Samip Mallick, executive director of SAADA with colleagues.

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Sharing Personal Stories from South Asian Communities 

Intersectionality is a core tenet and inherent part of what it means to be part of the Asian diaspora.

Anne Ishii is the executive director of Asian Arts Initiative, a multidisciplinary arts center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 

A person with short hair is sitting at a circular table. They are surrounded by assorted objects, books, and plants

A Brave Space for Brave Art

Headshot of Julián Zugazagoitia

One of the things about this very intentional work … is that notion of only one right answer—especially in the arts—is non-existent.

Theaster Gates on ‘Recapturing’ the Past

Preview: Museums of the Future

For Freedoms is a call to action for people who are creatively inclined to become civically engaged.

The Making of Four Freedoms 

“Freedom of Worship” by Hank Willis Thomas and Emily Shur in collaboration with Eric Gottesman and Wyatt Gallery of For Freedoms. From Four Freedoms, 2018. Archival pigment print.

An artwork depicts the side of faces of people of different ethnic backgrounds, many wearing a range of scarves, turbans, and other culturally significant headpieces. 

You Are Now Entering a Democracy Reimagined

Andrea Barnwell Brownlee on how museums of the future can be “boundless”

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Collected research reports and case studies from the Art Museum Staff Demographic Study on ethnicity, gender, and other indicators of diversity of the staffs of art museums across the United States.

Aiding the Evolution of Art Museums to Reflect the Diversity of Our Country

The federal government…took deliberate and strategic actions through federal Indian boarding school policies to isolate children from their families.

Some people have said, ‘I never cried. I talked about it before, but I never cried.’ Tears are healing.

In a historical photo, young Native American children learn to sing a song at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School. Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Photo: F. Johnston, courtesy of the Cumberland County Historical Society, Carlisle, Pennsylvania 

A group of young Native American school children dressed in uniforms in a classroom

Reckoning with the Devastating Legacy of Federal Indian Boarding School Policies

Reimagining Racial Justice

Yashua Klos, Diagram of How She Hold It All Together, 2021. Paper construction of woodblock prints and graphite on archival Japanese rice paper. Courtesy Yashua Klos.

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The World-Building Potential of Black Studies

Chinatowns in cities in America, such as New York, San Francisco, and Washington, DC, are sites impacted by modernity and change. Preserving the character and histories of these places is important to educating people about the histories and experiences of Chinese Americans. Photo: Getty Images

An image of a street scene at Pell Street in Chinatown.

Making Chinese American Histories Part of Everyday Life

Race and Revelation in Our American Stories

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How are race and identity driving conversations among Americans of all backgrounds in 2024, and what stories do they reveal about who we are as a vastly diverse country? 

How can we give voice to the experiences of Chinese immigrants and their descendants?

Event Chinese American Stories

Originally livestreamed on May 19, 2022. This event included Mellon Foundation President Elizabeth Alexander, Dr. Erika Lee, Dr. Mae Ngai, and Helen Zia.


Chinese American History, Asian American Experiences

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

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

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.

Expanding Public Knowledge

An interior room filled with audio and video equipment 

Monuments and Memory

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

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" 