First of the season’s beautiful picture books is “Dreaming Our Futures: Ojibwe and Ochethi Sakowin Artists and Knowledge Keepers,” edited by Brenda J.Child and Howard Oransky (University of Minnesota Press, $34.95).

“Dreaming Our Futures”(Courtesy of the University of Minnesota Press)

This book is filled with full-color representations of the artwork of 28 Native painters, primarily Dakota and Ojibwe, who live in the Midwest or have tribal or family connections here, including George Morrison and Jim Denomie. The book is also text-rich, with background on the artists and the ways in which they represent a range of generations, professional experience and genres — including traditional, historical, contemporary and conceptual themes.

“Dreaming Our Futures” accompanies an exhibition at the University of Minnesota Katherine E. Nash Gallery in 2024, produced in association with the George Morrison Center for Indigenous Arts at the university.

The editors will launch their book at a free 7 p.m. program Wednesday, Jan. 17, at Milkweed Books in the Open Book building, 1011 Washington Ave. S., Mpls. They will be joined by contributor Diane Wilson, author of “The Seed Keeper,” who was married to the late Jim Denomie.

Child (Red Lake Ojibwe) is Northrop Professor of American Studies at the University of Minnesota and was recently named a Guggenheim Fellow. Among her books is “My Grandfather’s Knocking Sticks: Ojibwe Family Life and Labor on the Reservations,” winner of the American Indian Book Award. Oransky is director of the Katherine E. Nash Gallery and co-founder of Form + Content Gallery in Minneapolis.

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