Funding Native Futures: The Work Continues

Part of the 2024 GIA Conference Blog

Erin Toale

This off-site, interactive session was hosted by the Center for Native Futures (CNF) and organized by Esther Grimm, Executive Director of 3Arts. Attendees were welcomed into a bright storefront space filled with plants and Indigenous art off Adams Street in Chicago’s downtown “Loop” neighborhood. Co-founders and Native Artists Debra Yepa-Pappan (Director of Exhibitions and Programs) and Monica Rickert-Bolter (Director of Operations) shared about their experience forming and funding the organization while advocating for Indigenous creative communities. Following the conversation, CNF’s first artist-in-residence Noelle Garcia facilitated a group art-making workshop around the gourd beading stitch. After learning about the historical significance of beading as a medium, small groups collaborated on a sculpture.

Grimm opened by contextualizing 3Arts’ work and the organization's relationship with CNF. 3Arts directly funds individuals and organizations that center women artists, artists of color, and Deaf and disabled artists with unrestricted and general operating grants. Yepa-Pappan received direct artist funding from them, and when 3Arts went officeless in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, they diverted the rent towards a long-term financial commitment to CNF’s physical space.

Yepa-Pappan and Rickert-Bolter provided an overview of how the CNF (est. 2020) funds Native art and offers material support and opportunities for Native Artists. They are the only Native-led Indigenous arts organization in Chicago. In June 2023, they moved into the storefront space in the historic Marquette Building (1895), donated by the building's owner—the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. The building also houses a Euro-centric lobby mosaic depicting “moments in the life and death of Father Marquette” (a Jesuit priest) by Louis Comfort Tiffany (son of the famed jeweler Charles Tiffany) and J.A. Holzer. They describe the mural, which glorifies colonialism, as beautiful and problematic—as their mission at CNF is to amplify Native voices and perspectives.

Yepa-Pappan stressed the need for renewable, unrestricted general operating grants in order for them to do this important work of aiding Native artists holistically—through all stages of production—with an emphasis on hospitality and direct financial compensation for artistic labor. “We make sure that all of our artists are paid… we keep our kitchen supplied with food and drinks… there's a lot that we put into the care of artists as people, and not just artists as a commodity, or their artwork as just a commodity.” She acknowledged the progress that the organization has made, but an audience member pointed out that “less than one half of 1% of all philanthropic money goes to Indian country.” Land acknowledgments, which are now fairly common practice in NPO spaces, need to happen in tandem with material and financial support. Despite progress, as summarized by that same audience member, “the work continues.”

ABOUT THE SESSION

Native Futures

Esther Grimm, Noelle Garcia, Monica Rickert-Bolter, and Debra Yepa-Pappan

In this interactive session hosted by the Center for Native Futures, participants will hear from Native artists, including Noelle Garcia and Co-Founders Debra Yepa-Pappan and Monica Rickert-Bolter, about their work and grant-seeking experiences as they consider opportunities for field wide advocacy and improvement and take part in a contemplative art-making workshop.