Grants Will Help Cultural Institutions Foster Greater Understanding of Religion

November 25, 2024
Contact: Judith Cebula
317.916.7327 | cebulaj@lei.org

Grants will help museums and other cultural institutions foster greater understanding of religion

INDIANAPOLIS – Lilly Endowment Inc. has awarded grants to 33 museums, libraries, historic sites and other organizations across the United States to develop exhibitions and education programs and engage in other related activities that provide fair, accurate and balanced portrayals of the role religion has played and continues to play in the U.S. and around the world.

The Endowment made the grants through the latest round of its Religion and Cultural Institutions Initiative, a national initiative launched in 2019 that is supporting efforts to improve the public understanding of religion and, as a result, foster greater knowledge of and respect for people of diverse religious traditions.

Totaling nearly $79 million, the grants will support a broad mix of organizations that will launch a wide range of projects on religion and religious themes. The organizations include, among others, the American Writers Museum in Chicago, Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala., the Yiddish Book Center in Amherst, Mass., and Kiewit Luminarium in Omaha, Neb.

This is the third round of grants the Endowment has made through the Religion and Cultural Institutions Initiative. Read the complete grants list here.

“The United States is widely considered to be one of the most religiously diverse nations today,” said Christopher L. Coble, the 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.”

The newly funded organizations will take a variety of approaches to religion. Some organizations will mount exhibitions and public programs that teach visitors about the beliefs and practices of particular religious traditions. Others will focus their projects on how religion has influenced social and political life in different historical periods. Several organizations will develop projects that explore religious themes found in their art collections and archives.

Examples of projects in which newly funded organizations will engage include the following:

The Tenement Museum (Lower East Side Tenement Museum) in New York will develop Religion Matters: Lived Religion in the Tenements, a project to incorporate into interpretive tours and public programs more content about how religious beliefs and practices shaped the attitudes and experiences of individuals and families who migrated to the city and lived in tenements.
Montpelier Foundation in Montpelier, Va., will develop the James Madison and Freedom of Conscience project to create exhibitions that explore Madisonian ideas of religious freedom and freedom of conscience. Collaborating with the Montpelier Descendants Committee, Montpellier will create programming on the history of religious freedom and African American religious life to accompany the exhibitions.
Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C., will support conservation, research and planning to mount an exhibition of James Hampton’s Throne of the Third Heaven of the Nations’ Millennium General Assembly, one of the most important pieces of American art stemming from a complex fusion of Christian and spiritual traditions.
Baylor University Libraries in Waco, Texas will create exhibitions and host concerts and symposia exploring the history and influence of Black gospel music in the United States to make accessible its Black Gospel Archives. It contains sacred music recordings from the 1940s to the 1970s, a period known as the Golden Age of Gospel Music.
National Parks Foundation will support the National Park Service (NPS) to enhance interpretations of Judaism in NPS cultural sites and mount a traveling exhibition that explores the contributions of Jewish religious teaching and practice to American history and culture.

Since 2019, the Endowment has made grants to 72 organizations across the country through the Religion and Cultural Institutions Initiative. Learn about these Endowment-supported projects here.

About Lilly Endowment
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. A principal aim of the Endowment’s religion grantmaking is to deepen and enrich the lives of Christians in the United States, primarily by seeking out and supporting efforts that enhance the vitality of congregations and strengthen the pastoral and lay leadership of Christian communities. The Endowment also seeks to improve public understanding of diverse religious traditions by supporting fair and accurate portrayals of the role religion plays in the United States and across the globe.