The Niwot Native Art Market is returning on Saturday, June 27, 2026, from noon to 5 p.m. at Cottonwood Square in downtown Niwot. Organized by acclaimed Native digital artist Tom Myer and the Niwot Cultural Arts Association (NCAA), this free, outdoor event is much more than a thriving marketplace. It serves as a visible site for deep cultural exchange that actively rewrites the local narrative, empowering emerging Indigenous creators through a zero-fee model while building genuine, lasting relationships with Tribal Nations.
Honoring Tradition While Creating the Present
“If you go to a Front Range gallery or museum, you would never know that native peoples were here at all,” says Myer, an artist of Haudenosaunee and Ngäbe-Buglé descent. Myer notes that too often, regional institutions display 19th-century artifacts that reflect an “anti-quarianism” mindset and perpetuate the myth of the “vanishing Indian”. The Niwot market challenges this directly. “I really wanted to bring this idea that we have native peoples here... and they’re making art now,” Myer explains, emphasizing that Native creators are “forging a new path” rather than existing merely in a “special exhibit of a museum of a culture that’s dead and gone”.
Visitors to the market will experience a vibrant spectrum of art from the Arapaho, Cheyenne, Diné, Lakota, Navajo, and other sovereign Nations. While patrons can purchase authentic traditional creations like beadwork, basket weaving, and quill jewelry, they will also discover dynamic contemporary mediums. As Myer points out, today’s Native artists are making everything from textiles to “Star Wars art and like cats in space”.
“Native art isn’t just about traditional and ancestral practices... Yes, we honor the past, but also create in the present, and affect up to seven generations in the future. In that way, Native artists exist out of time.”
Participating artist Dustin Wolf agrees, adding, “My art isn’t necessarily tied to Native themes, but I’m Native, and therefore it is Native art”.
The Uncompromising “Artist-First” Model
“I want to introduce emerging Native artists to a wider audience,” Myer says, noting that it is “super hard for Native artists to break in anywhere”. To remove the steep financial barriers that typically exclude Indigenous creatives from mainstream markets, the Niwot Native Art Market features zero booth fees, ensuring artists keep 100% of their earnings.
“I’m paying all the fees, so that the artists can come and get set up and just start selling without risk,” Myer shares. He views the market as a vital “ramp” for undiscovered talents who have never shown their work before, helping them “find that audience... start collecting their art and buying their art and experiencing their art,” and ultimately ensuring they become an active “part of this conversation”.
A Site for Healing: Changing Narratives and Building Relationships
Hosting this event in Niwot carries profound historical significance. The town is named after Southern Arapaho Chief Nowoo3 (Left Hand), a peacemaker who tragically died from injuries sustained during the unprovoked 1864 Sand Creek Massacre. Today, the art market is part of a broader, active community effort to rewrite the historical narrative and build genuine, lasting relationships with the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes.
Rather than relying on passive land acknowledgments, the Niwot community has prioritized tangible collaboration, sitting down for public dialogues with Tribal Elders like Fred Mosqueda (Southern Arapaho) and Chester Whiteman (Southern Cheyenne). Their guidance to the town is clear: moving forward requires replacing comfortable “Hollywood history” with truthful storytelling.
“It takes both sides to heal. So you have to do it together. And that’s kind of where we’re at. We try to bring our Nation and the non-Native nation to an understanding where we can get along, work together, and move forward in this day and age.”
Mosqueda echoes this collaborative spirit, emphasizing that the Tribes’ return to the Front Range is about shared possibilities rather than past grievances. “We didn’t want to come up and glare at you and say, ‘You did this to me,’” he noted during a recent community presentation. Instead, the focus is on looking forward: “We don’t want to come and demand anything of you. We want to come and say, ‘What can we do together?’”. By creating a welcoming physical space for Native artists to thrive on Chief Niwot’s namesake land, the market answers that call — proving that relationship-building happens through respect, action, and active cultural connection.
Save the Date
Saturday, June 27, 2026 · Noon — 5pm · Cottonwood Square