Call for Grant Applications: More Mountain Stories
In order to amplify suppressed regional histories and strengthen community power Monuments Across Appalachian Places (MAAP) seeks public-facing commemorative projects based in Appalachian Kentucky, North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia that involve communities dedicated to conveying significant undertold histories.
MAAP is seeking proposals for new monuments from community organizations, government offices, tribal councils, and collaborative groups of advocates, activists, artists, researchers, educators, historical associations, and other memory keepers. Proposed projects should be aligned with our mission to assist communities’ efforts to reclaim, amplify, imagine, reinterpret, document, and display histories that highlight collective struggles for the vitality of people and our shared environment, especially by and for people whose stories have been silenced, denied, or excluded.
MAAP will support the creation of up to 10 commemorative projects with grants of between $50,000 and $350,000. We are accepting applications from project teams in their early stages and from well-established organizations that require funds to complete projects already in process. Applications are due Tuesday, October 13, 2026, 5pm ET.
We encourage potential applicants to attend one of our six Commemorate Workshops for more information and guidance on how to apply. For details and our Commemorate Toolkit, see https://www.moremountainstories.org/commemorate-workshops. In addition, MAAP Team members will offer office hours to discuss applications via Zoom from July to September 2026.
Download a PDF of this Call for Applications, including an application template, here.
We welcome your involvement!
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What is a Monument?
MAAP follows Monument Lab’s expansive definition of a monument as “a statement of power and presence in public.” MAAP encourages unconventional public history and/or public arts projects in a wide variety of formats including but not limited to: figurative or non-figurative sculptures or other works of art; spaces of reflection; physical or digital exhibits; interpretative signage; performances or festivals; archives or oral histories. Projects may also reinterpret existing monuments in a way that reshapes public spaces.
Monuments Across Appalachian Places (MAAP) is an expansion of Monuments Across Appalachian Virginia (MAAV), funded by the Mellon Foundation’s Monuments Project and housed at Virginia Tech.
MAAP recognizes that state boundaries are artifacts of colonialism and that cultural and social relationships extend beyond these borders. While our focus is on Appalachian Kentucky, North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia, MAAP welcomes applications from Indigenous groups with ancestral relationships to the region, from the Appalachian diaspora, and from multi-sited projects addressing a particular theme/event. Based on our team’s capacity, Road Trip (Guided Support) Grantees should be based within approximately a four hour drive from Blacksburg, VA. In all cases, the majority of grant funds should be spent in the region.
Monuments Across Appalachian Places (MAAP) Timeline
MARCH 2026
Preliminary Call for Applications Published
APRIL 2026
Call for Applications Published
APRIL - SEPTEMBER 2026
Commemorate Workshops (https://www.moremountainstories.org/commemorate-workshops)
JULY - SEPTEMBER 2026
Conversations with MAAP Team available via Zoom (email maav@vt.edu)
OCTOBER 1, 2026
Last day for questions/requests for guidance submitted to: maav@vt.edu
OCTOBER 13, 2026
GRANT APPLICATIONS DUE 5:00PM ET
OCTOBER - DECEMBER 2026
Applicants may receive requests for additional information or clarification
NOVEMBER 2, 2026
Advisory Board deliberations and recommendations (Learn more about the MAAP Advisory Board at moremountainstories.org/people)
DECEMBER 2026
Final decisions by MAAP co-directors with Mellon Foundation approval
JANUARY 2027
ANNOUNCEMENT OF GRANT SELECTIONS
FEBRUARY 2027
Funds disbursed; orientation meeting; projects begin
JANUARY - NOVEMBER 2028
Periodic project development meetings
DECEMBER 2028
ALL PROJECTS COMPLETED & UNVEILED BY END OF 2028
JANUARY - MAY 2029
Project wrap up / final reports due
Project Funding and Support
New applicants are eligible for one of two types of grants:
1. Road Trip Grants (Guided Support)
Up to five grantees will receive Road Trip or Guided Support Grants. These are accompanied grants for groups and organizations within approximately four hours of Blacksburg, VA, that may benefit from support from MAAP as they fulfill their vision, including guidance from the Project Coordinator and Resource Team and an alternative grant reporting/assessment process. These grantees receive between $50,000 and $350,000 to go toward the following:
Staffing and other needs to support the project team’s involvement (e.g. wages, travel, supplies, printing, equipment, food) – approximately 1/3 of the award
Artists and processes, including historical research and artistic design – approximately 1/3 of the award
Materials, installation, and maintenance – approximately 1/3 of the award
Additionally, these grantees receive:
Funds to pay a dedicated undergraduate assistant;
Funds to support one one faculty partner from Virginia Tech or another college or university (one course buyout and one summer stipend);
Technical support to help the project succeed, such as assistance with identifying artists, securing permits, and long-term planning;
Optional partnership with VT Libraries to create a digital exhibit.
