The Monument Lab Fellowship program returns for a second year in a row with a new cohort of 2025 fellows around the theme and practice of Learning.
As an integral part of our work, the Fellows program is designed to gather and support leaders from the disciplines of public art, public history, poetry, civics, law, new media, ecology, and/or education in developing breakthrough ideas that aim to shift mindsets and realities in the field of monument changemaking. Fellows are invited to pursue a new project or further develop an existing public-facing project already in their pipeline that can be brought forward through a Monument Lab partnership.
The Monument Lab Fellowship program was created in 2019 to recognize and support individuals around the country whose ongoing projects addressed long term inequities in monuments and engage new creative approaches to public art, history, and memory. Across three previous cohorts, Fellows explored questions of how to memorialize the past as a means to foster new narratives and offer critical and creative memory interventions in public spaces.
The 2025 Fellowship cohort is composed of four groundbreaking educators whose work powerfully advances justice by reimagining commemorative practices as opportunities for individual and collective learning. Through an internal nomination and vetting process, Monument Lab selected Danielle Boyer, Tracie D. Hall, Cierra Kaler-Jones, and Sasha Stiles as our cross-sector Fellows this year.
- Danielle Boyer (she/her) is an Indigenous (Anishinaabe - Enrolled Sault Tribe) youth robotics inventor looking at how emerging technologies can be ethically used to drive Indigenous-led efforts for cultural preservation.
- Tracie D. Hall (she/her) is a Distinguished Professor of Practice at the University of Washington Information School in Seattle, Washington. Formerly executive director of the American Library Association, Hall was the first Black woman to helm that organization in its 150-year history and has previously served in key library, arts, and philanthropic leadership roles nationwide including Seattle, New Haven, Hartford, and Queens Public Libraries.
- Cierra Kaler-Jones (she/her), Ph.D., is a storyteller, teaching artist, cultural organizer, and researcher dedicated to using the arts as a tool for liberation. Her heart's work includes cultivating Black Girls S.O.A.R. (Scholarship, Organizing, Arts, Resistance), a community-based program that nurtures Black girls by providing support and platforms for artistic expression, scholarly research, and community organizing to challenge injustice and inspire change in schools.
- Sasha Stiles is a first-generation Kalmyk-American poet and artist whose work bridges tradition and innovation through hybrid poetics, generative imagination, and collaborative intelligence.
The 2025 fellowship will be six months long, running from April 1–October 1, 2025. Each fellow will receive a $20,000 personal award and $15,000 in exploratory funds for their project. Fellows will produce a final report in the form of a proposal, plan, essay, or another format to share or carry their project forward.