Dear VAF Friends and Colleagues:

Some of you will have heard that the The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation awarded VAF (in partnership with UVA) a substantial grant to support a series of new field schools documenting African American places (buildings and cultural landscapes) in partnership with African American communities, institutions, scholars, and students. This is an important and exciting new opportunity and you can find the link to find out more about the program here.

In short, the program will fund three different field schools, each to run for two seasons. Each of the funded field schools will have a leadership team that includes expertise in documentation, African American history and culture, and community engagement. Each field school is expected to build and sustain a relationship of mutual trust and reciprocity with their community partners and to offer public sessions that disseminate the work of the field school back to the community.

If you are interested in applying, please review the website and then reach out to me to share your interest and begin a conversation about designing your proposal.

Best,

Louis Nelson