A total of nine local municipalities have received funding in the amount of $25 million from the Mellon Foundation as part of its ongoing Monuments Project, which to date has provided $151.9 million worth of grants since its inception in 2020.

The latest round of funding includes projects such as Los Angeles’ forthcoming memorial to victims of the 1871 Chinese Massacre, and the Portland, Oregon, effort to replace five of its toppled monuments that were destroyed in the wake of the George Floyd protests three summers ago.

Read more about the nine grant recipients and their funded projects:

• Asheville, North Carolina – "The City of Asheville will receive funding to reshape Pack Square Plaza through commemorative projects, storytelling and oral history initiatives, and redesigning portions of the plaza to better represent the multicultural histories of Asheville and cultivate a more welcoming space for all. This includes support for construction of Boosting the Block, an effort to establish a stronger connection between the redesigned Pack Square and the Block, an adjacent historic district where Black businesses flourished until the era of urban renewal."
• Boston, Massachusetts – "The City of Boston will receive funding to launch Un-monument | Re-monument | De-Monument: Transforming Boston, a program aimed to foster dialogue around existing Boston monuments and encourage new narratives through commissioning temporary commemorative art installations and related free programming."
• Chicago, Illinois – "The City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events will receive funding to support nine projects identified through a call from Chicago Monuments Project, spanning the creation of new commemorative sites, interventions alongside existing monuments, and community engagement initiatives."
• Columbus, Ohio – "The Department of Development in the City of Columbus will receive funding to support the Reimagining Columbus Initiative, including community engagement work, research, and design studies to inform decisions on city symbols, new public art, and the fate of the Columbus statue, which was removed in 2020."
• Denver, Colorado – "The City and County of Denver will receive funding to support the Denver Civic Center Monument Project, which includes a monuments audit and community engagement surrounding monuments removed in 2020. It also includes the design and construction of the Greek Theater South Plaza, which will serve as a commemoration of the pivotal 1978 ‘Gang of 19’ protest for disability rights."
• Los Angeles, California – "The Department of Cultural Affairs in the City of Los Angeles will receive funding to support the construction of a memorial to the victims of the 1871 Chinese Massacre in Los Angeles."
• Portland, Oregon – "The City of Portland will receive funding to support community engagement, policy development, and implementation regarding the future of five toppled monuments, as well as commemorative efforts within the city at large."
• Providence, Rhode Island – "The Rhode Island Historical Society will receive funding to support the City of Providence Department of Art, Culture and Tourism in launching the Providence Commemoration Lab, comprising new, temporary projects at Columbus Square, Roger Williams Park, and Public Street Beach, in addition to efforts to expand the City’s Inventory for Commemorative Works––a growing online archive of the city’s commemorative landscape."
• San Francisco, California – "The San Francisco Art Commission will receive funding to support Pulse Check: Accountability and Activation of Future SF Monuments, an initiative encompassing a racial equity audit of publicly accessible works in the Civic Art Collection, community engagement, and several community-led artist activations in public spaces."

The foundation shares that it has now surpassed the halfway mark of its overall $250 million goal for the Monuments Project, which they aim to complete by 2025. President Elizabeth Alexander has spearheaded the effort, which the foundation says "demands a powerful artistic and cultural reimagination o four commemorative spaces."

More information about the ongoing Monuments Project initiative can be found here.