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- By Native News Online Staff
Thanks to a $2.5 million grant the museum received from Lilly Endowment Inc., expressions of religion and spirituality among Native peoples and within the American West will be the focus of major projects at the Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art.
Lilly Endowment made the grant through its Religion and Cultural Institutions Initiative. With the support, the museum will:
- Launch an exhibition about the fascinating variety of Native American tattoo practices and styles that will be on view at the Eiteljorg in late 2026 or early 2027 and then possibly travel to other museums.
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- Reinstall the artworks in the Western Art Galleries, which were last renovated in 2018.
- Continue to uphold the highest standards of caring for the Native artworks and cultural belongings that are in the museum’s collections. Having worked to build relationships with Native communities from the Great Lakes region and beyond, the Eiteljorg plans to host convenings of tribal representatives so those tribes can conduct traditional observations of their items and aid in repatriation research.
- Enhance museum guest experiences through conducting evaluation surveys and focus groups about exhibitions.
- Create a dedicated endowment that will earn investment income, from which proceeds can fund future public programs and projects related to religion and spirituality.
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“The Eiteljorg Museum will continue to engage our audiences in the exploration of religious and cultural expressions in the American West and among the Indigenous Peoples of North America, developing a better understanding of this complex subject,” Eiteljorg President and CEO Kathryn Haigh said. “We are grateful to Lilly Endowment Inc. for generously supporting this effort that will make an impact for years to come.”
In 2019, Lilly Endowment launched the Religion and Cultural Institutions Initiative. Its aim is to support museums and other cultural organizations as they strengthen their capacity to provide fair, accurate and balanced portrayals of the role religion has played and continues to play in the United States and around the world.
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