Mellon Foundation funds $25 million for artists and culture on U.S.-Mexico border

The Mellon Foundation has launched the Frontera Culture Fund, a $25 million initiative aimed at supporting creative work and cultural heritage in the U.S.-Mexico border region, as well as in tribal communities. This area, which stretches nearly 2,000 miles from east to west, includes four states in the United States and six in Mexico, home to millions of people. This region has long been home to twenty-six federally recognized tribal nations, numerous unrecognized indigenous communities, and at least seven indigenous communities divided by the border. Despite the vibrant arts scene in the border areas, the region is often portrayed through a negative narrative related to immigration and conflict.

The Frontera Culture Fund was created with the goal of amplifying the voices of local artists and cultural leaders and highlighting the beauty and imagination of these communities, supporting a more nuanced and authentic representation of the borderlands and investing in regional and cross-border collaboration. Designed in close collaboration with artists and cultural leaders in the region, the program will offer flexible funding for grantees spanning the United States and Mexico to support arts projects, cultural organizations, and grassroots community groups. The fund will also support indigenous networks that facilitate regional and cross-border knowledge exchange and work to defend cultural rights.

“The U.S.-Mexico borderlands are home to an abundance of cultures and creative traditions, but remain a region minimally funded by arts philanthropies in the United States,” said Elizabeth Alexander, President of the Mellon Foundation. “Our long-term support for artists, culture makers and stewards of creative expression among these communities will help amplify and sustain the deeply diverse arts and stories that take place in the borderlands.”

The first selection of grantees includes organizations and initiatives that integrate the arts with critical issues such as racial and climate justice, migrant and refugee rights, indigenous cultural sovereignty, community health, LGBTQ+ rights, and public memory. Recipients include the Chicano Park Museum and Cultural Center (San Diego, California), the Carrizo Comecrudo Nation of Texas (Floresville , Texas), the Fandango Fronterizo (Tijuana, Lower California), Alianza Indigena Sin Fronteras (Tucson, Arizona), Semilla Food Center (Anthony, New Mexico), the Haitian Bridge Alliance (based in San Diego, California), and Azul Arena (Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua). These groups were chosen for their contributions to cultural life and integration of arts and essential community rights.

“The history of the border is one of generational trauma in which the stories and truths of indigenous peoples have been ignored, invisibilized and framed by Western imagery and settler colonialism, but despite this reality, indigenous peoples remain strong and in resilient continuity,” said Lourdes Escalante, Executive Director of Alianza Indígena Sin Fronteras. “Since 1997, Alianza has united indigenous communities affected by the U.S.-Mexico border, documenting human rights violations, defending indigenous migrants and opposing the militarization of the border. We maintain previous cultural ties to the United States and Mexico and promote healing through programs focused on indigenous knowledge, memory and language.”

“For years, creative production in the Ciudad Juárez-El Paso region has suffered from underfunding and neglect by the public and private sectors. Artists and cultural workers have adapted to the situation, creating support networks that have allowed us to implement our ideas and practices in the service of border communities,” said Edgar Picazo Merino, creative director of Azul Arena. “The support provided by the Mellon Foundation has allowed us to lay the foundation for a stronger and more dignified creative infrastructure as we continue to produce art for positive social change.”

Photo: Camila Falquez for Mellon Foundation

Mellon Foundation funds $25 million for artists and culture on U.S.-Mexico border

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