Resource

Smart Growth America has been awarded a two-year, $450,000 grant from the Mellon Foundation to launch a groundbreaking research and storytelling initiative exploring the underrecognized histories and cultural landscape of Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) suburban communities in the American South.

The project, Outside In, will gather and interpret stories of migration, belonging, and placemaking in the decades following the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act, illuminating how AAPI communities have reshaped the Southern suburban landscape by retrofitting strip malls, transforming neighborhoods, and reshaping the region’s cultural and physical landscape.

“This project honors and uplifts the lived experiences that have transformed Southern suburbs into a more complex, culturally rich landscape,” said Marian Liou, Director of Arts & Culture at Smart Growth America. “We’re thrilled that the Mellon Foundation recognizes the importance of telling these stories and embedding them within broader conversations about history, planning, and cultural equity.”

Through oral histories, archival and site-based research, and community-driven artmaking, the project will center memory, identity, and belonging in the places these communities call home. It will also build a cross-sector network of artists, cultural workers, historians, planners, designers, and community leaders to support long-term preservation, advocacy, and equitable development led by AAPI communities.

The two-year initiative will take place across several Southern regions, with Smart Growth America convening and facilitating community partners, artists, and researchers to map significant places, interpret shared histories, and design strategies for cultural placekeeping and community stewardship. Findings and creative works from the project will be shared through exhibitions, public programs, digital storytelling, and a final report from Smart Growth America.

This award builds on Smart Growth America’s body of work at the intersection of arts, culture, and planning. SGA’s Arts and Culture program advances cultural equity within housing, transportation, climate, and governance through cultural organizing and power-building led by communities of color. Artists, culture bearers, cultural workers, and designers are essential co-leaders, collaborators, supporters, and instigators in this work.