Center for Native Futures

The Center for Native Futures (CfNF) is the only Indigenous artist-run organization in Chicago to promote Native fine arts, foster contemporary artists, and encourage Indigenous Futurists.

Located in the Marquette Building, the CfNF art center will host gallery exhibitions, artist-in-residencies, and community events throughout the year. CfNF recognizes the city of Zhegagoynak (Chicago), as Indigenous land and works to promote the voices of displaced Native people of the Great Lakes region. The organization fosters Native visual artists, curators, and writers at various career stages and provides a lens to learn from the past, nurture the present, and realize our thriving future.

Visitors will have the opportunity to view "Native Futures" and engage with artists from the exhibition.

The Marquette Building, completed in 1895, is a Chicago landmark that was built by the George A. Fuller Company and designed by architects Holabird & Roche. The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation currently owns the building, and through its partnership, CfNF presence directly counteracts the Euro-centric narrative of the Marquette mosaics by presenting Native perspectives through art and poetry.

The inaugural “Native Futures” exhibition features more than a dozen established and emerging Native artists from the Great Lakes region, including works by CfNF co-founders, Noelle Garcia, Kelly Church, Jason Wesaw, Tom Jones, Holly Wilson, John Hitchcock, Camille Billie, June Carpenter, Codak Smith, Le’Ana Asher, Dakota Mace, Ji Hae Yepa-Pappan, Chelsea Big Horn, Lydia Cheshewalla, Hattie Lee, and TIES poets. The exhibition will run until May 2024.

On Saturday and Sunday, visitors will enjoy special guest musical performances by the Aloha Center Chicago to celebrate Native Hawaiian culture.