About Andrew W Mellon Foundation
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation focuses on strengthening the humanities and arts ecosystem through large, strategic investments in museums, performing arts organizations, universities, and intermediary organizations that build capacity for artists and cultural heritage work. Its grants prioritize preservation and access for cultural collections, postdoctoral and faculty fellowships in the humanities, artist-centered infrastructure, and community-centered commemoration and public humanities projects — frequently supporting both national intermediaries and place-based public institutions. Mellon often pairs capital or multi-year institutional support with regranting and field-building initiatives aimed at equity and inclusion in arts and scholarship.
Focus Areas
Arts & Theater infrastructure and company stabilization (e.g., major support to theater companies and national dance/theater projects)Humanities fellowships and postdoctoral support at universities and research councilsCultural heritage preservation and archives/digitization for underrepresented communitiesArtist services and capacity-building intermediaries (scaling artist-centered platforms and regranting)Public commemoration, monuments, and community-centered heritage projects
Who They Fund
individual artists (including freelance/independent creatives)
About Andrew W Mellon Foundation
A $90 million grant to Tides Center for Creatives Rebuild New York signals how The Andrew W Mellon Foundation operates at scale: it uses large, strategic awards to build arts and humanities infrastructure, not just fund individual projects. Across the recent grants list, the foundation backs museums, universities, public media archives, cultural heritage initiatives, and intermediary organizations that can regrant or expand services for artists and scholars. Its portfolio includes major support for the Studio Museum in Harlem’s new building, Mellon Mays fellowship administration at the American Council of Learned Societies, and a long-running artist-support platform through Fractured Atlas. The pattern is consistent with a funder that invests in institutions capable of shaping fields over time. Mellon also supports humanities scholarship, preservation of cultural collections, and public-facing work that connects arts and memory to community history. Recent grants range from capital and operating support to fellowship administration, digital humanities infrastructure, and memorialization projects. The result is a profile of a national funder that combines high-dollar institutional grants with targeted field-building efforts in arts, scholarship, and cultural heritage.
What Andrew W Mellon Foundation Funds
In higher education and humanities training, the foundation gave $8,556,000 to the American Council of Learned Societies to support administration and annual institutional renewals for the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship Program, and $7,500,000 to The Regents of the University of California to expand a presidential postdoctoral fellowship program with a sharper humanities focus at six Hispanic-Serving Institution campuses. In arts infrastructure, it awarded $10,000,000 to The Studio Museum in Harlem for construction of the museum’s new building, and $7,500,000 to Fractured Atlas Inc. for the second phase of the Chrysalis Project, including development of an entity and technology product for individual artists. In public memory and cultural heritage, Mellon provided $7,000,000 to the City of Richmond for a cultural space at the Shockoe Bottom train shed, and $4,282,000 to the Montpelier Foundation for a memorial to individuals who were enslaved at Montpelier. It also supported public media preservation with a $5,500,000 grant to WGBH Educational Foundation for the American Archive of Public Broadcasting.
How Andrew W Mellon Foundation Gives
Financial Snapshot
Annual Giving
$1.6B
Total Assets
$7.8B
Total Revenue
$1.1B
Total Expenses
$584.7M
Typical Grant Size
Most grants fall between $250K and $750K, with a median of $500K.
25th Percentile
$250K
Median
$500K
75th Percentile
$750K
Geographic Reach
National52 states funded
About 22% of grants go to recipients in NY.
Funding intensity
LowHigh
Headquarters
Leadership
Funding intensity
LowHigh
Where Andrew W Mellon Foundation Funds
Top 10 recipient countries by grant volume for Andrew W Mellon Foundation.
| Rank | Country | Grants | Total | Share |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | United StatesDomestic | 2,224 | $1.6B | 98.0% |
| 2 | Canada | 11 | $12.1M |
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