Trust for the National Mall and Partners Kick Off Beyond Granite

Trust for the National Mall and Partners launch Beyond Granite project to elevate diverse stories and voices on the national mall

The Trust for the National Mall was honored to join partnering organizations, experts and scholars to launch Beyond Granite, a forward-thinking initiative funded by the The Mellon Foundation aimed at broadening the dialogue and stories represented in the national commemorative landscape. Over the next two years, this important project will bring a special series of commemorative works to the National Mall and surrounding area to elevate diverse and inclusive stories and voices on the National Mall and in Washington, DC, and create a more vibrant commemorative landscape representing all Americans.

On January 20, the Trust joined the National Park Service (NPS) and the National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC) for a virtual kickoff meeting featuring presentations from academic experts, monument scholars, noted authors and celebrated landscape architects. The initiative partners invited these experts to help develop the initiative scope prior to its public launch and serve as a sounding board throughout the process. The project and special series of commemorative works will create a living, breathing and more vibrant National Mall and serve as a pilot program for commemorative works that can be extended and adapted throughout the country. For more information, please sign up to receive project updates at

The Trust and project partners invited experts in arts, history, architecture, design and culture, community groups, universities and a wide range of federal stakeholders to attend this opening meeting. The kickoff meeting included a history of NCPC's longstanding work on the topic of broadening the dialogue in the commemorative landscape in Washington DC, input and insight on the national commemorative landscape from experts, laid out the blueprint for the implementation of the project and importantly the ways in which attendees and the community can participate and collaborate on the project.

The Trust will work with project partners and collaborating organizations through 2022-2023 to receive community input, select artists and sites, commission and install the work, and look at ways to replicate this pilot program across the country beyond the life of the grant. The Trust is grateful to The Mellon Foundation for their generous support of Beyond Granite.

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