Henry Luce Foundation

07/23/2025

For the Luce Scholars, cultivating leadership skills goes beyond the four walls of a classroom.

It’s about leaping out of your comfort zone, embodying openness and connection.

Leaving behind familiar surroundings is just the first step. Discover some of the other lessons we learned at the Luce Scholars’ Mid-Year Meeting in Malaysia:

The air in Penang, Malaysia, was thick with moisture, although it was not nearly as heavy as my nervousness. I had come for a week as an observer to join my colleagues from the Henry Luce Foundation’s Luce Scholars Program and our partner, The Asia Foundation. Each Luce Scholar spends a year in As...

07/09/2025

“This is a program that is here to grow you as a learner, as an explorer, and as a leader.”

Frank Najarro-Izquierdo shares his insights for future Luce Scholars here:

We recently sat down with former Luce Scholars to answer frequently asked questions about the Program. Frank Najarro-Izquierdo was a Luce Scholar in 2019-2020. He spent the year in Laos.     Finalist Weekend Finalist Weekend was among Najarro-Izquierdo’s favorite parts of the Luce Scholar experi...

06/16/2025

The Henry Luce Foundation will increase its grantmaking budget by up to $25 million over the next two years, creating a pool of dedicated funds to help address the critical challenges facing democratic institutions and civil society.

The Foundation’s Board and staff recognize that the organizations with which we partner and the fields in which we work are under significant financial, legal, and political stress now. Indeed, the values we cherish as a foundation and which are essential to the realization of a just, equitable, and democratic future for all—including the freedom to teach and learn, the right and capacity of communities to define their own best futures, the sharing of knowledge across differences—these values are being questioned, undermined, and attacked beyond what we have seen in our lifetimes.

Read our statement here:

The Henry Luce Foundation will increase its grantmaking budget by up to $25 million over the next two years, creating a pool of dedicated funds to help address the critical challenges facing democratic institutions and civil society. The Foundation’s Board and staff recognize that the organization...

06/05/2025

For , we’re reflecting on the long-term impacts of sustainable community development 🌎

Through our Luce on Southeast Asia (LuceSEA) Initiative, we worked to bolster existing knowledge with research across North American and Southeast Asian scholars and institutions.

This knowledge engaged areas of transnational interest such as environmental history and climate change; social and livelihood transitions in rural and urban communities; histories, mobilities and identities among Southeast Asian communities; and documentation of community history and memory.

The result: 20 grants, over $15 million total, invested in long-term community enrichment and sustainability.

Learn more about the initiative: https://hluce.org/initiatives/lucesea-initiative/

06/04/2025

Introducing: Luce Change, a podcast exploring how democracy is lived, shaped, and shared.

he biweekly series explores how Luce grantees are reimagining and reinvigorating democratic culture. The podcast will take an honest look at how democracy, in the US and elsewhere, shapes and is shaped by the efforts of communities.

Too often, we talk about democracy as if it stands apart from culture and history—as if it’s a state of being that simply arrives, replacing whatever came before. But maybe we ought to think about democracy as a system or structure that enables communities to thrive in ways that are consistent with their histories, cultural traditions, and languages?

If democracy is, at its core, a strategy for collective self-determination, then culture is not a side note—it’s central to the democratic project. Democracy lives in the everyday: in how we gather, listen, make meaning, and make change.

At a time when trust in democracy is eroding and access to justice remains deeply unequal, this perspective on democracy—as something deeply interwoven with our beliefs, values, and aspirations—is especially important.

Be sure to subscribe and pre-save our first episode, launching on June 17, where host Sean Buffington speaks with Vivek Maru CEO of Namati, a Luce grantee working to put the power of law in the hands of the people.

Listen and subscribe anywhere you get podcasts! Or head to hluce.org/luce-change-podcast to listen on the web!

06/04/2025

What does it look like when religious communities and the LGBTQIA+ community come together? This , we're highlighting Luce grantees that foster interconnectedness across diverse communities. Learn more on our site.

Spiritual Wellness is at the core of The Lighthouse Foundation's work. Spiritual Welles means that healing and connection are essential to liberation. They create spaces that combat social isolation, address religious trauma, and promote mental well-being, helping people reclaim spirituality on their own terms and build strong, affirming communities.

Through Queering Faith, The National LGBTQ Task Force emphasizes that equity and religious freedom are interconnected and mutually reinforcing. They provide resources and support to constituents who affirm the need for equity for all LGBTQ+ people as an inherent value of their faith or secular beliefs. This work emphasizes re-shaping the faith narrative in the media and in public spaces by underscoring that LGBTQ people exist as shapers of religious communities and influencers in our society.

Learn more about our Religion and Theology Program here: https://bit.ly/43gGQwL

05/18/2025

At Luce, we support museums that act as open forums for creative expression and visual arts-centered dialogues about the past, present, and future of the United States.

For , we’re highlighting " The Shape of Power: Stories of Race and American Sculpture,” at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in DC.

Drawing from the largest collection of American sculpture in the world, The Shape of Power takes this understudied field. It interrogates how sculpture intersects with the history of race in the United States.

Its interrogation of art as an expression of resistance underscores the value of the museum space.

Learn more about our American Art program: https://buff.ly/OsjFG00

05/17/2025

Last month, The Texas Tribune presented a full-day program on "Telling the story of religion in Texas through journalism" in partnership with the Institute for Diversity and Civic Life, Religion News Service and Southern Methodist University's Religious Studies department.

This Luce-sponsored symposium tackled the complexity of Texas and religion, asking questions like: How is this diversity of faith represented in the media? What stories are being told—and what’s being overlooked?

Catch up on some of the conversations here:

The full-day program examined Texas’ religious diversity and how journalism shapes the public’s understanding of faith

05/15/2025

Now showing at the Denver Art Museum: “Kent Monkman: History is Painted by the Victors.”

Through his painting, Monkman pushes forward an understanding of the lived experiences of Indigenous people today while confronting colonial injustices.

Don’t miss this show at the Denver Art Museum until August 17, 2025.
https://buff.ly/BHxOoBC

Kent Monkman (Fisher River Cree Nation), Compositional Study for The Sparrow, 2022. Acrylic paint on canvas, 43 × 36 in. From the collection of Brian A. Tschumper. © and image courtesy of Kent Monkman

05/14/2025

As part of AAPI Heritage Month, we’re spotlighting Samip Mallick, founder of the South Asian American Digital Archive (SAADA).

SAADA is a Luce-supported storytelling center that aims to preserve and share the stories of the diverse South Asian American community through an innovative digital archive model.

Learn more about their work in this conversation between Mallick and Luce board member Sewell Chan:
https://buff.ly/BGFtdAJ

05/09/2025

Now Open: “Ruth Asawa: Retrospective” at the SF Museum of Modern Art.

This first posthumous retrospective showcases Asawa’s groundbreaking exploration of materials and forms. It also explores her impact on San Francisco as an educator and civic leader.

Open until September 2. Don’t miss it!
https://buff.ly/2Dxzpl5

Pictured: Ruth Asawa, Untitled (BMC.52, Dancers), ca. 1948-49; private collection; © 2025 Ruth Asawa Lanier, Inc., courtesy David Zwirner; photo courtesy Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco