Mellon partners with nonprofit organizations whose work aligns with our current strategies.

Theaster Gates, shown here, wants local Memphian hero Tom Lee to be remembered as “a human who saw other human lives as equally valuable, if not more valuable, than his own.”

A Black man identified as the artist Theaster Gates wearing a white shirt and dark pants sits on a stool covered with a tarp

An “Anti-Monument” Explores History by Asking for Dialogue

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The organization’s multi-discipline approach to civic planning merges the fields of architecture, urbanism, political theory, as well as visual arts and the humanities.

The structures featured in all four of the program’s community stations are co-designed with learning provided by the occupants and students that utilize the spaces.

Partnerships with non-profits well-invested in the stations’ unique habitats provide connections to building materials beneficial to the environment and the local economy.

The university’s proximity to challenges faced along this border allows its students to be on the forefront of climate resilience issues that increase as temperatures rise.

Each station features structures and programming specific to the community it serves; all are described as sanctuary spaces for the protection of both people and nature.

The project’s programming focuses on young people as the cross-border citizens of the future.

A low rectangular building with a window sits in front of a deep blue painted wall with a door and security camera on it

Building Borderland Resources with Each Other in Mind

Built by Arthur George Gaston, the A.G. Gaston Motel welcomed travelers and also became a site of change and advancements of civil rights for all Americans. Courtesy of The Historical Preservation Authority of the City of Birmingham

A vintage gas motel sign featuring a bright neon display that reads "A.G. Gas Motel" against a night sky backdrop.

Reviving a Historic Site in Alabama’s Fight for Racial Justice

Team members from the Asian Arts Initiative, a multidisciplinary arts center located in Philadelphia’s Chinatown North. Photo: Alexander Saladrigas for Mellon Foundation

Five people stand together for a photograph. They are laughing and smiling. 

Multivocality

It’s intoxicating curating a conversation, leaving space for people to bring whatever they want to the discussion while being factual and rigorous and ethical in our framing of the conversations.

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Hearing Myself in Your Voice 

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In 2025, Mellon launched a $35 million initiative aimed at supporting the cultural preservation of jazz, championing the legacies of the artists who have played a pivotal role in its formation.

Jazz Giants

If we start to learn from diverse Indigenous communities … that have deep connections to our land, there is a future for our humanity.

NATIFS is an organization that asks: What would it look like to decolonize our diets? 

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Where Is All the Native Food?

The Video Lab at the Library of Congress National Audio-Visual Center processes moving images recorded on aging VR2000 Quad and Sony ½” EIAJ VTRs. Photo: Stefan Ruiz for Mellon Foundation

An interior room filled with audio and video equipment 

Expanding Public Knowledge

Photos and artifacts from the Shorefront archive. Photo: Dino Robinson 

Photos and artifacts from the Shorefront archive

The Mellon Foundation invites community-based archives in the United States and its territories to submit applications for general operating support.

Call for Proposals to Community-Based Archives

The museum was awarded a $750,000 grant from the Mellon Foundation, bolstering its mission to serve as a leading international connector within the African American and Black Diaspora.

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International African American Museum receives $750K grant from Mellon Foundation

Mellon announced a multifaceted $35 million initiative aimed at supporting the cultural preservation of jazz, and championing the legacy of the artists who have played a pivotal role in its evolution.

Mellon Launches $35 Million Jazz Initiative Aimed at Championing Celebrated Jazz Luminaries

Borderlands Theater has received a transformative three-year, $600,000 general operating support grant from the Mellon Foundation. This funding will strengthen the theater's sustainability.

Borderlands Theater Awarded $600,000 General Operating Support Grant By Mellon Foundation

They hope to reverse decades of plummeting enrollment in subjects that teach skills employers say they need from graduates but aren’t getting.

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Colleges rebrand humanities majors as job-friendly 

The WeGoja and Mellon Foundation grant-funded resource is described as a "one-stop shop of interactive resources and information for property owners, practitioners, and preservationists.

Preserving African American Heritage: Toolkit to be unveiled in Columbia

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

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American Jazz,  American Culture

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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.

Borderlands Cultures

In portrait orientation, an aerial view of a major highway running parallel to a large border wall set on a hilly landscape

Civic Engagement

A man in a brown jacket stands in front of blue bulletin board that is covered with papers and advertisements  

Evolving Higher Education

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

Monuments and Memory

A multicolored painted totem pole set in front of a foggy forest landscape

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" 

American Jazz, American Culture

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

Our community in focus

An “Anti-Monument” Explores History by Asking for Dialogue