Overview
The Doris Duke Performing Artists Initiative is a special initiative of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation (DDCF), providing pioneering support to individual artists while adding $50 million to the Foundation’s substantial existing commitment to contemporary dance, jazz, theatre and related interdisciplinary work. Over the course of ten years, the three-part Performing Artists Initiative will provide awards to more than 200 artists, as well as a range of dance companies, theaters and presenters.
The initiative will consist of artist residencies as well as two tiers of fellowships. Unlike other grants, the new DDCF fellowships will not be project based. Instead, they will give artists flexible, multi-year support, enabling them to take creative risks, explore new ideas and pay for important needs such as healthcare. The fellowships will also offer grantees unprecedented incentives such as retirement funds and additional support for audience development and arts education.
The Performing Artists Initiative represents a landmark investment on the part of DDCF in the potential of individual artists and their future viability, in the core fields of the performing arts supported by Doris Duke during her lifetime.
Award Categories
Doris Duke Leading Artists
Doris Duke Arts Fellows
Doris Duke Artist Residencies
Purpose of Initiative
The Doris Duke Performing Artists Initiative is designed to empower, invest in and celebrate artists through a national program that offers flexible, multi-year funding. By using an unconventional grant-making approach, the initiative will respond to financial and funding challenges specific to this community.
- Retirement savings: Unlike employees at most corporations, artists are rarely able to take advantage of 401k matching programs or to save enough for retirement. The opportunity for artists to take advantage of a matching program for retirement funds is a truly unprecedented benefit of these fellowships.
- Typically unfunded professional and personal needs: Artists often need to travel, conduct research or investigate new modes of expression in order to do their work. They may need to enhance their expertise in areas beyond their core competency, such as marketing or financial planning. They may struggle to meet life needs such as child care and health insurance. The highly flexible DDCF fellowships will enable artists to pay such costs, which typically are not covered by project grants.
- Varying cash flow: Because their incomes can fluctuate significantly from year to year, many artists have difficulty in planning their finances. DDCF fellows will be able to tailor the grants to their cash flow needs, stabilizing their professional and personal budgets by choosing how much of the grant to withdraw in any given year. This customized approach will help artists get what they individually require to thrive in their fields.
- Stronger relationships between artists and arts organizations: Both artists and arts organizations need strong, collaborative relationships with one another in order to thrive. The DDCF residencies will encourage ongoing cooperation and trust between artists and organizations as they work to tackle the field's greatest challenge: engaging new audiences and better connecting with the communities they serve.
Background & Rationale
For additional information about the background and rationale for this initiative, please see: