The Doris Duke Artist Award is undertaken by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and designed to "empower, invest in and celebrate artists by offering multi-year, unrestricted funding as a response to financial and funding challenges both unique to the performing arts and to each grantee". Started in 2011, the program supports artists in jazz, theatre, and contemporary dance. The Doris Duke Artist Award now offers up to $575,000 of individual support ($550,000 in unrestricted funding and up to $25,000 to artists who have demonstrated that they are saving towards later years of their career). The prize was $275,000 until it was doubled 2023 in commemoration of the 10th Anniversary of the program and Doris Duke Foundation's continued commitment to supporting individual performing artists. Two classes of Doris Duke Impact Awards totaling $80,000 were made in 2014 and 2015, but the program was discontinued after that.

Eligibility

Individuals are nominated for the award by nominators who are experts in the fields DDCF funds, as well as by previous Doris Duke Artists, and become eligible for the Award when they have won at least three designated national or regional grants, awards, or accolades. An anonymous panel reviews all eligible artists and recommends a class of recipients every year.

Recipients

2024 Artist Award Recipients * Nataki Garrett * Shamel Pitts * Acosia Red Elk *

esperanza spalding Esperanza Emily Spalding (born October 18, 1984), sometimes professionally known with the stylized name of esperanza spalding, is an American bassist, singer, songwriter, and composer. Her accolades include five Grammy Awards, a Boston Music Aw ...

Chay Yew Chay Yew () is a playwright and stage director who was born in Singapore. He was artistic director of the Victory Gardens Theater in Chicago from 2011 to 2020. Career Chay Yew's breakthrough work came from his early plays ''Porcelain'' and ' ...

* Miguel Zenón 2023 Arts Award Recipients * Chief Xian aTunde Adjuah * Charlotte Brathwaite * Ayodele Casel * Somi Kakoma a.k.a.

Somi Somi may refer to: * Gabriel Somi (born 1991), Swedish-born Syrian footballer * Jeon Somi (born 2001), Korean-Canadian singer * Somi (singer) (born 1981), American singer See also

* SomiSomi Soft Serve & Taiyaki, U.S based chain of dessert rest ...

* Rosy Simas * Kristina Wong 2021 Arts Award Recipients * Lileana Blain-Cruz * Teo Castellanos * Kris Davis * Dormeshia * Cynthia Oliver *

Danilo Pérez Danilo Pérez (born December 29, 1966) is a Panamanian pianist, composer, educator, and a social activist. His music is a blend of Panamanian roots with elements of Latin American folk music, jazz, European impressionism, African, and other mu ...

Wayne Shorter Wayne Shorter (August 25, 1933 – March 2, 2023) was an American jazz saxophonist, composer and bandleader. Shorter came to mainstream prominence in 1959 upon joining Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers, for whom he eventually became the primary comp ...

2020 Artist Award Recipients * Ana María Alvarez *

Andrew Cyrille Andrew Charles Cyrille (born November 10, 1939) is an American avant-garde jazz drummer. Throughout his career, he has performed both as a leader and a sideman in the bands of Walt Dickerson and Cecil Taylor, among others. AllMusic biographer ...

* Sean Dorsey *

Michael John Garcés Michael John Garcés (born 1967) is a Cuban-American playwright and director. He is the artistic director of Cornerstone Theater Company in Los Angeles. He has received several awards and grants, including the Alan Schneider Director Award and th ...

* Rennie Harris * Dael Orlandersmith * Cécile McLorin Salvant * Pam Tanowitz 2019 Artist Award Recipients *

Donald Byrd Donaldson Toussaint L'Ouverture Byrd II (December 9, 1932 – February 4, 2013) was an American jazz and rhythm & blues trumpeter, composer and vocalist. A sideman for many other jazz musicians of his generation, Byrd was one of the few h ...

Terri Lyne Carrington Terri Lyne Carrington (born August 4, 1965) is an American jazz drummer, composer, producer, and educator. She has played with Dizzy Gillespie, Stan Getz, Clark Terry, Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Joe Sample, Al Jarreau, Yellowjackets (band), ...

* Michelle Ellsworth *

Marcus Gardley Marcus Gardley (born 1977/1978) is an American poet, playwright and screenwriter from West Oakland, California. He is an ensemble member playwright at Victory Gardens Theater in Chicago and an assistant professor of Theater and Performance Studie ...

* George E. Lewis * Lauren Yee 2018 Artist Award Recipients *

Dee Dee Bridgewater Dee Dee Bridgewater (née Denise Garrett, May 27, 1950) is an American jazz singer and actress. She is a three-time Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter, as well as a Tony Award-winning stage actress. For 23 years, she was the host of National ...

* Regina Carter * Michelle Dorrance * Stefon Harris * Muriel Miguel * Okwui Okpokwasili *

Rosalba Rolón Rosalba Rolón (born 25 August 1951) is a Puerto Rican actress and director, who is known for being the founder and current artistic director of the Pregones Theater Company, a Bronx-based touring company that focuses on Latinx stories. Early l ...

