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Artists

Monica Rickert-Bolter

is a Chicago-based visual artist and journalist of Black and German descent and a citizen of the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation. Her artwork uses traditional and digital mediums, such as charcoals, pastels, and vector graphics. After receiving a degree in media arts and animation, she worked with Chicago Public Schools American Indian Education Program, as well as other Chicago nonprofits and organizations. In 2020, Rickert-Bolter completed two children’s books as the illustrator and layout designer, Journey of the Freckled Indian and J. W. the Deaf Drummer. In 2021, she co-founded the nonprofit Center for Native Futures to nurture and advocate for Indigenous futurists. She is a former resident artist at the Hyde Park Art Center, and she served as an embedded artist for Imagine Just, a community anti-racist arts collaborative.
Color portrait of Monica Rickert Bolter
Photo by Ben Bolter
Interview with Monica Rickert-Bolter [14:51 min]

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play_arrow Monica Rickert Bolter video interview
Transcript (PDF)

The National Museum of the American Indian thanks the Frye Museum and the yəhaw̓ Indigenous Creatives Collective for their research assistance.

This project received support from the Smithsonian American Women’s History Initiative.

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