The University of Chicago has been awarded a $2.45 million grant from Lilly Endowment Inc. as part of its Religion and Cultural Institutions Initiative. This funding will support a four-year project titled "Afterlives: Engaging Objects of Religious Origin in Museum Collections," which is a collaboration between the Smart Museum of Art and the Divinity School’s Martin Marty Center for the Public Understanding of Religion.
The project's initial phase will focus on provenance research, which involves tracing an object's history from its origin to the present day, specifically for objects of religious origin within the Smart Museum's permanent collection. Recently, the museum repatriated an 18th-century sacred painting that had been stolen from Buddhist monks in South Korea.
“This transformative grant enables the Smart Museum to deepen its commitment to ethical stewardship, rigorous research and transparency,” stated Vanja Malloy, Dana Feitler Director of the Smart Museum. “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.”
The collaboration with the Marty Center aims to engage scholars and the public in discussions about how religion relates to pressing social issues.
“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?” said Emily D. Crews, executive director of the Marty Center. “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.”
The project will also expand staffing at both institutions by adding graduate student, postdoctoral, and professional positions. It includes plans for a symposium in spring 2026, a multi-year Religion and Arts Consortium, and a major exhibition slated for fall 2027.
The University of Chicago is among 33 organizations across the United States receiving grants through this initiative by Lilly Endowment Inc., aimed at enhancing museums' capacity to provide fair portrayals of religion's role historically and currently in society.
“The United States is widely considered to be one of the most religiously diverse nations today,” commented 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.”