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The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, commonly known as the Mellon Foundation, is a New York City-based private foundation with wealth accumulated by Andrew Mellon of the Mellon family of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.[2] It is the product of the 1969 merger of the Avalon Foundation and the Old Dominion Foundation. These foundations had been set up separately by Ailsa Mellon Bruce and Paul Mellon, the children of Andrew Mellon.
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation | |
 | |
| Founded | June 30, 1969 |
|---|---|
| Founder | Paul Mellon Ailsa Mellon Bruce |
| Focus | Higher education Museums and art conservation Performing arts Conservation |
| Location |
|
| Method | Grants |
Key people | Elizabeth Alexander (President) |
Revenue (2015) | $380,179,226[1] |
| Expenses (2015) | $331,375,744[1] |
| Endowment | $6.1 billion |
| Website | www.mellon.org |
The foundation is housed in New York City in the expanded former offices of the Bollingen Foundation, another educational philanthropy once supported by Paul Mellon. Poet and scholar Elizabeth Alexander is the foundation's current president. Her predecessors have included Earl Lewis, Don Randel, William G. Bowen, John Edward Sawyer and Nathan Pusey.
In 2004, the foundation was awarded the National Medal of Arts.[3]
- Higher education, including the humanities, libraries, and scholarly communication and information technology[4][5]
- Museums and art conservation
- Performing arts
- Conservation and the environment
Mellon's research group has investigated doctoral education, collegiate admissions, independent research libraries, charitable nonprofits, scholarly communications, and other issues to ensure that the foundation's grants would be well-informed and more effective.[6] Some of the recent publications of this effect include Equity and Excellence in American Higher Education, Reclaiming the Game: College Sports and Educational Values, JSTOR: A History, The Game of Life: College Sports and Educational Values, and The Shape of the River.[7]
Mellon's endowment fluctuates in the range of $5 to $6 billion, and its annual grant-making amounts to about $300 million.[8][9][10]
According to Alexander, Mellon supports the “work, experiences, and visions of disabled artists."[11] In July 2024, the Ford and Mellon Foundations named 20 "Disability Futures Fellows," including a Broadway composer, a Marvel video game voice actress, and a three-time Pushcart Prize-nominated poet.[12]
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