Data Theatre Collaborative Awarded Mellon Foundation Grant

Prof. Moira Zellner played a key role in the work of Northeastern’s Data Theatre Collective, which, in February 2025, received a $500,000 grant from the Mellon Foundation. Prof. Zellner is part of an interdisciplinary Northeastern team, led by Dani Snyder-Young (Theatre Department), that won a Higher Learning Open Call grant from the Mellon Foundation – the nation’s largest funder of the arts, culture, and humanities. The team received funding for their project on Data Theatre for Civic Deliberation – to translate quantitative data into embodied storytelling through data theatre workshops and participatory performance events, enabling community stakeholders to engage in decision-making about local issues like gentrification and urban green space development.

The Mellon Foundation announced more than $14 million in funding to support 30 colleges and universities across the nation to develop humanities-grounded research and curricular projects. The open call, spearheaded by Mellon’s Higher Learning program area, is part of the Foundation’s ongoing efforts to further democratize access to humanities funding among a broader range of higher education institutions, including regional public universities, minority-serving institutions, and first-time Mellon grantees.

The Data Theatre Collective’s project, Civic Data Theatre, spans several years with the goals of “develop[ing] novel, humanistic ways to engage diverse groups in data-centered civic decision-making processes; increas[ing] self-efficacy surrounding civic participation among people who are often left out of municipal decision-making processes; increas[ing] policymakers’ understanding and incorporation of residents’ perspectives; iterat[ing] and disseminat[ing] Civic Data Theatre as a humanistic method for supporting justice-oriented participation and action in civic and academic settings.”

The Collective includes a multi-disciplinary team of Northeastern faculty with the aim to “reimagine how community meetings and data-informed democracies work, making government decision-making accessible to people who might otherwise be excluded from or alienated by it.” Faculty members include, in addition to Prof. Zellner (Public Policy & Urban Affairs) , Dani Snyder-Young (Theatre), Michael Arnold Mages (Art + Design), Rahul Bhargava (Art + Design), Jonathan Carr (Theatre), Antonio Ocampo-Guzman (Theatre), Laura Perovich (Design), and PhD student Angelique Motunrayo Folasade Akiya C-Dina.