2016 Artist Award Recipients * Kyle Abraham * Sharon Bridgforth * Dave Douglas * Faye Driscoll * Janie Geiser * Miguel Gutierrez *

Fred Hersch Fred Hersch (born October 21, 1955) is an American jazz pianist, composer, and a 17-time Grammy nominée. He was the first person to play weeklong engagements as a solo pianist at the Village Vanguard in New York City. He has recorded more than ...

* Wayne Horvitz *

Taylor Mac Taylor Mac Bowyer (born August 24, 1973) is an American actor, playwright, performance artist, director, producer, and singer-songwriter active mainly in New York City. In 2017, Mac was the recipient of a "Genius Grant" from the John D. and Cath ...

* Dianne McIntyre * Jason Moran * Mark Morris *

Lynn Nottage Lynn Nottage (born November 2, 1964) is an American playwright whose work often focuses on the experience of working-class people, particularly working-class people who are black. She has received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama twice: in 2009 for he ...

* Thaddeus Phillips * Will Power * Aparna Ramaswamy * Matana Roberts * Jen Shyu *

Wadada Leo Smith Ishmael Wadada Leo Smith (born December 18, 1941) is an American trumpeter and composer, working primarily in the field of creative music. He was one of three finalists for the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for Music for ''Ten Freedom Summers'', released on ...

* Morgan Thorson * Henry Threadgill 2015 Artist Award Recipients *

Muhal Richard Abrams Muhal Richard Abrams (born Richard Lewis Abrams; September 19, 1930 – October 29, 2017) was an American educator, administrator, composer, arranger, clarinetist, cellist, and jazz pianist in the free jazz medium. He recorded and toured the Uni ...

* Ambrose Akinmusire * Darcy James Argue * Camille A. Brown * Ronald K. Brown * Ann Carlson * Nora Chipaumire *

Steve Coleman Steve Coleman (born September 20, 1956) is an American saxophonist, composer, bandleader and music theorist. In 2014, he was named a MacArthur Fellow. Early life Steve Coleman was born and grew up in South Side, Chicago. He started playing ...

* Paul S. Flores * Cynthia Hopkins * Daniel Alexander Jones * Alonzo King * Okkyung Lee * Linda Parris-Bailey * Stephen Petronio * Mildred Ruiz-Sapp * Steven Sapp * Shawn Sides * Yosvany Terry * Doug Varone 2015 Impact Award Recipients * Becca Blackwell * Kris Davis * Lear deBessonet *

Mark Dresser Mark Dresser (born September 26, 1952) is an American double bass player and composer. Career Dresser was born in Los Angeles, California, United States. In the 1970s, he was a member of Black Music Infinity led by Stanley Crouch and performed w ...

* Michelle Ellsworth * Beth Gill * Milford Graves *

Ishmael Houston-Jones Ishmael Houston-Jones (born 1951) is a choreographer, author, performer, teacher, curator, and arts advocate known for his improvisational dance and language work. His work has been performed in New York City, across the United States, in Euro ...

* Morgan Jenness * Heather Kravas * Dohee Lee * Dianne McIntyre * Matt Mitchell * Carlos Murillo * Brooke O'Harra *

Susan Rethorst Susan Rethorst is an American choreographer, writer, and teacher. Biography Susan Rethorst was born in Washington, D.C., in 1951. She began creating modern dance works in 1975. Rethorst studied dance with Judith Dunn (of Judson Dance Theater) a ...

* Tyshawn Sorey * Henry Threadgill *

Reggie Workman Reginald "Reggie" Workman (born June 26, 1937) is an American avant-garde jazz and hard bop double bassist, recognized for his work with both John Coltrane and Art Blakey, in addition to Alice Coltrane, Mal Waldron, Max Roach, Archie Shepp, Tri ...

* Pamela Z 2014 Artist Award Recipients * John Collins * Joanna Haigood *

David Henry Hwang David Henry Hwang (born August 11, 1957) is an American playwright, librettist, screenwriter, and theater professor at Columbia University in New York City. He has won three Obie Awards for his plays '' FOB'', '' Golden Child'', and '' Yellow ...

* John Jasperse * Emily Johnson *

Bill T. Jones William Tass Jones, known as Bill T. Jones (born February 15, 1952), is an American Choreography, choreographer, director, author and dancer. He is the co-founder of the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company. The company's home in Manhattan. J ...

* Melanie Joseph * Nancy Keystone *

Lisa Kron Elizabeth S. "Lisa" Kron (born May 20, 1961) is an American actress and playwright. She is best known for writing the lyrics and book for the musical '' Fun Home'', for which she won both the Tony Award for Best Original Score and the Tony Awar ...

Oliver Lake Oliver Lake (born September 14, 1942) is an American List of jazz saxophonists, jazz saxophonist, flutist, composer, poet, and visual artist. He is known mainly for alto saxophone, but he also performs on soprano saxophone, soprano and flute. D ...

* Steve Lehman * Tarell Alvin McCraney *

Roscoe Mitchell Roscoe Mitchell (born August 3, 1940) is an American composer, jazz instrumentalist, and educator, known for being "a technically superb – if idiosyncratic – saxophonist". ''The Penguin Guide to Jazz'' described him as "one of the key figure ...

