“When future applicants seek funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the largest supporter of the arts and humanities in the US, they will be evaluated based on one principal question: would their proposal help create a more just and fair society?” writes Sarah Cascone in last Thursday’s (7/2) ArtNet.com. “The organization announced Tuesday that it is reorienting its grant-making program entirely through the lens of social justice. Rather than a wholesale shift, ‘I would call it an evolution,’ Mellon president Elizabeth Alexander told Artnet News, adding that the change has been in the works since she came to the post two years ago…. The move echoes the Ford Foundation’s 2015 decision to direct its grant making exclusively toward fighting inequality.… And just as Ford has continued to support the arts and culture, so, too, will Mellon. ‘The way that we’re interpreting social justice is very broad,’ she said…. ‘We sit atop tremendous resources that are meant to be shared.’… The Mellon Foundation has ramped up its giving from roughly $300 million annually to $500 million this year, recognizing that artists and cultural organizations have been hard hit by the financial downturn.”
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