Mellon Foundation

Mellon Foundation has awarded a $3 million grant to Monuments Across Appalachian Virginia (MAAV), housed at Virginia Tech and led by professors Katy Powell and Emily Satterwhite. MAAV will facilitate the creation of new monuments through projects led by the community and Virginia Tech faculty, with a focus on the diversity of Appalachia, migration, environmental change, and social movements.

The arts and humanities are evolving tools that allow us to better see and hear each other. Hear from four visionaries about what inspires their work and what personally pushes them to understand their fellow human beings more deeply. ?? by Are We There Yet?

The arts and humanities are evolving tools that allow us to better see and hear each other. We gathered four visionaries to reflect on what inspires their work and what personally pushes them to understand their fellow human beings more deeply. ? Theater creators Mei Ann Teo and Nile Harris of Ping Chong and Company craft fantastic moments from documented narratives from their home base in Downtown Manhattan. ? Witnessed in their Minnesota environment, chef and community organizer Sean Sherman and the NāTIFS.org team fight to ensure that indigenous food practices and pre-colonial ingredients hold an equitable place in the American experience. ? Journalist Maria Hinojosa—leading The Futuro Media Group from her home and studio in Harlem, New York—asks us to consider the simple and complicated act of being vulnerable with each other. Together, they help show that every drop of curiosity that we add to the pool of what we know has the potential to generate a wave of transformation. Read more at on.mellon.org/3ZklMnb ?? by Are We There Yet?

Mellon Foundation has awarded $1 million to the Engine for Art, Democracy & Justice (EADJ), a collaborative initiative between Fisk University, Frist Art Museum, Millions of Conversations, and Vanderbilt University. Founded by María Magdalena Campos-Pons, Cornelius Vanderbilt Professor of Art, EADJ is a platform for academic, creative, and social exploration.

Middlebury College's Axinn Center for the Humanities has received a $1.48M grant from the Mellon Foundation. The grant will support its project, “Migrant Justice in Vermont and Beyond," exploring how this vital contemporary issue can be understood in the context of literary, historical, philosophical, and linguistic study.

How can AI assessments help us ask nuanced questions about representation in #film? Researchers at University of California, Berkeley used facial recognition technology to track actors in over 2,000 Hollywood films. “I’m hoping that this is really able to accelerate research in the cultural analytics of film, where we and others are able to use methods from computer vision to measure large-scale trends in these important objects of culture,” says David Bamman, an associate professor in UC Berkeley School of Information.

The Mellon Foundation has awarded a $3 million grant to University of Rochester to support the expansion of its Black Studies Department. This includes the addition of faculty members, development of new courses, and creation of study abroad opportunities for students. “The department wants to be a global, interdisciplinary hub of knowledge which broadens knowledge in our local communities,” says Jeffrey Q. McCune, Jr., Founding Chair of the department.

In the wake of Hurricanes Helene and Milton, Georgia–based nonprofit South Arts will establish a recovery fund to give unrestricted support to artists and writers impacted by the natural disasters. South Arts works in partnership with National Endowment for the Arts and state arts agencies of nine southern states, with additional funding from Doris Duke Foundation, Ford Foundation, Mellon Foundation, and more.

With support from the Mellon Foundation, The City University of New York created the Transformative Learning in the Humanities initiative and CUNY Humanities Alliance. "Higher education has long dealt with misconceptions about the relevance of humanities education. But the fact is that the changes confronting today’s students make the humanities more relevant to their futures than ever," says Felix Matos Rodriguez, Chancellor of CUNY.

How does creativity see you through challenges? We asked some of you to talk about where you find inspiration, and how it has led you to common grounds. Follow along this week to hear more. ?? by Are We There Yet?