THE DORIS DUKE CHARITABLE FOUNDATION AWARDS MORE THAN $1.5 MILLION TO 11 ARTS ORGANIZATIONS THROUGH ITS FUND FOR NATIONAL PROJECTS

Eleven National Projects Receive Grants of Up to $225,000 Each to Strengthen the National Infrastructure of Contemporary Dance, Jazz, Theatre and Presenting Fields


The Doris Duke Charitable Foundation (DDCF) announced today that it is awarding 11 performing arts organizations with grants, totaling $1.548 million, to support projects that will strengthen the national infrastructure and improve conditions for performing artists in the fields of contemporary dance, jazz and theatre. As recipients of grants from DDCF’s Fund for National Projects, these organizations are empowered to fulfill their efforts to engage audiences across the country and significantly advance the health and vitality of their respective fields.

Six of the 11 projects are receiving first-time support from DDCF while five are receiving Phase II support to build and expand upon previously funded projects. Each grant contains funds for project costs as well as additional general operating support. DDCF is also fully funding all grantees at their requested amounts up to $225,000, including operating support.

“We are delighted to support six new projects that will benefit the national jazz, dance, theatre and presenting fields. This year’s projects are an exciting array and will be especially valuable in strengthening the bonds between arts and audiences, whether through research, messaging or performance, both in the U.S. and abroad,” said Ben Cameron, program director for the arts at DDCF. “Five previously funded projects have also shown special promise, and we are happy to offer them additional funding to continue to move forward in the future.”

DDCF’s 2015 Fund for National Projects grants will support the following six new projects:

• “Performing Our Future,” a project from Roadside Theatre at Appalshop, Inc. in Whitesburg, KY, in partnership with Imagining America and Lafayette College’s Economic Empowerment and Global Learning Project, that will receive $225,000 to generate and share knowledge about how economically poor communities and local colleges can use the performing arts and other local assets to improve their economy in a way that advances community cohesion and equity;
• The launch of a series of engagement and messaging strategies from Arts Midwest in Minneapolis, MN that will receive $225,000 to highlight how existing public values in society intersect with the values inherent in the arts in order to emphasize the arts as a valuable and expected part of everyday life;
• “Global Exposure,” a new project of American Dance Abroad and funded through Fractured Atlas, that will receive $225,000 to increase the visibility of U.S. dance abroad, assist U.S. artists and international programmers with audience development, and train artists to be better prepared for international engagement;
• The creation and presentation of the first Albert Murray Symposium on Jazz, Culture and Society at Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York, NY that will receive $225,000 to bring leaders from around the country and world to strengthen jazz’s cultural infrastructure;
• An in-cinema series at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York, NY that will receive $225,000 to screen the productions of leading American dance companies;
• A national convening held by the New England Foundation for the Arts in Boston, MA that will receive $101,250 to gather artists creating new work about the military experience and community to investigate with military and health-care stakeholders how creativity can build bridges between military and civilian experiences.

DDCF’s 2015 Fund for National Projects Phase II grants will support:

• A new digital publication platform by Danspace Project in New York, NY that will receive $112,500 to accompany the organization’s continued role as a practicum to the Institute for Curatorial Practice in Performance at Wesleyan University’s Center for the Arts;
• The advancement of Artful.ly, an online platform by Fractured Atlas in New York, NY, that will receive $84,375 to continue to enable artists and arts organizations to streamline their ticketing, marketing and fundraising operations;
• The expansion of the New Play Exchange by the National New Play Network in Washington, D.C. that will receive $56,250 to continue a database of new plays and playmakers that seeks to facilitate connections between playwrights and theaters;
• Deepened impact of the Triple Play Project from Theatre Development Fund in New York, NY, in partnership with Theatre Bay Area in San Francisco, CA, that will receive $39,375 to continue finding new ways to connect playwrights and theatre artists with their audiences;
• The development of a Choreographic Center by the Urban Bush Women in Brooklyn, NY that will receive $29,869 to help catalyze a shift in how the dance field identifies and nurtures women of color choreographers.

Since 2007, DDCF has funded 76 projects with grants totaling $10.489 million through the Fund for National Projects. This round of grants marks the eighth year that DDCF has provided support to performing arts organizations through the Fund for National Projects, and it is the second year that the foundation has offered Phase II grants. The next deadline to submit a letter of inquiry for 2016 Fund for National Projects is February 26, 2016. See www.ddcf.org for more information.


About the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation

The mission of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation is to improve the quality of people’s lives through grants supporting the performing arts, the environment, medical research and child well-being, and through preservation of the cultural and environmental legacy of Doris Duke’s properties. The Arts Program 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.