Indigenous Art of Chicagoland Comes to the Block Museum
Michaela Marchi, Program Assistant at the Center for Native American and Indigenous Research opens the Woven Being Exhibition Opening Celebration in February with songs for her home and the water that sits outside the windows. (Katherine Ergil/ION)
For decades, media representation of Indigenous peoples has been reduced to overgeneralized stereotypes that homogenize their diverse cultures and histories. Often, they are depicted as a single group rather than as members of distinct tribes with unique customs and traditions. In reality, their traditions stem from deep connections to their lands and take on many forms of expression.
Beginning in January 2025, Northwestern University’s Block Museum has displayed the work of Indigenous artists in two new exhibits: “Woven Being: Art forZhegagoynak/Chicagoland” open through July 2025 and “it takes a long time to stay here: Paintings by Jordan Ann Craig” closed in April 2025. These two exhibits share roots in indigeneity but portray a wide array of contemporary work, presented after five years of involved planning by the museum and artists.
Art informs, defines and reflects popular priorities, which become the mainstream. For a long time, exhibitions of Indigenous art have focused solely on history, something to be remembered, not considered. Recently, however, this narrative has been challenged by Indigenous activists, organizations and nations to build from the slow processes of repatriation of historical artifacts to the exhibition of contemporary Indigenous art.
“Woven Being: Art for Zhegagoyonak/Chicagoland” presents Indigenous past, present and future through constellations,—or collections—of art selected by the collaborating artists. The exhibit includes the work of four collaborating artists, Andrea Carlson (Grand Portage Ojibwe/European descent), Kelly Church (Match-E-B-Nash-She-Wish Tribe of Pottawtomi/Ottawa), Nora Moore Lloyd (Lac Courte Oreilles Band of Lake Superior Ojibwe) and Jason Wesaw (Pokagon Band of Potawatomi). Each of these artists was involved in the curatorial processes, which involved selecting work by other Indigenous artists to be portrayed alongside their own.
“This idea of the partnering artists that we settled on was really a way to keep the conversation going,” said Lindsay Bosch, Associate Director of Communications, Marketing and Digital Strategy at the Block Museum. “We also really wanted to ensure that what we were presenting here was not going to be received as the end-all be-all exhibition about Indigenous art of and for Chicago, it's just impossible. There's endless stories to be told” .
The constellations’ formation was not the only way the artists were able to ensure their expression and story came through in the exhibit. The display also includes a reflection space with an opportunity to watch and listen to the artists speak to each other and answer questions regarding the exhibit.
The goal of the video was to “bring the artist voices into this space since they can't be with us all the time” since it was “a concern that they have is how they can engage in dialogue the visitor is having while here,” Terra Foundation Engagement Fellow Teagan Harris (Cherokee Nation) explained.
Harris has worked closely with Erin Northington, the Susan and Stephen Wilson Associate Director at the Block Museum, to ensure engagement from the community is well-supported and informed. Together with curators and the artists, Northington highlighted that they started with place, being asked to “really consider the museum's positionality as an institution on our campus, in Evanston, in Chicago–really thinking about concentric circles.”
The Zhegagoyonak, now known as the Chicagoland area, is a region that cannot be defined by one Indigenous story. In bringing four collaborating and 33 total artists into this piece, “Woven Being” aims to highlight the specificity of the experience in Zhegagoyonak for Indigenous peoples, including the Council of Three Fires— the Ojibwe, Potawatomi and Odawa—as well as the Menominee, Miami, Ho-Chunk, Sac, Fox, Kickapoo and Illinois nations. In this way, it breaks the silence in the history of Indigenous artists from the Chicagoland area.
With contemporary works, “Woven Being” brings together the past and present.
“The historosity is attached to the person who makes art today. And those are inseparable, and it's not just influence, it's where you come from and you carry on and what you hope to affect in the future,” Harris stated.
Pieces such as Jason Weesaw’s, “Water Carries Memory”, grounds visitors in Zhegagoyonak through a familiar feature, Lake Michigan. Blue ribbons hang from the ceiling over sand gathered from campus beaches, reminding Block Museum visitors of where they are and what has been there throughout the history of the region.
Indigenous artists are actively reclaiming their narratives through exhibitions, films and digital media. Representation is not just about visibility, but also about agency in storytelling—how Indigenous identities are framed in public discourse and who has the power to tell these stories.
For years, “Woven Being’s” collaborative artist Nora Moore Lloyd did not know if she could hold that power. Even though she was unsure if she was right for the exhibit, she moved forward with the work. “It seemed important because this is the journey I'm on,” Lloyd said, “ I mean, it continues to reveal things to me. So that seemed to be what would be best for me to contribute to this show.”
A longtime participant in the Chicagoland Indigenous art scene, Lloyd appreciated that “Woven Being” featured Chicagoland artists, which gave her and the other artists the ability to tie the narrative of their exhibit to the place it was in. “I never saw an artist from Chicago, the Chicago community in a gallery. It would be wonderful and famous Southwestern artists” she explained.
In her work, Lloyd exhibits photos of rice harvests both on the Menominee reservation and her home, the Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe Reservation in Wisconsin. By showing these practices occurring today, she hopes to emphasize the ongoing importance of local Indigenous peoples and their practices.
“It's something that has been done for hundreds of years, but importantly, it's going to be done this way in the future for more hundreds of years,” Lloyd said. “It has a history, but it also will always have a future.”
In all her work, place is heavily emphasized and ties into the narrative of the whole exhibit that Indigenous pasts are crucial to appreciating their current presence and envisioning their future in Chicagoland. Block staff working on the exhibit championed the narrative crafted by the Indigenous artists themselves. Only with this collaboration were both the museum and the artists able to work toward their shared goal: to start a conversation. Lloyd hopes that “someone will sit and see it and leave thinking ‘man I never knew that’.”
The future of Indigenous peoples representation in media lies in fostering Indigenous creators—as the Block Museum has done—amplifying their voices and supporting media that portrays the full spectrum of Indigenous life today.
When approaching projects, Erin Northington asks herself these questions: “What is it to think about an exhibition as a midpoint rather than an end?” and what does it look like to make a continued effort to create “a very visible manifestation of a much longer commitment that we have”.
Moving away from stereotypical and historical portrayals requires systemic changes in media industries, educational institutions and public consciousness. It also involves bringing place-based artists into the spotlight at the place where their history is embedded. The Block Museum and its collaborating artists demonstrate how deep connections to the landscape create art that highlights relationships to place and causes viewers to stop and consider the past, present and future of the land and Indigenous relationships that surround them.