Arts and Humanities Across America through Ten Mellon Grants

For communities across America, the Mellon Foundation has been a resolute champion of the arts and humanities, making over $9 billion in charitable grants since our inception 1969. 

To understand the range of work at Mellon, it’s best to start where human expression takes shape. Think of libraries and higher learning institutions, where people hold and build knowledge about the world’s complexity. Think of museums and theaters, where people push the limits of human creativity. Think of public squares, where people negotiate the histories, ideas, and values that shape the future.  

Mellon funding catalyzes work in spheres like these—while also providing support for less-visited corners of America, where overlooked history is valiantly kept and underrecognized creativity is dutifully practiced.  

When taken together, it’s work that helps expand the stories we tell and broadens the sense of who we can be as a country. 

The most tangible way to understand the range of work at Mellon is to explore recent grant projects. While the topics explored span considerably—everything from music and food to endangered public media and nonprofit presses—the broader mission remains the same, ensuring that ideas and imagination and the people who hold them have space and funding to thrive.

Humanities undergraduates at a range of colleges and universities can now get paid for the internship, thanks to a $25 million and counting investment from Mellon to endow paid educational learning opportunities for students. Learn more. 

In 2025, together with the Jazz Foundation of America, we launched a fellowship for jazz musicians to provide financial support and social services to jazz elders living in US centers of jazz (Detroit, New York, New Orleans, among other locations). Learn more.  

In 2024, we made grants to over a dozen public libraries to create memory labs: centers for people across America to access equipment and services to aid in digitizing personal and family history collections, such as photos and home movies. Learn more.

In 2025, we advanced funding that addresses the impact of federal funding cuts by supporting all 56 state and jurisdictional humanities councils across the United States, uplifting activities like veterans' storytelling, rural literacy initiatives, and cultural festivals. Learn more. 

In 2025, Mellon led a coalition of charitable foundations to launch a first-of-its kind fund for writers, publishers, nonprofit presses, and literary organizations to inspire reading and participation in the celebration of the written word. Learn more. 

In 2022, we supported the preservation of historic radio and television programs that are stored on obsolete recording formats and at risk of degeneration and decay. Learn more. 

In 2024, we funded an innovative food organization that uses classes, markets, and other programs to celebrate Native food, while promoting Indigenous foodways education and facilitating food access. Learn more.  

In 2021, we supported commissioned Native artists in several southeast Alaska communities to create new totem poles honoring Alaska Native presence and persistence along the public waterfront and the region’s port of entry. Learn more. 

In 2023, we funded art installations placed along a hiking trail in Puerto Rico’s El Yunque National Forest that opened pathways for people to explore the links between art and nature. Learn more. 

In March 2022, we supported the creation of a first-of-its kind book that compiles the names of all 125,000 people of Japanese ancestry who were incarcerated by the US government during World War II. Learn more.