Mellon Foundation announces $16 million in place-based grants to Richmond area organizations

The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has announced $16 million in grant funding to six Richmond, Virginia-based non-profit organizations that are working to preserve the historical narrative of the state’s 285-year-old capital city.

The money, which “underscores Mellon’s ongoing commitment to transformational place-based work,” will provide for projects that are “actively exploring ways to understand and uplift more complete histories with support for their programming, development, expanded operation.”

The largest among the grants was an $11 million award to the City of Richmond’s Shockoe Heritage Campus Interpretive Center; followed by a $1.5 million grant to The JXN Project; $1.2 million grant to The Valentine Museum; $1 million grant to the group Cary Forward; another $850,000 for Untold RVA; and $670,000 for the Valentine-sponsored Reclaiming the Monument.

“Richmond has been the site of many stories that have shaped our understanding of who we are as Americans, but public commemoration in Richmond historically has been limited to only a few,” Mellon Foundation President Elizabeth Alexander said in a statement. “Today, the people of this city are lifting up the collective memory of its historic Black communities, unflinchingly addressing the city’s past as the capital of the state with the most enslaved people prior to the Civil War, and participating in the reimagining of the city’s public spaces to better reflect the fullness of its history. We are proud to support the remarkable grantees across the city leading this work.” 

“This is a significant step toward bringing the Heritage Campus to fruition and toward telling the story of enslaved and freed people,” Richmond's Mayor Levar Stoney told the local NBC affiliate. “I am deeply grateful to Elizabeth Alexander, President of the Mellon Foundation, and her incredible Monuments Project team for believing in our vision to commemorate this important national site of conscious[ness]. This historic investment will allow us to continue down the path our city and nation must walk toward reckoning, atonement, and ultimately, healing.”