Debra Yepa-Pappan, Native Community Engagement Coordinator for the Native American Exhibition renovation at the Field Museum, Chicago. Photo courtesy of the artist.
Talk
Mar 10, 2022 - 5:30
Lower Level, Auditorium (KAM 62)

Join us for an Artist Talk by Debra Yepa-Pappan, Chicago-based multidisciplinary artist, community engagement professional, and co-founder of the Center for Native Futures.

Co-sponsored and co-organized with the Program in American Indian Studies at Illinois

About the Artist

Debra Yepa-Pappan (Jemez Pueblo and Korean) is a visual artist whose digital works center on themes about her mixed-race identity as she incorporates symbolic imagery influenced by both her cultures and the urban environment where she was raised; and she is currently the Native Community Engagement Coordinator for the Native American Exhibition renovation at the Field Museum. 

Both through her artwork and her work at the Museum, she is committed to changing inaccurate representations of Native people, and advocates for the inclusion of Native first voice and perspectives.

Debra along with her husband, artist Chris Pappan, and a small collective of Chicago-based Native artists recently founded the Center for Native Futures, an arts organization created to support Native artists. Debra currently lives in her hometown Chicago with her husband Chris and their daughter Ji Hae.