INDIANAPOLIS — Thanks to a longtime supporter’s generous estate gift of $3.74 million, the Eiteljorg Museum has started a new acquisition fund to make important additions to its collection, including a piece by renowned glass sculptor Dale Chihuly and a painting by a major First Nations contemporary artist, Kent Monkman.
The $3.74 million gift was a bequest of Ellen M. Reed, who was a devoted museum member for 35 years, a volunteer for 18 years, active in the museum’s Eagle Society of high-level donors, and a supporter of the annual Eiteljorg Indian Market & Festival.
The museum’s first major purchase from the Ellen Reed Acquisition Fund is The Three Graces, a striking acrylic painting by Kent Monkman (ocekwi sipiy [Fisher River Cree Nation]). Monkman’s The Three Graces is his portrayal of minor Greek goddesses who represent beauty, joy and health. Later this month, the museum plans to approve use of the Reed fund to purchase a blown-glass artwork by Dale Chihuly, one of America’s best-known living artists.
Beyond the Monkman painting and Chihuly sculpture, the museum plans to use the fund to acquire works by other artists for its main collections: Native/First Nations art and art of the American West, for which the museum presents contemporary expressions of both. Future Reed-supported acquisitions will be incorporated in the 2029 planned redesign and reinstallation of the Western art galleries. The museum also will acquire one of the two portfolios of prints seen in the current exhibition, Consejo Grafico Nacional: Latino Printmakers in the United States, which is on view through spring 2027.
