At the Mellon Foundation, Justin Garrett Moore Connects Place and Memory

The Mellon Foundation’s Approach to Place-Based Social Justice

Practically speaking, Humanities in Place funding is directed to capital projects, advancing social justice at cultural sites or in public places and increasing engagement in and around civic spaces. Philosophically, Mellon seems to understand that place and memory are inextricably intertwined; built and natural places hold the potential to reflect complex, sometimes painful histories, as well as support racially, economically, and socially just futures.

The buoying of projects such as the August Wilson house and Ekvn-Yefolecv’s eco-lodge—and, in many cases, their very realization—is in large part thanks to Justin Garrett Moore, the inaugural program director for Humanities in Place, an architect and urban planner by training, and a former executive director for the New York City Public Design Commission.

Origins of the Humanities in Place Program

Mellon’s president, Elizabeth Alexander, established Humanities in Place in 2020, launching it in the throes of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Black Lives Matter protests. She handpicked Moore to lead the grant-making arm. A Pulitzer Prize–nominated poet and former English professor, Alexander used her way with words to convince Moore to make the leap from the public to the private sector. “The way to work for the people is to work for the people—that was my attitude,” says Moore, who spent 15 years working for the city’s planning department. “And [Mellon] is big philanthropy.” 

But Alexander understood that if the foundation was to be committed to social justice work, place—specifically public, community, and civic space—was “an essential tool.” And that resonated deeply with Moore, who grew up observing his predominantly Black, working-class Indianapolis neighborhood from his front porch. His community didn’t have parks, and kids played in the coal storage yard. But his mother worked in the Madam C. J. Walker Building, a converted multipurpose theater adorned with African motifs, and his father worked at the engine manufacturer Cummins in a modern office building designed by Kevin Roche and commissioned by Cummins CEO J. Irwin Miller—“[It was about the] early exposure and early experiences,” Moore says.

Moore’s Background and Transition

During his time with the city’s planning commission, Moore led massive projects, including the Greenpoint-Williamsburg Waterfront, Hunter’s Point South in Queens, and the Brooklyn Cultural District. As an architecture student at the University of Florida and later Columbia University, he was exposed by professors such as Paul Kariouk, Mabel Wilson, and Mojdeh “Moji” Baratloo, to the layers and complexities of urbanism and urban design, cuing him up for a career that transcended design.