Eskenazi Museum Receives $4M Collection

Photo courtesy of Indiana University

The Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art at Indiana University has announced a gift from the late Indiana philanthropist Jane Fortune. Fortune donated her collection, which includes works by female artists, photographs and contemporary art, with an estimated value of approximately $4 million. 

Fortune’s donation includes a collection of 61 works of fine art as well as funds to establish the Dr. Jane Fortune Endowment for Women Artists and the Dr. Jane Fortune Fund for Virtual Advancement of Women Artists.

The Eskenazi Museum of Art will also honor Fortune’s generosity by naming its first-floor gallery of American and European Art from Medieval to 1900 the "Jane Fortune Gallery."

Fortune, who passed away in 2018, served on the boards of directors for the Dean’s Advisory Board for the Herron School of Art and Design at IUPUI, the Indianapolis Museum of Art, the National Museum of Women in the Arts and the National Advisory Board of the Eskenazi Museum of Art. 

"Jane’s passion and dedication to the arts, especially the under-recognized achievements of women artists, will live on at Indiana University through the seeds that she has planted with her generous gifts," said David Brenneman, the Wilma E. Kelley director of the Eskenazi Museum of Art, in a news release. "The Eskenazi Museum of Art is extremely proud to be handed Jane’s torch and to continue Jane’s mission into the future."