Artists as Catalysts

Artists as Catalysts Navigation Image

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

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" 

University Everywhere

Students walk through the campus of the University of Hawaii

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Mission

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History

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Grantmaking Areas

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People

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Financials

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News

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Events

Alexander is the president of the Mellon Foundation, which recently launched a $35 million initiative and fellowship supporting the cultural preservation of jazz.

Media Time

Elizabeth Alexander: Jazz Is Profoundly American

The nonprofit Center for Art and Advocacy, designed as a steppingstone to the art world, opens a public exhibition and education space in Bedford-Stuyvesant.

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A Showcase for Formerly Incarcerated Artists Grows in Brooklyn

Prospect Park Alliance, the non-profit organization dedicated to preserving Prospect Park, has been awarded a $1.5 million Humanities in Place grant from the Mellon Foundation.

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Prospect Park Alliance Receives $1.5M Mellon Foundation Grant for ReImagine Lefferts Initiative

M Haymarket 2025

Haymarket Books and the Mellon Foundation announced a second cohort of the ‘Writing Freedom Fellowship’ – a program created to elevate the voices of writers impacted by the carceral system.

Haymarket Books and Mellon Foundation Announce Second Cohort of ‘Writing Freedom’ Fellows 

The Institute of Black Imagination, in the Oculus at the World Trade Center PATH station, is an experiment in cultural alchemy. It turns a retail store called Space 001 into a place of transformation.

Getting in Touch With the Black Imagination at the Oculus

The latest news about our grantmaking, collaborations, and grantees.

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