The Fort Wayne Museum of Art has received a $2.5 million grant from Lilly Endowment Inc. to support several projects that will increase the museum’s capacity for expanded service and organizational excellence.
Fort Wayne Museum of Art news release:
Fort Wayne Museum of Art receives major grant from Lilly Endowment
Grant will be used for numerous capacity-building projectsFort Wayne, Indiana (July 9, 2026) – The Fort Wayne Museum of Art has received a $2.5 million grant from Lilly Endowment Inc. to support several projects that will increase the museum’s capacity for expanded service and organizational excellence.
The grant is one of 12 invitational grants that Lilly Endowment is making to help Indiana art museums strengthen and enhance their ability to contribute to cultural vibrancy in their communities and regions.
The grant will be used to support projects in facility planning and improvements, improving collection storage, professional development and training, museum best practices research, increasing the museum’s online presence and digital collection resources, developing new approaches to inclusivity, and making key equipment purchases to create operating efficiencies.
“This substantial award from Lilly Endowment will enable the Fort Wayne Museum of Art to address a considerable number of issues that will have an exponential impact on our museum’s ability to serve our many audiences and respond to the progress and growth of our city over the last decade. Our goal is that through this support, we will increase our capacities to bring a higher quality of life to an ever-widening audience and a growing region. We are incredibly grateful to Lilly Endowment for their role in helping us do this,” said Charles Shepard, the museum’s president & CEO.
About the Fort Wayne Museum of Art
Beginning with art classes in 1888 given by J. Ottis Adams and later William Forsyth, the Fort Wayne Museum of Art (FWMoA) is now a leading non-profit art museum in Indiana. Regularly exhibiting nationally acclaimed artists, the FWMoA also stewards a collection of 10,000 objects of American and international art from the 18th century to today, including the state’s largest collection of glass sculpture. Through numerous educational programs that reach nearly 100,000 children and adults annually, FWMoA is committed to the collection, preservation, presentation, and interpretation of American and related art to engage broad and diverse audiences throughout the region to add value to their lives. FWMoA is accredited by the American Alliance of Museums, the country’s only organization representing the entire museum field, from art and history museums to science centers and zoos. For more information, visit www.fwmoa.org.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. While the Endowment funds programs throughout the United States on an invitational basis to support these causes, especially in the field of religion, it maintains a special commitment to its founders’ hometown, Indianapolis, and home state, Indiana.
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