Doris Duke Tabbs Six Performing Artists in the Fields of Jazz, Dance and Theater Receive Up to $275,000 Each, Totaling $1.65 Million in Doris Duke Artist Awards
New York, July 9, 2019 — The Doris Duke Charitable Foundation (DDCF) announced today the names of the 2019 Doris Duke Artists, each receiving an award of $275,000 intended as an investment in and celebration of these artists’ ongoing contributions to the fields of contemporary dance, jazz and theater. A total of $250,000 of the prize is completely unrestricted, and $25,000 is dedicated to encouraging savings for retirement or later life needs.
This year’s Doris Duke Artists are:
- Donald Byrd (Dance)
- Terri Lyne Carrington (Jazz)
- Michelle Ellsworth (Dance)
- Marcus Gardley (Theater)
- George Lewis (Jazz)
- Lauren Yee (Theater) (author of Samsara, Ching Chong Chinaman and Cambodian Rock Band)“We could not be more excited to share the names of the 2019 Doris Duke Artists,” said Maurine Knighton, program director for the arts at the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. “They have earned this recognition through an incredibly rigorous nomination and review process conducted by a body of their peers. The work of these six artists has inspired creativity, new ideas and awe across the arts sector and beyond. With the money from this award, they will be able to invest in their own well-being in ways that create the right conditions for them to continue to flourish and do their best work.”
About the Doris Duke Artist Awards
The Doris Duke Charitable Foundation designed the Doris Duke Artist Awards to invest in exemplary individual artists in contemporary dance, jazz and theater work who have demonstrated their artistic vitality and ongoing commitment to their field. The award is not a lifetime achievement award. Rather, it is a deep investment in the creative potential of dedicated artists. The foundation aims to empower Doris Duke Artists through the freedom of unrestricted support to take creative risks, explore new ideas, and pay for important professional and personal needs not typically funded by the project-related grants that dominate arts funding. While the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation initially conceived the Doris Duke Artists Awards as part of a larger $50 million special initiative that finished in 2017, recognition of the program’s importance in helping artists thrive spurred the foundation to cement a place for the flexible awards in its core strategy to support the arts. With the 2019 class, the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation will have awarded nearly $31.3 million to 114 noteworthy artists through the Doris Duke Artist Awards since May 2012. To read more about the Doris Duke Artist Awards and the 2019 Doris Duke Artists, visitwww.dorisdukeartistawards.org.
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 the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation focuses its support on contemporary dance, jazz and theater artists, and the organizations that nurture, present and produce them. In 2015, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) awarded the foundation with a 2014 National Medal of Arts, presented by President Barack Obama, in special recognition of DDCF’s support of creative expression across the United States and “bold commitment” to artistic risk, which has helped artists, musicians, dancers and actors share their talents and enriched the cultural life of the nation. For more information, please visit www.ddcf.org.
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