New Acquisitions Fall 2025

• Duration:Temporary
• Location:Whitten Featured Object Case

(date) 11/4/2025–1/18/2026

This display pairs two recent donations that embody memory, resilience, and identity. In one case are family heirlooms from Jaipur, India, donated by University of Illinois alumna Apala Egan Gupta. These items connect not only to the lives of their owners but also to the histories recorded by Gupta’s grandmother, Jyotirmoyee Devi Sen, whose book Behind the Latticed Marble documented women’s perspectives and the domestic world of early 20th-century India.

In the other are works by contemporary feminist artist Linda Stein, gifted through her nonprofit Have Art: Will Travel! Stein explores themes of gender fluidity, power, and displacement to raise questions about how we decide what aspects of identity to carry forward and how we imagine resilience.

Together, these donations highlight how the Spurlock Museum’s collection grows through experiences lived, stories told, objects cherished, and art created to challenge and inspire. Whether treasured in a household or produced for public dialogue, these objects reflect the ways communities and individuals navigate belonging, vulnerability, and strength.