$1.1 Million Mellon Foundation Grant Positions Center for Next Stage of Development
We have very exciting news to share!
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has awarded a $1.1 million grant to the W.E.B. Du Bois Center for Freedom and Democracy. The three-year Humanities in Place grant will support the completion of the current phase of restoration work on the historic Clinton A.M.E. Zion Church building as well as leadership, staffing, and programming for the interpretive Center and Du Bois Forum.
Dr. David Levering Lewis, Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer of W.E.B. Du Bois and honorary chair of the Du Bois Freedom Center’s national advisory council, paved the way for this multifaceted grant from the Mellon Foundation, in collaboration with historian-in-residence Dr. Kendra Field and interim executive director Eugenie Sills. Dr. Lewis has called the undertaking “the first living memorial dedicated to the legacy of William Edward Burghardt Du Bois in North America.”
“Receiving this prestigious grant from the Mellon Foundation is a tremendous honor,” said Wray Gunn, Sr., president of the Center and longtime member of the Clinton Church. “A lot has been accomplished since we started this effort in 2016,” he said, noting that the nonprofit, formerly Clinton Church Restoration, unveiled the Du Bois Freedom Center name and logo last June. “This funding and recognition from Mellon positions our organization for its next stage of development.”
The award will support the completion of the building’s remaining structural work and architectural and exhibition design plans for the new Center; the launch of a national search for a permanent executive director with experience in major gifts fundraising and management of a cultural institution dedicated to the African American experience; and the engagement of Dr. Field, current historian-in-residence, in the newly created role of Du Bois Forum director. A partnership with the African American Trail Project at Tufts University, the Forum held its inaugural retreat for scholars, writers, and artists of color in the Berkshires last summer. The grant provides funding for both positions, as well as additional public programming, through 2025.
With this funding in place and the search for an executive director underway, Sills has transitioned to a project management role at the Center. She will continue to oversee the design and restoration work, manage related capital grants, and pursue funding for the ongoing restoration.
We are honored by this recognition from Mellon, and grateful for your continued support of our mission.
About The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation is the nation’s largest supporter of the arts and humanities. Since 1969, the Foundation has been guided by its core belief that the humanities and arts are essential to human understanding. The Foundation believes that the arts and humanities are where we express our complex humanity, and that everyone deserves the beauty, transcendence, and freedom that can be found there. Through our grants, we seek to build just communities enriched by meaning and empowered by critical thinking, where ideas and imagination can thrive. Learn more at mellon.org.