Mellon Foundation awards $1.8M to expand BoriCorridor project
The grant will support Ágora Cultural Architects in expanding its network of Puerto Rican cultural organizations and artistic performances in the U.S.
With a $1.8 million grant, the Mellon Foundation has renewed its support for Ágora Cultural Architects and its BoriCorridor project for another three years.
The funding will allow the organization to expand its efforts in identifying cultural organizations that serve Puerto Rican communities in the United States and facilitate more performances by local artists for the diaspora.
In addition to the more than 200 organizations in the Northeastern U.S. already listed in the BoriCorridor digital directory, Ágora Cultural Architects will include others in areas such as Washington, D.C., Florida, Texas and Chicago, where Puerto Rican communities are well established.
“This grant from the Mellon Foundation is transformative for an organization like Ágora, whose mission is to make our Puerto Rican and Latin American artists visible and strengthen their ties with communities outside the homeland. But it also represents a recognition of the impact and valuable contributions that Puerto Ricans have long made to the U.S. nation,” said Elsa Mosquera, founder of Ágora Cultural Architects and creator of BoriCorridor.
This is the second grant Mellon has awarded Ágora Cultural Architects for the development of BoriCorridor. The initial $700,000 grant funded the research phase and the artistic tour conducted in 2023 and 2024.
“The call we make to those Puerto Rican cultural organizations or those that work with Puerto Rican communities in the United States is that we want them to be part of the BoriCorridor family, to highlight all that they do for our people, to achieve more artistic collaborations and to share our cultural richness,” Mosquera added.
The new grant will also support the continued production of the BoriCorridor Tour, bringing more artists from Puerto Rico to perform on various stateside stages. The first tour began last year, featuring performances in New York, Boston and Hartford.
This year, the second edition of the BoriCorridor Tour will expand to Holyoke, Massachusetts, and Philadelphia.
The lineup for the 2025 BoriCorridor Tour, running from March to October, includes Marian Pabón, Haciendo Punto en Otro Son, Los Rivera Destino, and Josean Ortiz with his play “Tite Curet Alonso: Lírica y Poesía.”
