Doris Duke Charitable Foundation Announces First Recipients in Performing Artists Initiative

The Doris Duke Artist Awards recognize artists who have produced a significant body of work within the past decade—work that has already been supported and recognized by national citations, awards, prizes and/or grants, including at least one grant supported entirely or in part by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation.

Recognizing that many artists are dependent on project grants, that many grants do not cover the full gamut of creative and life needs that artists encounter, and that many grants for artists are short term, modest and often unpredictable, the Doris Duke Artist Awards were deliberately designed to give artists significant, flexible, dependable multi-year support, freeing artists (if they wish) from the traditional project treadmill and giving them the opportunity to work and plan over longer arcs of time.

Each Doris Duke Artist will receive an unrestricted grant of $225,000. An additional $25,000 will be available specifically to support artist driven efforts to connect meaningfully to audiences. Artists who save up to $25,000 for retirement during the grant period—whether from this grant or from other funds—will be entitled to an additional $25,000 for retirement on a 1:1 matching basis, bringing the total potential award value to $275,000 per artist. Artist recipients will determine their own individual payment schedules, and may elect to access their funds over 3, 4 or 5 years. A full array of services for artists, including counseling, financial advice, planning and more, will be available for each grantee through a unique partnership undertaken with Creative Capital Foundation, which has an unmatched record in working with artists in an individually tailored, responsive and creative way.

Approximately 20 new grant recipients will be chosen annually for these awards from 2013-2016, bringing the total number of Doris Duke Artist Award recipients to at least 100 artists. The remainder of the special allocation will support at least 50 artists residencies in a program whose guidelines are now publicly available and which will announce its first grants in 2013, and a second artist grant program launching in 2014 that will award $80,000 grants to at least 100 additional artists who have had or will have significant impact on their fields but who have yet to receive the qualifying level of national recognition already achieved by Doris Duke Artists as noted above.