NEW YORK, Dec. 18, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — The Mellon Foundation today announced that celebrated arts leader and advocate, Deana Haggag, will be promoted to the institutional leadership role of Program Director for Arts and Culture, effective January 1, 2025. She succeeds Emil J. Kang, who will step down at the end of this year. In this role, Haggag will drive the Foundation’s arts grantmaking area, nurturing and fortifying visionary leadership, securing artistic and cultural legacies, and improving the working conditions that enable the arts ecosystems of the nation.
“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 Elizabeth Alexander, President of the Mellon Foundation. “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.”
Since joining the Foundation, Haggag has played a critical role in refining Arts and Culture’s grantmaking direction, priorities, and strategies, including making transformative grants to small- and mid-sized organizations across the nation. Additionally, she has deepened Arts and Culture’s reach in the literary arts, grown direct support for disability arts and aesthetics, established resources to protect individual artistic legacies, and expanded the overall portfolio—introducing a host of new grantees to Mellon, including many organizations that had never previously received philanthropic support.
“I am honored to step into leadership as Program Director of Arts and Culture,” said Haggag. “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.”
Haggag joined the Mellon Foundation as a Program Officer in the Arts and Culture program area in 2021. A seasoned arts leader, she previously served as President and CEO of United States Artists (USA), a Chicago-based organization that provides fellowships to artists across the country in multiple disciplines. During her tenure at USA, Haggag spearheaded Artist Relief—a nearly $25 million effort to support artists experiencing financial emergencies. Before her time at USA, she was Executive Director of The Contemporary, a nomadic, non-collecting museum in Baltimore, building a multi-faceted landscape of original programming and exhibitions in the region. Haggag is regularly sought as an advisor and guide to arts organizations, individual artists, and to philanthropists committed to a vibrant arts ecosystem.
She received her MFA in Curatorial Practice from the Maryland Institute College of Art and a BA in Art History and Philosophy from Rutgers University. In addition to her leadership roles, she lectures widely and has taught at institutions such as Johns Hopkins University and Towson University. She is on the board of trustees of MoMA PS1 and the Pillars Fund.
About The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation is the nation’s largest supporter of the arts and humanities. Since 1969, the Foundation has been guided by its core belief that the humanities and arts are essential to human understanding. The Foundation believes that the arts and humanities are where we express our complex humanity, and that everyone deserves the beauty, transcendence, and freedom that can be found there. Through our grants, we seek to build just communities enriched by meaning and empowered by critical thinking, where ideas and imagination can thrive. Learn more at mellon.org.
SOURCE The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
