That Will Reach New Audiences and Increase Demand for Jazz, Dance and Theatre
The Doris Duke Charitable Foundation (DDCF) today announced the 24 pairs of artists and arts organizations nationwide receiving a total of $2,430,000 in Implementation grants for projects that aim to drive public demand for jazz, theatre and/or contemporary dance. This funding is part of DDCF’s Building Demand for the Arts program, which launched in 2013 and supports partnerships focused on using the performing arts in unique ways to develop meaningful connections with targeted audiences.
Implementation grants support organizations working with artists, during a 90-day residency over a period of three years, to implement previously crafted initiatives and projects that have strong potential to spark demand for the arts in their communities. Each grant also includes an extra $5,000 dedicated specifically to evaluation of the funded project.
“We believe that strong, creative partnerships between artists and organizations have the potential to nurture a public that is deeply invested in and understanding of the way the performing arts enriches it,” said Cheryl Ikemiya, senior program officer for the Arts at DDCF. “We are delighted to support this outstanding cohort of grantees and are confident that they will act upon this shared belief and engage their communities in bold and unconventional ways.”
The recipients of the 2016 Building Demand for the Arts Implementation grants are:
- 651 ARTS (Brooklyn, NY) in partnership with Okwui Okpokwasili with a grant of $60,000 to support the artistic voice of young and emerging Brooklyn-based artists of African descent.
- Harlem Stage (New York, NY) in partnership with Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah with a grant of $115,000 to build demand for jazz among young professionals and college students in New York City.
- American Conservatory Theater (San Francisco, CA) in partnership with Byron Au Yong with a grant of $115,000 to expand access to and engagement with live performing arts among young Asian American technology professionals.
- ArtsEmerson (Boston, MA) in partnership with Daniel Beaty with a grant of $115,000 to broaden the participation of Asian, black and Latino/a populations in the city’s cultural offerings.
- Brooklyn Arts Exchange (Brooklyn, NY) in partnership with Dan Fishback with a grant of $115,000 to build grassroots demand for the performing arts among the LGBTQ community.
- Casita Maria (Bronx, NY) in partnership with Arturo O’Farrill with a grant of $60,000 to work with the Hispanic, African American and Afro-Caribbean populations to continue the tradition of great jazz in the borough.
- The Cedar Cultural Center (Minneapolis, MN) in partnership with Hodan Abdirahman and Dalmar Yare with a grant of $115,000 to present and revive “Somali jazz” among Minnesota’s Somali immigrant community.
- Center Theatre Group (Los Angeles, CA) in partnership with Naomi Iizuka with a grant of $115,000 to activate demand for live theatre within an already musically vibrant neighborhood.
- Cornerstone Theater Company (Los Angeles, CA) in partnership with Eisa Davis with a grant of $115,000 to create a Story Circle Platform that translates the company’s analog, in-person engagement practices onto a digital format.
- CounterPulse (San Francisco, CA) in partnership with Jodi Lomask with a grant of $115,000 to build demand for the performing arts among the “tech creative” community of the Bay Area.
- Eastside Arts Alliance (Oakland, CA) in partnership with José Navarrete with a grant of $60,000 to encourage demand for experimental, contemporary and interdisciplinary performance art in the community of East Oakland.
- Ellis Marsalis Center for Music (New Orleans, LA) in partnership with Jesse McBride with a grant of $115,000 to reinvigorate and bring the modern jazz repertoire to young musicians and new audiences in the area.
- InterAct Theatre Company (Philadelphia, PA) in partnership with Rick Shiomi with a grant of $115,000 to expand on efforts to build demand for theater made for and by the Asian American community.
- La Peña Cultural Center (Berkeley, CA) in partnership with DANCE MONKS (Mirah Moriarty and Rodrigo Esteva) with a grant of $60,000 to implement powerful interdisciplinary arts that hear, represent and honor the needs of the Mexican immigrant community in the East Bay area.
- Lower Manhattan Cultural Council (New York, NY) in partnership with Jennifer Monson with a grant of $115,000 to continue to offer the community, especially youth and seniors, new ways to engage with dance.
- Mixed Blood Theatre (Minneapolis, MN) in partnership with Mark Valdez with a grant of $115,000 to build more engaged, mutual relationships with immigrants and refugees in the theatre’s home neighborhood of Cedar-Riverside.
- The New Group (New York, NY) in partnership with Thomas Bradshaw with a grant of $115,000 to implement a swathe of initiatives aimed at developing a diverse audience more representative of the city.
- On the Boards (Seattle, WA) in partnership with Claudia La Rocco with a grant of $115,000 to build greater demand for contemporary dance by expanding public awareness of the form’s broad variety and impact on society through the addition of academic tools to OntheBoards.tv.
- Painted Bride Art Center (Philadelphia, PA) in partnership with Marty Pottenger with a grant of $115,000 to execute an arts-based civic engagement project focused on social issues that will build demand for the performing arts among Philadelphia’s young artists and audiences.
- Performance Space 122 (New York, NY) in partnership with Yehuda Duenyas with a grant of $115,000 to use technology as a gateway for reaching out to young adults already engaged in social media and online gaming.
- St. Ann’s Warehouse (Brooklyn, NY) in partnership with Geoff Sobelle with a grant of $115,000 to implement an immersive digital project that will link and introduce the new theatre to its new neighbors and social environment.
- Su Teatro Cultural and Performing Arts Center (Denver, CO) in partnership with Daniel Valdez and Tony Garcia with a grant of $60,000 to build the capacity of both artists and audiences to continue the Mexican-American tradition of using art to express resistance, sustenance and hope.
- Theatre Communications Group (New York, NY) in partnership with Maurice Decaul with a grant of $115,000 to create a replicable, interactive curriculum that introduces veterans and military personnel to the art and practice of theatre.
- The Yard (Chilmark, MA) in partnership with David Parker and Jeffrey Kazin, Deborah Damast, Godfrey Mulwuya, Marvin Novogrodski, Dian Dong and HT Chen, Leo Manzari and Aaron Jungels with a grant of $60,000 to build demand for a full range of contemporary dance among parents, children and teachers in the community of Martha’s Vineyard.
About the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation
The mission of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation (DDCF) is to improve the quality of people's lives through grants supporting the performing arts, environmental conservation, medical research and child well-being, and through preservation of the cultural and environmental legacy of Doris Duke's properties. The Arts Program of DDCF focuses its support on contemporary dance, jazz and theatre artists, and the organizations that nurture, present and produce them. For more information, please visit www.ddcf.org.