves richly, where art can provide a lens to learn from the past, nurture our present, and realize a thriving future.
Mission Statement
The Center for Native Futures is the epicenter of Native creativity that fosters Native artists of all backgrounds.
Indigenous Futurism(s)
Indigenous Futurism(s) are artistic means for expanding possibilities and realities by imagining our realities without colonial limitations. The definition of this term is ever-changing and dynamic.
Who We Are
We are Native artists who came together during a pandemic and decided to make space for a perpetual Native presence in the city of Zhegagoynak (Chicago). The founding members have a combined 20+ years of working within the arts community and have all nurtured relationships with tribal communities, Indigenous organizations, galleries, public art spaces, and Indigenous spaces.
What We Do
The Center for Native Futures is the only all-Native artist-led arts non-profit organization in Zhegagoynak. We promote the advancement of Native fine arts, foster contemporary artists, and encourage Indigenous Futurists. Located in the Marquette Building, our art center hosts gallery exhibitions, artist-in-residencies, and community events throughout the year.
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OUR STAFF
Debra Yepa-Pappan
Co-Founder, Director of Exhibitions & Programs
(Jemez Pueblo/Korean) is a visual artist with international acclaim. Her multimedia practice, which combines digital collage and photography, centers on themes about her mixed-race identity that incorporates symbolic imagery influenced by her cultures and urban environment. Currently, Debra serves as the Community Engagement Coordinator for the Native American Exhibition renovation at The Field Museum. Through her artwork and work at the museum, she’s committed to changing inaccurate representations of Native people and advocates for the inclusion of Native first voice and perspectives.
Monica Rickert-Bolter
Co-Founder, Director of Operations
(Potawatomi/Black) is a Chicago-based visual artist, journalist, and consultant. Passionate about storytelling through art, she advocates for cultural representation in any project she undertakes. Monica pays homage to her Whitepigeon family name as a journalist and writes to amplify Natives in the arts & entertainment industries. As a consultant, she uses her decade's worth of nonprofit experience to create a more inclusive and equitable arts community throughout the city. Her artworks are on display at The Field Museum and the National Museum of the American Indian.
Noelle Garcia
Noelle Garcia is an artist who focuses on themes of identity, family history, and recovered narratives in her work. She is a North American Indigenous artist from the Klamath Tribes of Oregon, which includes the Klamath, Modoc, and Yahooskin Paiute (with lineage to all three). Her multidisciplinary practice utilizes various research methods in order to inform her methodology. She earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and her Master of Fine Arts from the University of Nevada Las Vegas. Her work has been exhibited in galleries and institutions across the United States. Garcia has earned awards and fellowships at various institutions, such as the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian.
Ji Hae Yepa-Pappan
Ji Hae Yepa-Pappan (Jemez Pueblo, Korean, Kaw, Lakota) is a Chicago based dancer with training from Chicago Ballet Arts, the Chicago High School for the Arts, and a BFA in Dance from Western Michigan University. There she was a member of Ebony Vision Dance Ensemble, and Western Dance Project under the direction of Kelsey Paschich. She performed works by Seyong Kim, Kelsey Paschich, Jonathan Jackson, Kiki Lucas, and Jared Baker. Ji Hae has also worked with Chicago DanceMakers Forum, Ballet Kalamazoo, Music House Chicago, Ginger Farley, Shawn Lent, and artist Marie Watt. She is currently a member of the inaugural Cerqua Rivera Dance Theater II, and is part of the Center for Native Futures team.
Julia Grace Magel
(White Earth Ojibwe descent) is currently studying fine arts and environmental science at Columbia College, Chicago she is passionate about bringing positive change through them for future generations. Her interests in multimedia art making include watercolor paintings, charcoal drawings, beading, woodworking, papermaking, and bookmaking. While her practice includes a lot of variety, themes of identity, family, and her childhood growing up traveling with a carnival continuously resurface.
OUR BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Andrea Carlson
Co-Founder
(Ojibwe) is a visual artist and writer currently living on Potawatomi land in Chicago, IL. Andrea’s layered practice includes painting, drawing, and arts writing on subjects ranging from museum studies to Indigenous Futurisms to assimilation metaphors in film. Her art is in various collections, such as the British Museum, the Minneapolis Institute of Art, the Walker Art Center, and the National Gallery of Canada. She received awards from McKnight Foundation (2008), Joan Mitchell Foundation (2016), and 3Arts “Make A Wave” (2020).
Kelli Covey
(Cherokee Nation) is an educator, facilitator, designer, mediator, coach, fundraiser, and organizational development consultant with more than 30 years’ experience working with both nonprofit organizations and corporations. Her educational background includes graduate work in Native American and African-American literature and cultural studies, extensive professional development in strategic planning, mediation, anti-racism and equity initiatives, and dialogue and reflective practices.
Chris Pappan
Co-Founder
(Kanza/Osage/Lakota descent) is a nationally-recognized painter and ledger artist. Based on Plains art tradition, his work literally reflects the dominant culture’s distorted perceptions of Native peoples. Chris became an agent of change at The Field Museum with Drawing On Tradition, a two-year exhibit and intervention in the neglected and problematic Native American hall that presented contemporary Indigenous perspectives. His works are in collections of renowned institutions worldwide including the National Museum of the American Indian and The North American Native Museum of Geneva, Switzerland.
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