In a year defined by national political instability and growing global conflict, the Mellon Foundation remained focused on the transformative and vital power of the arts, culture, and humanities. Our grantmaking was grounded in the programs and institutions that, along with Mellon itself, collectively serve as cornerstones for unfettered and diverse creative work, scholarship, and accurate and inclusive preservation and commemoration efforts in the United States. Throughout 2024, we made certain our work did its part to further strengthen our grantees and organizational partners—and remain ready to do so in the months to come.

The nearly 650 grants issued in 2024, totaling about $540 million in grantmaking, broadly fueled activation and engagement among the vastly different American communities we support. Many of these collectively undertaken efforts are addressing problems and generating possibilities for artistic expression, historical inquiry, and academic freedom. They include groups ranging from literary writers to civic leaders; they take place in spaces such as rural geographic regions and academic fields of study; and they are born from collaborations like those between local arts and culture institutions and the people they directly serve.

Mellon’s new Frontera Culture Fund, an initiative launched this year through our Arts & Culture program, is advancing the artistic visions driven by cross-cultural and transnational communities sharing both common objectives and complex challenges in the US-Mexico borderlands.

Public Memory Labs, which were funded this year at local libraries through Mellon’s Public Knowledge program area, are preserving personal histories “from Appalachia to the American Southwest,” often with community members who do not otherwise have the resources to bridge the digital divide or whose cultural histories have been underrepresented in American archives. Art installations that were funded under the auspices of Mellon’s Puerto Rico initiative have been taking shape in the archipelago’s El Yunque National Forest, where community members are invited to engage with these unexpected perspectives on creativity and the local ecosystem.