Mellon Voices
Defining Public Knowledge with Program Officer Patricia Hswe
Public Knowledge
Knowledge should be accessible to all.
Mellon’s Public Knowledge program supports the creation and preservation of the cultural and scholarly record—vast and ever-expanding—that documents society’s complex, intertwined humanity. The program works with archives, presses, and libraries across the US whose work is foundational to knowledge production and distribution in culture and the humanities. Our aim is to increase access to knowledge that helps to build an informed and engaged society. We also aspire to cultivate networks and sustainable knowledge infrastructure and to ensure that an expansive and inclusive landscape of stories are shared, preserved, and told.
How to apply
In our Public Knowledge program, grants are made to organizations that advance the Foundation’s charitable mission and strategic goals.
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
Patricia Hswe
Program Director, Public Knowledge
Program Director, Public Knowledge
“For me, public knowledge means ensuring that knowledge access and production are treated as public and social goods ... for purposes that matter to people.”
We support the work of knowledge bearers who are creating an informed and engaged society.
About our grantmaking process