In September 1995, Tribe: A Centre for the Evolving Aboriginal Media, Visual and Performing Arts Inc., was founded by a small dedicated group of Aboriginal artists who wanted to create a supportive environment in Saskatoon for their art practice. The founders were Bradlee La Rocque, Lori Blondeau, April Brass, Denny Norman and Vern Checkosis. This core group was later expanded to include such artists and cultural workers as Ruth Cuthand, Chelli Nighttraveller, Audrey Dreaver, Irene Frazier, Floyd Favel Starr and Adrian Stimson, among others.

Tribe was registered as a non-profit corporation in 1995. The current Board of Directors consists of four practicing artists: Adrian Stimson; Vern Checkosis; Audrey Dreaver and Floyd Favel Starr. Lori Blondeau is the Executive Director and Felicia Gay is the Administrative Assistant (both positions are currently 3/4 time). A Core of Volunteer support is provided by members of the local arts community and Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal students at the University of Saskatchewan’s Department of Art and Art History. These volunteers assist at various levels including, exhibition installation, membership drives, grant preparation and day-to-day office activities.

Tribe is located in the province of Saskatchewan which a large Aboriginal population. This Aboriginal population is set to increase threefold within the next half-century. By the year 2045, Aboriginal people will make up approximately 1/3 or 32.5% of Saskatchewan's population compared with 1/10 or 13.3% in 1995. Tribe’s mandate is to provide an intellectual and creative environment in which Aboriginal artists, curators and critics may further develop their individual potential as professionals in the contemporary art world. Tribe offers responsive, critical and challenging programming in contemporary Aboriginal media, visual and performance art.

As an artist-run-center focused on the presentation of contemporary Aboriginal art in a variety of institutional and public spaces, Tribe maintains a permanent administrative office but does not run its own gallery space. Instead, Tribe has developed a series of successful partnerships and collaborations with different organizations in Saskatchewan and beyond. In the last ten years, Tribe has partnered with such organizations as AKA Gallery; Paved Art + New Media (formerly, the Photographers Gallery and Video Verite); the Snelgrove Gallery, the Department of Art and Art History and the Kenderdine Gallery at the University of Saskatchewan; the Mendel Art Gallery; Sakewewak, and Neutral Ground in Regina. In recent years, Tribe has partnered with the Grunt Gallery in Vancouver and the South Asian Visual Arts Collective (SAVAC), Toronto. In addition, institutions across the country have picked up Tribe’s programming, presenting it in their cities.

Tribe’s system of partnerships and collaborations has resulted in on-going cross-cultural audience development. This history of successful partnerships and collaborations with other artist-run centers and community-based organizations has led to an increased amount of Aboriginal arts programming throughout the city of Saskatoon. For example, Tribe’s goal to provide the community with an on-going series of lectures by established and emerging Aboriginal artists has been met, in part, by a lecture-series developed in partnership with the Department of Art and Art History at the University of Saskatchewan. This lectureship series serves to create a prominent public forum for dialogue about historical and contemporary Aboriginal art practice.

In the last ten years, Tribe has presented the work of over 75 Aboriginal artists and cultural workers. Highlights of this programming include Beyond Tonto (1997- ) an experimental short film and video festival initiated by Ruth Cuthand; the High Tech Storytellers Festival (2000) which featured artists concurrently in four different venues in Saskatoon (Edward Poitras at the Kenderdine Gallery; James Luna at the Snelgrove Gallery; Rebecca Belmore at AKA Gallery; and Lori Wiedenhammer at the Mendel Art Gallery.); the conference, INDIANacts: Contemporary Aboriginal Performance Art (2001), presented at Emily Carr in Vancouver in partnership with the Grunt Gallery; and a series of symposiums titled Define Indian with SAVAC (2005). Publications for these and other events are currently in the works.