Arts leader Deana Haggag will assume the role, effective as of January 1, 2025
The nation’s largest supporter of the arts and humanities since 1969, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation supports artistic and community-building charities and initiatives through its interdisciplinary grant programs.
Recently, the Foundation promoted arts leader and advocate Deana Haggag to its role of Program Director for Arts and Culture as of January 1, 2025. She will succeed Emil J. Kang, who is stepping down at the end of this year.
Haggag first joined the Foundation as a Program Officer in the Arts and Culture division in 2021. In her new role, she will lead the Foundation’s arts grantmaking area, while securing artistic and cultural legacies, and improving working conditions.
Throughout her time at the Foundation, Haggag has helped refine Arts and Culture’s grantmaking direction, priorities, and strategies, including the distribution of grants to small- and mid-sized organizations across the U.S. Notably, she has expanded Arts and Culture’s reach in the literary arts, grown direct support for disability arts and aesthetics, plus introduced new and first-time grantees to the Foundation.
Haggag previously served as President and CEO of the Chicago-based United States Artists, where she led the Artist Relief initiative — a nearly $25 million effort to support artists experiencing financial emergencies.
Prior to that, she was Executive Director of Baltimore’s The Contemporary museum, and has since been regularly sought as an advisor to arts organizations, individual artists, and philanthropists.
A graduate of Rutgers University and the Maryland Institute College of Art, Haggag has taught and lectured at Johns Hopkins University and Towson University. She is also a member of the board of trustees of MoMA PS1 and the Pillars Fund.
“Deana is a dynamic, tested leader and an unwavering advocate for artists and their essential contributions to our society. I am thrilled to see her in this critical leadership role for the arts sector,” said the Mellon Foundation’s President, Elizabeth Alexander in the press release. “Widely respected within and outside Mellon, Deana’s far-reaching and innovative grantmaking, keen organizational mind, and strong relationships across Mellon and the fields that Arts and Culture serves will be fundamental to Mellon’s success in the changing landscape.”
“I am honored to step into leadership as Program Director of Arts and Culture,” Haggag expressed. “We remain deeply committed to the performing, visual, and literary arts and to supporting those who believe in the stirring and singular power of culture to deepen the meaning of our lives. In these challenging times, I truly believe that we must commit to going further together rather than going faster alone. I am deeply humbled to lead Mellon’s Arts and Culture team and continue advocating fiercely for our beloved artist community.”