Mellon welcomes inquiries from organizations whose work aligns with our current strategies.

With AR, you can just build your own monuments and place them wherever you want.

Kinfolk Executive Director idris Brewster (left); Chief Strategy Officer Micah Milner, right. 

Two people in a sunlit room. One person with a beard is perched on a stool; the other is standing next to the seated person. On the wall are framed works of art showing different figures.

New Technology Opens Doors to Meet People and Places of Our Past

Kootéeyaa Deiyí Totem Pole Project 

Two totem poles dot the shoreline and point visitors to Kootéeyaa Deiyí, the Totem Pole Trail, in Juneau, Alaska.

Gif of an intricately painted totem pole in red and green set in front of a harbor with four cruise ships anchored in it

Explore Kootéeyaa Deiyí, the growing totem trail on Alaska’s waterfront

The Ireichō, a sacred book that records the names of over 125,000 persons of Japanese ancestry who were unjustly imprisoned during World War II. On the wall behind the book are sotoba (wooden markers) with the names of and soil from each incarceration site. The installation is at the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles, California. Photo: Carlos Jaramillo for the Mellon Foundation

A book sits open on a table in front of a navy blue wall with Japanese writing written on wooden planks

Launched in 2020, the Monuments Project supports projects that promote a fuller telling of the American story in public commemorative spaces.

The Monuments Project

The philanthropy will add to its ongoing initiative to tell diverse stories with new monuments in public spaces over the next five years.

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Mellon Foundation Doubles Funding for U.S. Monuments, Pledging a Total $500 Million

With support from Mellon, PRX announces “Monumental,” a podcast documentary series exploring how monuments reflect the story and realities of America

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New Podcast Documentary Series Explores How Monuments Reflect the Story and Realities of America

The Mellon Foundation and the American Council of Learned Societies have both moved toward grants that serve historically marginalized communities that are beyond the university.

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The humanities is not at a crossroads, but is flourishing beyond traditional classrooms

The New York–based organization’s Humanities in Place program aims to support designers who are preserving and building more just communities.

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Meet the New Mellon Foundation Initiative That Is Keeping and Shaping Our Places

Across the country, students and teachers are heading back to school, but not everyone in American lecture halls or library stacks this fall will be allowed to learn and read freely.

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Shuttering Access to History Will Impoverish Us All

Six years after two stained-glass windows that honored Confederate Generals were taken down, the Washington National Cathedral has unveiled the pair of windows that are taking their place.

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National Cathedral Unveils Racial Justice-Themed Windows, Replacing Confederate Ones

Mellon makes grants to support communities through the power of the arts and humanities.

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“Of Thee We Sing” (2023) by vanessa german, a temporary art installation on the National Mall in Washington, DC. Photo: Ike Edeani for Mellon Foundation

A temporary art installation depicts a historical figure, Marian Anderson, on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. 

Funding expansion provides unprecedented investment for memorializing a more accurate American story in our public spaces

Mellon Commits a Half Billion Dollars to Monuments Project

The sculpture “Of Thee We Sing” by vanessa german, a temporary art installation on the National Mall in Washington, D.C

Artists as Catalysts

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Beyond Incarceration

A side profile of a Black poet who is wearing glasses and a hat with a feather hat pin.

Civic Engagement

Civic engagement navigation image - A large crowd of people who are far away and anonymous

Evolving Higher Education

A vertical image of an Indigenous person who is sitting on a chair in front of a backdrop.

Expanding Public Knowledge

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Monuments and Memory

A large statue of a confederate general is covered in markings and graffiti. 

Multivocality

Five people stand together in a group photo. They are laughing and smiling.

Power of the Word

Five colorful neon signs hang on the wall with messages that include, "Freedom cannot wait," "Brown owned," and "America is for Dreamers."

Public Places‚ Public Stories

A group of Indigenous Maskoke people stand and sit in the wooden frame of a structure in a woods

Puerto Rico and Its Diaspora

In a vertical image, a black leather vest is adorned with colorful pins across the front of it. Embroidery on the vest reads: "Felícitas "La Prieta" Méndez" 