projects.
Exhibitions & Acquisitions.
EXPO CHICAGO 2024
Navy Pier
April 24- April 27, 2024
EXPO CHICAGO showcases leading contemporary and modern art galleries each April at Navy Pier’s Festival Hall, alongside a diverse and inventive program of talks, on-site installations, and public art initiatives. Inaugurated in 2012, EXPO CHICAGO draws upon the city’s rich history as a vibrant international cultural destination, while highlighting the region’s contemporary arts community. In 2023, EXPO CHICAGO was acquired by Frieze, the world’s leading platform for modern and contemporary art.
Camille Billie was one of four featured artists in Center For Native Futures booth for EXPO CHICAGO 2024.
Stand Together!
Miller Art Museum
July 12 - September 21, 2024
On the Ruth Morton Miller Mezzanine which features work by Camille Billie, Oneida Nation; Weeya Calif, Echota Cherokee Tribe of Alabama; Pat Kruse, Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa; and Christopher Sweet, Ho Chunk Nation/Ojibwe. The exhibit explores the creative culture of Woodland artists from around the Great Lakes.
Indigenous Chicago
Newberry Library
September 12, 2024- January 4, 2025
Home to the Potawatomi, Odawa, Ojibwe, Peoria, Kaskaskia, Myaamia, Wea, Sauk, Meskwaki, and Ho-Chunk peoples, the place we now call Chicago has long been a historic crossroads for many Indigenous people and remains home to an extensive urban Native community. Yet most Chicagoans are unaware of the city’s history as a home to diverse Indigenous peoples and the vibrant Indigenous communities present today. Part of a multifaceted initiative developed in partnership between the Newberry, advisors from the Chicago Native community, and representatives from tribal nations with historic connections to Chicago, this exhibition reflects the dynamic and complex aspects of Native life in Chicago from the seventeenth century to the present. The exhibition draws largely on the Newberry's collection while also showcasing new work by contemporary Native artists, including Jason Wesaw (Pokagon Band of Potawatomi), Camille Billie (Oneida), and Jim Terry (Ho-Chunk).
Illinois State Museum
Illinois State Museum
Summer 2024, Illinois State Museum acquired three prints by Camille Billie for their permanent collection.
These purchases for the art collection were funded from Illinois State Museum Society's Guerry and Michelle Suggs Diversity Acquisition Fund.
Two of the three works are on display for 2025 Native Heritage Month.
Waterways
Schingoethe Center
August 27 - December 12, 2024
Waterways is co-curated by The Schingoethe Center’s Director, Dr. Natasha Ritsma, and Art Curator from the Illinois State Museum, Doug Stapleton. This exhibition will feature photographs, sculptures, prints, and installation pieces by more than twenty five artists addressing historical, geological, and environmental issues related to waterways in the Midwest. Situated between Lake Michigan and the Mississippi River, the two largest freshwater systems in North America, this exhibition will examine social and political, historical, and poetic artistic responses to existing in proximity to these vital waterways.
The Schingoethe Center has acquired one framed print of Riverbend which will remain in permanent collections after Waterways closes.
"Native Futures" inaugural exhibition
Center For Native Futures
September 16, 2023- May 17, 2024
The inaugural “Native Futures” exhibition features more than a dozen established and emerging Native artists in 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, X and TIES poets.
about.
Camille Billie is an Oneida and Diné afro-Indigenous artist. She is an enrolled member of Oneida Nation, Wisconsin and is turtle clan; whose core value is to be keepers of the Earth. Since moving to Chicago in 2018, she's graduated from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago with her BA in Fine arts and emphasis in designed objects. She has also been adapting what it looks like to be a helpful community member with the land in mind. She learns and shares through her art practice and work.
Being a printmaker has allowed Billie to reconnect with a memory tool used by some of her teachers back home, blending storytelling and tiled art to remember important principles in their nation's values. Camille creates and explores with this method in mind to connect with visitors while sharing stories, memories and calls to action surrounding environmentalism and community care through exhibitions and workshops.
Back at her day job as a garden manager, she's replaced the Gichigamiin Indigenous Nations museum’s turf lawn with a native plant garden hosting woodland shade, full sun prairie plants and a space to grow foods and gather medicines (more than 1700 plants!). Alongside the garden, her work has led her into learning about Chicago's local food ways, creating accessibility to native seeds, preparing to install a commercial grade kitchen for workshops and use for small businesses at the Gichigamiin Museum.
