The Monuments Project

Today, our public realm disproportionately celebrates a limited few and overlooks the multitudes who have made and shaped our society, limiting our understanding of our collective history. This failure to represent our multiplicity impacts how we perceive, distribute, and demonstrate power in the US.

The Monuments Project is an unprecedented multi-year commitment by the Mellon Foundation that is aimed at transforming the nation’s commemorative landscape to ensure our country’s collective history is more completely and accurately represented. Launched in 2020 as a $250 million initiative—and doubled in 2023 to $500 million—the Monuments Project supports efforts to express, elevate, and preserve the stories of those who have been overlooked, and explores how we might foster a more complete telling of who we are as a nation. The Foundation’s commitment to the Monuments Project reflects both the urgency and the gravity of fostering more complete and inclusive storytelling of who we are as Americans.

Grants made under the Monuments Project fund publicly oriented initiatives that are accessible to everyone and promote stories that are not already represented in commemorative spaces. While funds may support new monuments, memorials, and historic storytelling places, the projects we support take many forms. Some are permanent installations, but many are realized as ephemeral or temporary installations, programming and performances, or other nontraditional expressions of commemoration that expand our understanding of what a monument can be. Mellon also supports efforts to contextualize or recontextualize existing commemorative sites, uplift knowledge-bearers who can tell stories that have not yet been told, and support research and media to inform public understanding of how commemorative landscapes communicate, shape, and teach our history. Through the Monuments Project, the Foundation funds a wide range of entities, including governments (federal, tribal, state, and local); community-based and grassroots organizations; arts and cultural organizations; and institutions of higher learning.

Beyond Granite, a set of six dynamic art installations on the National Mall curated by Monument Lab and executed in partnership with the National Capital Planning Commission, Trust for the National Mall, and the National Park Service that explored expressions of a more inclusive, equitable, and representative commemorative landscape in the nation’s public square.

Support for a national network of organizations—including the Emmett Till Interpretive Center (ETIC) in Mississippi and the Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley Institute in Illinois—that are working to interpret and commemorate Emmett Till’s life and legacy. 

An expansion of one of the country’s largest monuments to interracial harmony through civic engagement and muralist training, created by artist Judy Baca and SPARC (Social and Public Art Resource Center).

A multifaceted monument memorializing the more than 125,000 individuals of Japanese ancestry who were unjustly imprisoned in US Army, Department of Justice, and War Relocation Authority (WRA) camps during World War II. 

The development of a groundbreaking app and educational resource, Kinfolk, that features augmented-reality monuments to underrepresented historical figures.

Commissioning of Native artists in several southeast Alaska communities to create ten totem poles honoring Alaska Native presence and persistence along the two-mile public waterfront of downtown Juneau, Alaska. 

A national regranting program created by Philadelphia’s Monument Lab that provides funding to teams working on public art, public history, and public humanities projects in communities across the country.

A three-year collaboration between the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and Snap Inc. to develop augmented-reality monuments and related public programming led by local artists and technologists that celebrate the region’s diversity. 

Nine grants totaling $25 million to local governments to advance publicly oriented initiatives aimed at transforming commemorative spaces and landscapes in Asheville, North Carolina; Boston, Massachusetts; Chicago, Illinois; Columbus, Ohio; Denver, Colorado; Los Angeles, California; Portland, Oregon; Providence, Rhode Island; and San Francisco, California.

The installation of The Now and Forever Windows, transformative racial justice-themed stained-glass windows created by artist Kerry James Marshall, replacing windows depicting Confederate leaders Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson at Washington National Cathedral.  

The Monuments Project is at the forefront of a significant collective effort to make sure that our public spaces convey the truth about our history and shift who has the power to shape our present and our future. Over time, and with participation across communities across the US, our commemorative landscape will more accurately tell our collective histories—and help build shared understanding. 

The Monuments Project is a multi-year initiative, not a one-time open call. Although the Foundation occasionally releases targeted requests for ideas to further the reach of the initiative, most proposals are accepted by invitation only.