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Grant from Lilly Endowment Inc. to support provenance research and major symposium at the Smart Museum of Art in partnership with the Marty Center
June 13, 2025
The four-year initiative will support “Afterlives: Engaging Objects of Religious Origin in Museum Collections” in partnership with the University of Chicago Divinity School
CHICAGO, IL —The University of Chicago has received a $2.45 million grant from Lilly Endowment Inc. through its Religion and Cultural Institutions Initiative. The grant will support the four-year project, Afterlives: Engaging Objects of Religious Origin in Museum Collections, a collaboration between the Smart Museum of Art and the University of Chicago Divinity School’s Martin Marty Center for the Public Understanding of Religion.
Provenance research – an investigative method that follows an object’s ownership history and physical journey from its moment of origin to the present day – has evolved drastically over the last two decades, with increasing attention paid to issues such as cultural heritage, restitution, and migration. Concurrently, the designation of an item’s “religious value” has also gained new and tremendous significance to the priorities and outcomes of provenance research. By addressing the fascinating and understudied convergence of provenance research and religion, Afterlives broadens the museum’s capacities and communities to conduct provenance research taking as its starting point, objects of religious origin within the Smart’s permanent collection. With the goal of shaping the future of research in provenance, religious studies, and art histories, Afterlives will illuminate the practices, complexities, and relevancies of cultural heritage work in our communities and museums today.
“This transformative grant enables the Smart Museum to deepen its commitment to ethical stewardship, rigorous research, and transparency,” said Vanja Malloy, Ph.D., Dana Feitler Director, Smart Museum of Art. “Provenance research helps us restore historical context, honor the religious and secular communities connected to our collections, and contribute meaningfully to a growing field of scholarship. As an academic museum within a leading research university, we are uniquely positioned to lead this kind of interdisciplinary inquiry—bridging art history, ethics, and cultural studies. With this support, we can better fulfill our responsibility to the communities tied to these works and help shape a more informed and inclusive cultural narrative.”
The Smart is pleased to partner with the Martin Marty Center for this essential investment in sustaining research at the intersection of religion and the arts. The Marty Center brings together scholars and members of the wider public to engage in conversation about how religion connects to issues of urgent social concern.
“Religion and art are both intimately entangled with what it means to be human. They invite us to reflect on some of life’s most fundamental questions: Why are we here? What kind of person should I be? What exists beyond myself? How do we cope with the finitude of life? Research on objects of religious significance housed in the Smart’s collection will offer rare insight into how diverse traditions, from medieval Chinese Buddhism to 20th-century American Judaism, have wrestled with such questions and the role that creating and engaging with art and material culture has played in that process,” said Emily D. Crews, Ph.D., Executive Director of the Marty Center.
In addition to adding graduate student, postdoctoral, and professional staff positions to the Martin Marty Center and the Smart, Afterlives will result in a symposium composed of local, national, and international participants (slated for April 29 - May 01, 2026) and a multi-year Religion and Arts Consortium. These positions and convenings will ultimately inform an interdisciplinary publication and major exhibition in the fall of 2027 that studies objects of religious origin in the Smart’s permanent collection.
The University of Chicago is one of 33 organizations from across the United States receiving grants through the latest round of the Lilly Endowment Inc. 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.
“The United States is widely considered to be one of the most religiously diverse nations today,” said Christopher L. Coble, Lilly Endowment’s vice president for religion. “Many individuals and families trust museums and other cultural institutions and visit them to learn about their communities and the world. We are excited to support these organizations as they embark on projects to help visitors understand and appreciate the diverse religious beliefs, practices and perspectives of their neighbors and others in communities around the globe.”
About the Smart Museum of Art
The Smart Museum of Art at the University of Chicago is a site for rigorous inquiry and exchange that encourages the examination of complex issues through the lens of art objects and artistic practice. Through strong community and scholarly partnerships, the Museum incorporates diverse ideas, identities, and experiences into its exhibitions and collections, academic initiatives, and public programming. Admission is always free.
https://smartmuseum.uchicago.edu/
Smart Museum of Art
The University of Chicago
5550 S. Greenwood Avenue
Chicago, Illinois 60637
About the University of Chicago Divinity School
The Divinity School is dedicated to the critical study of religion as a category and the religions of the world, their history, beliefs, and practices. Recognized as one of the world’s leading institutions in the academic study of religion, the Divinity School brings together multiple perspectives on and varied theoretical approaches to religion. It advances the study of religion with the conviction that doing so not only enriches various publics but is of critical importance to our understanding of human societies both past and present.
https://divinity.uchicago.edu/
About Lilly Endowment Inc
Lilly Endowment Inc. is an Indianapolis-based private foundation created in 1937 by J.K. Lilly, Sr. and his sons Eli and J.K. Jr. through gifts of stock in their pharmaceutical business, Eli Lilly and Company. Although the gifts of stock remain a financial bedrock of the Endowment, it is a separate entity from the company, with a distinct governing board, staff and location. In keeping with the founders’ wishes, the Endowment supports the causes of community development, education, and religion. Although the Endowment maintains a special commitment to its founders’ hometown, Indianapolis, and home state, Indiana, it also funds programs throughout the United States, especially in the field of religion. While the primary aim of its religion grantmaking focuses on strengthening the leadership and vitality of Christian congregations in the United States, the Endowment also seeks to foster public understanding about religion and lift up in fair, accurate and balanced ways the contributions that people of all faiths and diverse religious communities make to our greater civic well-being.
Press contact: Florie Hutchinson | florie.hutchinson@gmail.com | (415) 515-4696
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