Thanks to funding from the Mellon Foundation, the National Trust’s African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund is taking the lead role, in partnership with artists Rashid Johnson, Julie Mehretu, Adam Pendleton, and Ellen Gallagher, in fully rehabilitating and activating the Nina Simone Childhood Home. Previous funders Hillsdale Fund, Covington Foundation, World Monuments Fund, and Community Foundation of Western North Carolina also continue to support the work.

Currently, the Action Fund team is working with Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects and Mathews Architecture to complete planning and design documents for the home’s interior and landscape. The planning is scheduled to be completed by late 2022, with rehabilitation work anticipated to begin in early 2023.

The National Trust is seeking qualified contractors to complete the project. The full project scope will be released via RFP in late 2022.

As part of the ongoing efforts to protect and rehabilitate the house, the North Carolina National Register Advisory Committee has approved a nomination to list Simone’s childhood home on the National Register of Historic Places. The Department of the Interior is now considering it for final approval.