Additionally, these grantees should budget a minimum of $7,500 to host an unveiling event, including travel to unveiling, catering, and promotional materials.
2. Final Mile Grants (Completion and/or Implementation)
Up to five grantees will receive Final Mile Grants. We anticipate these will be awarded in the range of $50,000 to $250,000 each. Final Mile Grants are intended for established organizations that have a track record of project management / completion. These grantees prefer limited support from the MAAP team and will submit more conventional progress reports and final reports. These grantees should budget for an unveiling event, travel, and promotional materials to be funded from this grant or from other funds.
MAAP Criteria for Evaluation of Applications
The MAAP Advisory Board will make recommendations to the MAAP leadership team. Successful applications will address each of these questions:
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1. Alignment with MAAP's Mission
Will the project promote publicly accessible, significant, and compelling narratives about histories (prior to 1978) that haven’t been widely told? Does the project commemorate collective action for the public good, with an emphasis on groups often overlooked in Appalachia (based on race, ethnicity, indigeneity, national origin, sexuality, gender, and more); migration and forced displacement; and/or anti-racist, feminist, environmental justice, labor, and other movements? Does the project connect local memories and moments to broader regional and global histories and issues in a way that has the potential to reframe how people perceive Appalachia?
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2. Plan for Project Management & Participatory Design
Does the project represent a community-defined aspiration and collective effort rather than the vision of one individual or organization? Does project leadership include a designated project manager who is committed to collaboration as well as an inclusive leadership team and/or an advisory committee? Do project plans incorporate equitable engagement with a broad cross section of community members who are invited to co-design the process and the monument?
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3. Monument Goals
Does the project exhibit an intellectual vision and aesthetic direction that expand our understanding of what a monument can be? Will the project nurture community pride and dignity for groups rarely afforded Appalachian belonging and provide continued usefulness in and for the communities represented? Does the project include a long-term plan for maintaining project memory and the monument created?
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4. Ethical & Realistic Budgeting
Does the plan include realistic use of funds to realize the project, with approximately 1/3 allocated to organizations/ organizers to support work on the project; approximately 1/3 allocated to artists and processes, including historical research and artistic design; and approximately 1/3 of the budget toward materials, installation, and maintenance? Does the budget indicate that project leaders, artists, oral history participants, and other collaborators will be fairly compensated? Does the proposal indicate what additional non-MAAP funds will be utilized or sought?
Additional Considerations for Evaluation of Applications
Deliberations may also consider whether the final grantees represent a variety of locations and a range of underrepresented groups, themes, and types of monuments; whether the project teams have the skills and relationships necessary to complete the project; project feasibility; and the roles grantees might play in a broader network.
Ethics & Generative AI Tools
Creation, as a human and social act, is at the core of our work. AI-generated content (images/text, etc) has considerable negative environmental and social costs, including in Appalachia where the inequitable distribution of the costs and benefits of resource extraction have produced and continue to produce unjust damage to human and ecological health and well-being. Furthermore, AI generation of art and written texts plagiarizes and undermines artists and writers working to make a living in a variety of professions.
While we discourage use of generative AI in MAAP processes, we recognize that in some instances AI tools may be integral to knowledge production and accessibility. If you plan to employ GenAI in your MAAP application process and/or project, we invite you to reach out to us to discuss. In the spirit of centering environmental justice communities, artist/writer expertise, and transparency, we request that MAAP applicants and projects cite any use of generative AI as one would any other resource material.
For additional information, please see James Branscome, “The Data Center Rush in Appalachia,” Daily Yonder, January 2026, and Gianluca Guidi et al, “Environmental Burden of United States Data Centers in the Artificial Intelligence Era,” Nov 2024.
How to Apply
Applications will be accepted via the online form until 5pm on Tuesday, October 13, 2026.
Download a PDF of the Call for Proposals, including the application template, here.
Please contact us with any questions at maav@vt.edu.