Through its program, the Foundation assists colleges, universities, and other institutions in training scholars; improving the educational attainment of historically underrepresented groups; diversifying the next generation of college and university faculty; and producing scholarship in the humanities that contributes to culture and society.
Harry Belafonte singing at a recording session. Photo by Yale Joel/The LIFE Picture Collection via Getty Images.
At Schomburg, Harry Belafonte Archive Illuminates Life of Artist-Activist
Mission of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
The Foundation seeks to strengthen, promote, and defend the centrality of the humanities and the arts to human flourishing and to the well-being of diverse, fair, and democratic societies.
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Our Core Programs
We support humanistic scholarship, liberal arts and doctoral education, and the performing and visual arts. The Foundation makes grants in four core program areas:
Higher Education and Scholarship in the Humanities
Arts and Cultural Heritage
The Arts and Cultural Heritage program seeks to nurture exceptional creative accomplishment, scholarship, and conservation practices in the arts, while promoting a diverse and sustainable ecosystem for these disciplines.
Scholarly Communications
The Scholarly Communications program assists research libraries, archives, museums, universities, presses, and arts organizations that seek to further our collective understanding of societies and cultures around the world.
International Higher Education and Strategic Projects
The Foundation seeks to strengthen the systems of higher education and cultural institutions essential to building and sustaining viable polities and societies in emerging as well as more established regions of the globe.