Press Release | DoPT Mellon Grant Announcement
Mellon Foundation Awards $1.5 Million Grant to Department of Public Transformation to Support Creative Rural Places
August 25, 2025 | Granite Falls, MN: Department of Public Transformation (DoPT) is honored to announce it has been awarded a $1.5 million grant from the Mellon Foundation. Through its support for the arts and humanities, Mellon opens and activates cultural expression to enable the understanding and acceptance necessary for just communities to thrive.
This transformative investment will broaden DoPT’s Activate Rural program with expanded resources to support more projects and places from 2025 to 2028. Activate Rural supports third places, creative space use, and building activation projects—art galleries and cultural centers, creative coffee shops and taprooms, theaters, artist studios, performance and event venues, multi-use creative places, and more—that inspire, motivate, and open up possibilities for rural communities with a population of 20,000 or less across the United States and the Native Nations that share that geography. DoPT offers support, peer learning, and resources through a curated Learning Lab cohort, workshop series, and 1:1 coaching sessions to artists, creative entrepreneurs, organizations, and small business owners.
“Across the country, creative third places are emerging in rural communities—sometimes quietly, sometimes with fanfare—and residents are carving out spaces that reflect their hopes, cultures, and ways of being together,” said Ash Hanson, CEO of DoPT. “These places don’t just offer activities and events. They offer belonging and connection.”
Activate Rural launched with the 2023–2025 Learning Lab Cohort of five building activation projects in rural Minnesota communities. The Learning Lab provides grant funding and ongoing curated technical assistance through monthly project check-ins, exchange visits, workshops and gatherings, and allocated staff time to support the development of the project’s operations, activations, and stewardship. During the inaugural Learning Lab, every $1 of Activate Rural funding leveraged an average of $4.30 from other public and private funding sources for the five activation projects.
With support from the Mellon Foundation, DoPT will continue to offer the Learning Lab in Minnesota while expanding to North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, and the Tribal Nations that share this geography. The 2026–2028 Learning Lab will support a cohort of 10 place-based building projects leading creative transformation.
“I know from personal experience that building a creative place in a rural community can be a lonely and overwhelming process,” Sarina Otaibi, Activate Rural Program Director, reflected on the program’s impact, “The Activate Rural program was developed to directly support the activators and artists doing the hard work of curating space for community connection when we need it most.”
Mellon’s investment allows DoPT to expand access to Activate Rural resources to rural activators across the country through a virtual workshop series and 1:1 coaching sessions. In-person workshops in Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Montana will continue sharing Activate Rural learnings, tools, and resources. DoPT will host a virtual Activate Rural Summit in 2025 and an in-person Activate Rural Summit in 2027 to connect, inspire, and celebrate the activation of creative third places in rural communities. To learn more about Activate Rural, visit https://www.publictransformation.org/activate-rural
About Department of Public Transformation (DoPT): Department of Public Transformation is a nonprofit organization that develops creative strategies for increased community connection, civic engagement, and equitable participation in rural places. More information at www.publictransformation.org.
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