INDIANAPOLIS — The Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art is in the home stretch of a $55 million capital and endowment campaign that is funding major changes to the museum’s galleries and programming spaces while also tripling the museum’s operating endowment. The capstone phase is the reconstruction and reinstallation of the Eiteljorg’s Native American Galleries, which will have an entirely different look when they reopen in June 2022 with a highlight on the Native peoples of the Great Lakes.
Now entering the public phase of its fundraising campaign, called Project 2021: Telling Your Stories, the Eiteljorg seeks to raise more than $6 million by May 2022.
Among the goals of Project 2021 have been to reconstruct and reinstall the museum’s two major galleries and expand and renovate the most popular parts of the museum to provide visitors more culturally enriching experiences.
While reconstruction continues on the Native American Galleries, some of the Eiteljorg’s other Project 2021 benchmarks already have been reached: Its Western Art Galleries were reconstructed and reinstalled in 2018. The museum’s Nina Mason Pulliam Education Center is under renovation now and will reopen to visitors in November. Still ahead is a planned 2022 expansion of the museum’s Allen Whitehill Clowes Sculpture Court event space to double its capacity, allowing the Eiteljorg to host larger educational and cultural programs and larger rental and catered events.
As part of Project 2021 the Eiteljorg is completely reconstructing the galleries, and will reinstall Native artworks in a fresh space. Native artworks will be organized around the themes of Relation, Continuation and Innovation, which are common elements shared by Native peoples. With an expanded focus on Native peoples of the Great Lakes, the galleries will incorporate artworks from a large collection the museum acquired in 2019 through a $2.83 million grant from Lilly Endowment Inc. Having recently closed to visitors, the Native galleries are now under construction and scheduled to reopen in June 2022.
The Nina Mason Pulliam Education Center in the museum’s canal level is under renovation now. This renovation will enhance the children’s discovery area, the R.B. Annis Western Family Experience, by adding new educational interactive scenes focusing on five diverse families of the West who are Native American, Latino, African American, Asian American and European American. Two favorite features, the Totem Pole and Concord Stagecoach, remain highlights in the renovated children’s area.
After being closed for several months, the Nina Mason Pulliam Education Center is scheduled to reopen to families by Nov. 20, to coincide with the start of Jingle Rails, the museum’s annual holiday model train display.
