Re:Generation Grant

Re:Generation Grant

Status: ACTIVE
Funder: Monument Lab Inc
Amount: US $100,000
Last Updated: August 27, 2025

Summary

The Re:Generation initiative, supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, invites teams to apply for $100,000 in unrestricted funding to create or expand public-facing projects. Monument Lab aims to foster diverse commemorative practices and narratives, focusing on underrepresented stories and histories. Selected teams will collaborate throughout the year to promote creative representation, engage with local communities, and contribute to a transformative commemorative landscape. This initiative emphasizes the importance of grassroots collaboration and the need to rethink public memory.

Overview

Vision Statement Monuments must change. At Monument Lab we envision a society where monuments are dynamic and defined by their meaning, not by their hardened immovable and untouchable status. To illuminate how symbols are connected to systems of power and public memory, we engage critically with our inherited monument landscape and work joyfully with artists, organizations, and movements to imagine the next generation of monuments. By disrupting the status quo of how monuments are made, preserved, and interpreted, we hope to contribute to a future society defined by joy, regeneration, and repair. Values As an organization we aspire to make all of our decisions, including how our resources are obtained and allocated, based on these values: Art at the CoreWe are artists and believe that art is critical to how we understand, experience and imagine the past, present and future, so we engage with artists whenever possible.Process Matters as Much as OutcomeWe aim to take time for quality, move at the speed of trust, and cultivate relationships beyond the life of a single project. We strive for a powerful final result that is fueled by intentional and iterative processes. We balance urgency and timeliness with purposeful reflection.Intersectionality for TransformationWe are driven by anti-racist, de-colonial, feminist, queer, working class, climate conscious, and disability justice perspectives, and know all forms of oppression must be dismantled for us to truly get free.Collaboration With BoundariesWe are committed to working with individuals, organizations, and institutions, but only build trusting relationships with those that share values and honor a collective sense of process.Integrity With AccountabilityWe intend for our words and actions to be aligned. If it comes to our attention, from staff, collaborators, or anyone else that we’re out of whack, we pause, process and apologize to determine the best way forward.Culture of CareTo maintain our own wellbeing and support collective healing, we acknowledge the presence of trauma while centering a culture of care, repair, harm reduction, and safety for all. Expressing joy, having fun, and sharing nourishment are essential parts of our organizational culture.Citation and CompensationWe acknowledge all contributors (including artists, students, educators) for the fullness of their efforts. We value local knowledge and expertise while building strategic coalitions across locations. This takes form in a number of ways including as payment, citation, credit, authorship, or ownership, as decided with each individual or collective ahead of time.Wisdom and LearningAs students and teachers with an endless curiosity, we are perpetually learning from others and sharing information. We believe that wisdom and intelligence comes in many forms. We are committed to challenging white-centric, hegemonic norms and neutrality. Re:Generation Initiative Thanks to the generous support of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Monument Lab is seeking applications for another round of our Re:Generation initiative. Monument Lab Re:Generation supports teams of two or more individuals working together to create a new or expand an existing public-facing project. Each selected Re:Generation team will receive a total of $100,000 in unrestricted funding towards their commemorative campaign or project. Monument Lab Re:Generation seeks applications from teams of two or more individuals working together. Each team may propose a new or expand upon an existing public art, public history, or public humanities project. We are committed to growing and sustaining our field by supporting and collaborating with grassroots artists, educators, organizers, researchers, and memory collectives while building purposeful relationships across locations. For this round of Re:Generation we are emphasizing the selection of projects with creative representation and interpretation of erased, suppressed, or threatened stories and histories. We especially encourage applications for projects that have the potential to shift local and regional narratives, particularly in contexts where interventions into the commemorative landscape could foster wider transformations. Monument Lab recognizes that projects of this nature exist within a broad range of contexts and are most successful when grounded in local communities and developed with consideration for the unique relationships, conditions, and existing support networks present in each geographical location. Through Re:Generation, Monument Lab is seeking to build a cohort of ten teams that reflect a broad diversity of commemorative practices, participatory research models, and geographic contexts. We are especially interested in applications from underrepresented groups and regions. Selected teams will collaborate across Re:Generation sites, meeting as a cohort virtually and in person over the year, presenting projects synchronously in Fall, and working in coordination with Monument Lab on a broader campaign of public engagement.

Eligibility

You can learn more about this opportunity by visiting the funder's website. Use of FundsWe expect teams to pay stipends to their core team members, and strongly encourage stipends to any interns or researchers, honorariums to any community memory holders, interviewees, artists, among others. ALL of the Re:Generation funding is available for general operating support and can support project materials, permitting and installation fees, hard costs, and other expenditures as well.Each project will need a fiscal sponsor, but having or not having one at the application stage will not impact consideration.