Presidential Initiatives
The Monuments Project
Presidential Initiatives
The arts and humanities can move us closer to justice, lifting up historically underserved and overlooked communities.
The Foundation’s Presidential Initiatives support a wide range of creativity, culture, and knowledge production and dissemination in defined topical areas. Our three current initiatives are grounded in the arts and humanities and address some of the most pressing issues of the day. Across our grantmaking, we partner with organizations, governments, and community-based groups to advance projects that elevate multivocal perspectives, facilitate creative expression, and nurture human potential.
Signature initiatives
Imagining Freedom
A $125 million commitment to support artistic, cultural, and humanistic work that centers the voices and knowledge of people impacted by the US criminal legal system.
Learn more about Imagining Freedom
Puerto Rico
An ongoing commitment to strengthen Puerto Rico’s vibrant artistic, cultural knowledge, and memory ecosystems, and the individuals who work within them, both on the archipelago and in the diaspora, with more than $50 million in grants to date.
Learn more about our Puerto Rico grantmaking
The Monuments Project
A $500 million commitment to expand and explore fully the nation’s commemorative landscape by supporting public projects that reflect the breadth and complexity of American stories and communities.
Learn more about The Monuments Project
How to apply
Grants are made to organizations that advance the Foundation’s charitable mission and strategic goals.
At this time, all grants made through this program result from invitations issued by Mellon to institutions with which staff have engaged in preliminary exchanges. Eligible institutions and organizations are working in support of communities and individual artists. Mellon does not make grants directly to individuals, although we do support regranting programs that benefit individuals.
Grantmaking in focus
Presidential Initiatives
Imagining Freedom
Presidential Initiatives
Puerto Rico
Mellon makes grants to support visionary work in communities.
About our grantmaking process