Office of the President

Photo: Sharif Hamza for Mellon Foundation

Headshot of Elizabeth Alexander

President

Elizabeth Alexander

The arts, culture, and humanities are liberatory forces that are a means to empowerment and enlightenment.

EA bio audio

A Celebration of the Arts and Humanities

The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation was established in 1969 to strengthen, promote, and defend the arts and humanities as essential to democratic societies.

Ailsa Mellon Bruce, 1933. Credit: Oswald Hornby and Joseph Birley

Painting of Ailsa Mellon Bruce. Title: Portrait of Mrs. Mellon Bruce

Ailsa Mellon Bruce

Co-founder

Painting of Paul Mellon, 1973. Credit: William Franklin Draper

William Draper portrait of Bruce Paul Mellon. Right to reproduce is prohibited.

Paul Mellon

At Mellon, we make grants to actively support the community and ideas that unlock the power in the arts and humanitities that helps connect us all.

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Elevating art, expression, and the human experience 

Supporting the humanities and social justice in higher learning

Cultivating humanities in place 

Democratizing information and restoring access to knowledge    

Our impact is demonstrated in the following ways

The Mellon Foundation was established in 1969 by Ailsa Mellon Bruce and Paul Mellon through the consolidation of the Avalon Foundation and the Old Dominion Foundation—foundations that each sibling had established more than two decades earlier. They named the new foundation in honor of their father, Andrew W. Mellon.

Founders and Namesake

The people

Foundation presidents

Courtesy of Ford School, University of Michigan

Headshot of President Earl Lewis

Earl Lewis

Courtesy of University of Chicago Photographic Archive, Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center

Headshot of Don Michael Randel

Don Michael Randel

Headshot of William Bowen

William G. Bowen

Headshot of John Sawyer

John E. Sawyer

Headshot of Nathan Marsh Pusey

Nathan M. Pusey

Headshot of Charles S. Hamilton, Jr

Charles S. Hamilton, Jr

Throughout our history, Mellon has held true to our founding commitments, secure in our conviction that the arts and humanities are essential to the health of a multivocal and democratic society. From our earliest days, we have aspired to build partnerships with our grantees, offering expertise and counsel in addition to funding. In this unique way, Mellon enables projects carried out by people, organizations, and institutions that unlock deeper understanding and activate cultural expression, while also learning and evolving with the world around us.

In recent years, Mellon has expanded on these core principles by actively prioritizing social justice across all of our grantmaking. This strategic shift builds on our long history of advocating for and investing in expanded access to higher education, humanities, and the arts. Our vision for Mellon's future centers justice in all that we do—rooted in the Foundation’s historic belief in the transformative power of the arts and humanities.

The Richard King Mellon Foundation, named for Andrew W. Mellon’s nephew, is a separate philanthropic foundation headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

History

Artists as Catalysts

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Beyond Incarceration

A side profile of a Black poet who is wearing glasses and a hat with a feather hat pin.

Civic Engagement

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Evolving Higher Education

A vertical image of an Indigenous person who is sitting on a chair in front of a backdrop.

Expanding Public Knowledge

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Monuments and Memory

A large statue of a confederate general is covered in markings and graffiti. 

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

Two scholars dressed in all black face the camera.

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Mission

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Grantmaking areas

Grantmaking Areas

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People

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Financials

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News

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Events