Mellon Foundation

A museum about bracero history breaks ground at Rio Vista Farm in Socorro, Texas with a $750K Mellon grant. A designated National Historic Landmark, Rio Vista Farm is the last standing bracero reception center, where thousands of laborers from Mexico arrived during and after WWII.

In Minneapolis, Minnesota, the Indigneous-led nonprofit Owámniyomni Okhódayapi begins construction on a wildlife habitat and community engagement space with a $4.7M Mellon grant.

Archiving local stories in Minnesota’s Twin Cities, the ‘Hmong Capital of the World’ 🗺️ Following the Vietnam War, many people across Southeast Asia were displaced from their homes and resettled in the U.S. Today, one of the largest Hmong communities in the world can be found in Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota. “Preserving our Hmong community heritage in Minnesota and the United States is so important,” says Txongpao Lee, executive director of the Hmong Cultural Center in Saint Paul. Founded in 1992, the Hmong Cultural Center (HCC) fosters connections between Hmong and non-Hmong communities through multicultural education and cultural arts programming, such as ceremonial arts and dance festivals. HCC offers classes to learn how to play the Qeej, a traditional Hmong instrument. They also support new immigrants and refugees by offering free ESL and citizenship classes. The organization also stewards an extensive archive of Hmong newspapers and academic articles, and doctoral dissertations—thought to be the largest collection of its kind—which provides an important set of resources on local Hmong history. Exhibitions and education bring these materials to life, exploring both longstanding traditions and the experiences of migration and resettlement in Minnesota. 📷 courtesy of HCC 1. Students learn how to play the Qeej in a class (2002) 3. Students in an ESL class (2004) 5. Hmong Times (Dec 16, 1998) 7. Community members during a Hmong New Year blessing ceremony #AAPIHeritageMonth #NationalPreservationMonth #Hmong

📣 Humanity AI, a collaborative philanthropic initiative, announces more than $18 million in new grants to shape AI for the public good. Mellon is a founding partner of Humanity AI, joining nine philanthropic peers to support organizations working at the frontiers of AI and the public interest. The inaugural cohort of organizations is addressing AI’s most urgent areas of impact on society, including safeguarding democratic institutions, protecting workers’ rights, strengthening journalism, advancing education, and using AI to tell fuller stories. 2026 Grant Recipients: • AI Now Institute • Center for Democracy & Technology • Council on Foreign Relations (LEAD AI) • The Distributed AI Research Institute (DAIR) • Partnership on AI • TechEquity • Kinfolk Tech • Pulitzer Center • National Student Legal Defense Network • Data & Society Research Institute & Digital Public Library of America

Embraced Body, a Disability Justice and inclusive arts organization, announces the second cohort of its How We Move program, supported by Mellon.

In Asheville, North Carolina, the Center for Craft receives a $425K grant from Mellon to build its Community Library and Archives. The completed collection, slated to open in 2028, will be the second most comprehensive archive of American craft in the US.

In Richmond, Virginia, The JXN Project renovated the home of Abraham Peyton Skipwith, known “as The Founding Father of Jackson Ward," with Mellon support. Skipwith was the first Black man documented as a homeowner in the region, purchasing his home in 1793—more than 70 years before enslaved African Americans were freed on the city’s emancipation day.

On the latest episode of Black Philanthropy: Our Stories – A Simuel + Murray Podcast, Mellon President Elizabeth Alexander discusses the role of philanthropy in championing artists and the people and life experiences that inform her leadership.

Mellon Foundation awards a $100K grant to the New Orleans Foundation for Francophone Cultures, which opens the first center to celebrate Cajun and Creole heritages in the city.

A Sikh American history exhibit arrives at the San Joaquin County Historical Society & Museum with a project led by scholar Tejpaul Singh Bainiwal and supported by Mellon.