The Doris Duke Charitable Foundation this week announced a new initiative that will grant $50 million to individual performing artists over the next ten years.
The artists, who will be chosen through peer review as opposed to an application process, will receive as much as $275,000 from the organization. Doris Duke said it will award 200 artists who practice in the fields of contemporary dance, jazz and theater.
Foundation president Ed Henry called the initiative a “radical vote of confidence,” saying that most artists are struggling to stay afloat at a time when support for the arts is being scaled back across the country.
Named for the famous tobacco heiress and philanthropist, the Doris Duke Foundation was founded in 1996 with concentrations in the arts, the environment, medical research and child-abuse prevention. The foundation’s new performing arts initiative will begin in 2012, marking the 100th anniversary of Duke’s birth.
Visit www.ddcf.org for more information.
