Mellon Grants

Overview

The Willson Center at the University of Georgia has received a $1 million grant from the Mellon Foundation for a second phase of its public humanities partnership with the Penn Center on St. Helena Island, South Carolina. The grant-funded project, Culture and Community at the Penn Center National Historic Landmark District, launched in 2021 with an initial $1 million award to build and implement programs in collaboration with Penn Center and surrounding Sea Islands communities in the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor.

Program Activities

• Annual artists-in-residence and community fellows
• Twice-yearly community conversations
• Summer student research residencies for scholars and faculty from UGA, Georgia Tech, Emory University, Howard University, Spelman College, Morehouse College, the University of Michigan, and the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill

Location

Penn Center, St. Helena Island, South Carolina (Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor, a National Heritage Area established by U.S. Congress)

Leadership

• Principal investigators: Nicholas Allen (Baldwin Professor in Humanities and director of the Willson Center) and Barbara McCaskill (Distinguished Research Professor of English and associate academic director)
• Collaborator: Valerie Babb (Andrew W. Mellon Professor of Humanities at Emory University)
• Project coordinator: Angela Dore
• Penn Center executive director: Dr. Robert L. Adams

Funding

• 2026 phase: $1 million grant from Mellon Foundation
• 2021 phase: $1 million grant from Mellon Foundation
• Total continuous funding from Mellon Foundation: past decade