News Release: Eiteljorg makes major art purchases with $3.7M Ellen Reed Acquisition Fund

Impressive works by Dale Chihuly, Kent Monkman and others to join museum collections

Dale Chihuly (American, b. 1941)
Fire Orange Basket Set, 2013
Blown glass
27 x 21 x 21 inches
Museum Purchase
Copyright © 2013 Chihuly Studio. All rights reserved.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
June 9, 2026, updated July 22, 2026

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 acquiring 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. Reed, who retired from a career as a private secretary at Eli Lilly & Co., died in 2024 at age 93. She included the Eiteljorg in her estate plan, which directed the museum to establish an endowed acquisition fund for purchasing significant artworks, specifically to include a Chihuly piece.

“Through her extraordinary generosity, Ellen Reed has created a lasting legacy that will shape the Eiteljorg Museum for generations to come,” Eiteljorg President and CEO Kathryn Haigh said. “Her visionary gift will strengthen our ability to thoughtfully acquire exceptional works of art that advance the museum’s mission and deepen the stories we share with our audiences. Ellen’s foresight and commitment to the future of the museum ensure that visitors for years to come will benefit from a richer, more dynamic collection.”

While $1.7 million of the Reed estate gift is used to purchase art in the near term, another $2 million goes into an endowed fund. As the fund grows, investment earnings will roll off to support future art purchases, while the fund’s principal remains intact.

Fire Orange Basket Set
A work by Dale Chihuly, an American artist best known for his glass sculptures and large-scale architectural installations, is coming to the Eiteljorg. Through the Ellen Reed Acquisition Fund, the museum recently purchased a Chihuly blown-glass piece, Fire Orange Basket Set. Prior to a 2016 exhibition in Toronto, Chihuly revisited his Basket forms by creating his largest vessels to date. The size of the vessels forced Chihuly and his team to work more quickly to prevent the glass forms from collapsing, and by pushing the boundaries of the material, they were able to increase the transparency and dynamics of color. The results of the groundbreaking technique are best appreciated in person and can be seen when the work goes on view at the Eiteljorg this fall.

Based in Seattle, Chihuly has had long involvement with Native artists in the Southwest and Pacific Northwest. Having established the first glassblowing studio at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, N.M., Chihuly also co-founded the Pilchuck Glass School near Seattle, where prominent sculptor Preston Singletary (Tlingit) studied, among other noted artists. In this region, Chihuly’s most prominent artwork is the 43-foot-tall glass chandelier Fireworks of Glass at The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis. Ellen Reed admired Chihuly’s work, and her gift stipulated that the Eiteljorg acquire one of his pieces.

Dale Chihuly
Image courtesy of Erik Charlton, 2009
Wikimedia Commons

The Three Graces
The museum’s first major purchase from the Ellen Reed Acquisition Fund was The Three Graces, a striking acrylic painting by Kent Monkman (ocekwi sipiy [Fisher River Cree Nation]). An acclaimed contemporary multimedia artist from Canada, Monkman creates powerful works that reinterpret Eurocentric art history to include First Nations perspectives and impart his identity as a Two-Spirit person. Monkman’s The Three Graces is his portrayal of minor Greek goddesses who represent beauty, joy and health. In Monkman’s bold depiction, his Three Graces are contemporary Indigenous/Native women, representing women who may be mothers, aunties or friends. The 2017 Monkman painting now is on view in the Innovation section of the Eiteljorg’s Native American Galleries exhibition, Expressions of Life: Native Art in North America. Alongside it for visitor awareness is a photograph of the famous Italian Renaissance work The Three Graces by Raphael.

Kent Monkman (ocekwi sipiy [Fisher River Cree Nation])
Photo © Kent Monkman Studio, 2022

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.

A donor’s generosity
As is the case in many art museums, the Eiteljorg’s permanent collections typically include works that private collectors acquired on their own and later donated to the nonprofit institution, rather than works the museum purchased outright. Up to this point, the Eiteljorg has directly purchased new pieces only a few times a year, mainly through the annual Harrison Eiteljorg Purchase Awards of the Indian Market & Festival and the Quest for the West® Art Show and Sale; and through the biennial Eiteljorg Contemporary Art Fellowship. For the museum to purchase artwork aligned with its mission requires sufficient funding and serendipitous timing, since multiple prospective buyers could be interested in the same piece. Thanks to the Ellen Reed Acquisition Fund, the Eiteljorg will have greater flexibility to strategically acquire noteworthy works consistent with its needs as they become available for purchase.

Ellen Reed’s $3.74 million estate gift is exceptionally impactful; it also is one of the top five largest donations by individual donors to nonprofits in Indiana during 2025, according to the Indianapolis Business Journal on Jan. 16, 2026.

”With the Reed Fund, the Eiteljorg can more intentionally expand representation, amplify underrepresented voices and deepen the stories it shares. It allows the museum not only to preserve art history, but to present a more forward-looking and evolving vision of the American West and North American Indigenous cultures,” said Laura F. Fry, Eiteljorg vice president for Curatorial and Collections. “Ellen Reed’s gift is inspiring and sets a profound example to all donors for arranging planned giving to the museum to support the arts that you care about, into the future.”

For donors interested in planned giving to the Eiteljorg Museum, visit Eiteljorg.org/give-and-join/donate or contact Alli Badgero, vice president for advancement, at abadgero@eiteljorg.com.

About the Eiteljorg
For nearly 37 years, the Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art has been an integral part of the cultural fabric of Indianapolis and scenic White River State Park. The Eiteljorg Museum explores the intersection of the arts, histories and cultures of the past and present by sharing the diverse stories of the American West and the Indigenous Peoples of North America. Located on the Central Canal at 500 West Washington St., the Eiteljorg is a 501c3 nonprofit organization. The Eiteljorg Museum recently was named one of the 10 best art museums in the nation in the USA Today Readers’ Choice Awards.