* Zeena Parkins * Annie-B Parson * Ranee Ramaswamy * Peggy Shaw * Craig Taborn *

Randy Weston Randolph Edward "Randy" Weston (April 6, 1926 – September 1, 2018) was an American jazz pianist and composer whose creativity was inspired by his ancestral African connection. Weston's piano style owed much to Duke Ellington and Thelonious M ...

2014 Impact Award Recipients *

* Ambrose Akinmusire *

Anna Halprin Anna Halprin (born Hannah Dorothy Schuman; July 13, 1920 – May 24, 2021) was an American choreographer and dancer. She helped redefine dance in postwar America and pioneer the experimental art form known as postmodern dance and referred to her ...

* Trajal Harrell * Julia Jarcho * Jennifer Lacey * Jodi Melnick *

Ben Monder Ben Monder (born May 24, 1962) is an American modern jazz rock guitarist. Biography Monder started playing guitar when he was eleven, after two years on violin. From 1979–84, he attended the Westchester Conservatory of Music, the University of ...

* Jennifer Monson * Dean Moss * Lucia Neare * Aruán Ortiz * Matana Roberts * Tina Satter * Jen Shyu * Johnny Simons * Michael Sommers * Adrienne Truscott * Cristal Chanelle Truscott 2013 Artist Award Recipients *

Anthony Braxton Anthony Braxton (born June 4, 1945) is an American experimental composer, educator, music theorist, improviser and multi-instrumentalist who is best known for playing saxophones, particularly the alto. Braxton grew up on the South Side of Chi ...

Billy Childs William Edward Childs (born March 8, 1957) is an American composer, jazz pianist, arranger and conductor from Los Angeles, California, United States. Early life When he was 16, Childs attended the Community School of the Performing Arts sponsored ...

* Ping Chong * Kelly Copper *

Lisa D'Amour Lisa D'Amour is a playwright, performer, and former Carnival Queen from New Orleans. D'Amour is an alumna of New Dramatists. Her play ''Detroit'' was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Biography Education D'Amour received a B.A. in En ...

* DD Dorvillier * Amir ElSaffar * David Gordon * Pat Graney * Stacy Klein * David Lang * Pavol Liska * Rudresh Mahanthappa * John Malpede * Miya Masaoka * Myra Melford * Tere O'Connor * William Parker * Elizabeth Streb * Jawole Willa Jo Zollar 2012 Artist Award Recipients *

Anne Bogart Anne Bogart (born September 25, 1951) is an American theatre and opera director. She is currently one of the artistic directors of SITI Company, which she founded with Japanese director Tadashi Suzuki in 1992. She is a professor at Columbia Uni ...

, theatre * Don Byron, jazz *

Wally Cardona Wally may refer to: People and fictional characters * Wally (given name), a list of people and fictional characters * Wally the Green Monster, mascot of the Boston Red Sox * Water Wally, mascot of the Singapore's Public Utilities Board * Wally ( ...

, dance * Rinde Eckert, theatre *

Bill Frisell William Richard Frisell (born March 18, 1951) is an American jazz guitarist. He first came to prominence at ECM Records in the 1980s, as both a session player and a leader. He went on to work in a variety of contexts, notably as a participant ...

, jazz * Deborah Hay, dance * John Hollenbeck, jazz * Vijay Iyer, jazz * Marc Bamuthi Joseph, theatre *

Elizabeth LeCompte Elizabeth LeCompte (born April 28, 1944) is an American director of experimental theater, dance, and media. A founding member of The Wooster Group, she has directed that ensemble since its emergence in the late 1970s.Mitter, Shomit, and Maria Sh ...

, theatre * Young Jean Lee, theatre *

Ralph Lemon Ralph Lemon (born August 1, 1952 in Cincinnati, Ohio) is an American choreographer, company director, writer, visual artist and a conceptualist. Raised in a religious environment, he developed his artistic creativity as a child.Diana Stockon, � ...

, dance * Richard Maxwell, theatre * Sarah Michelson, dance * Bebe Miller, dance * Nicole Mitchell, jazz *

Meredith Monk Meredith Jane Monk (born November 20, 1942) is an American composer, performer, director, vocalist, filmmaker, and choreographer. From the 1960s onwards, Monk has created multi-disciplinary works which combine music, theatre, and dance, recordi ...

, dance * Eiko Otake, dance * Takashi Koma Otake, dance * Basil Twist, theatre * Reggie Wilson, dance

References

{{Reflist *http://www.ddcf.org/what-we-fund/performing-arts/goal-and-strategies/support-for-artists/unrestricted-support-for-artists/doris-duke-artist-awards/ *https://web.archive.org/web/20130312021237/http://ddpaa.org/eligibility/ *https://web.archive.org/web/20130325194242/http://www.ddcf.org/Programs/Arts/ *http://creative-capital.org/news_items/view/416 *https://web.archive.org/web/20120912193237/http://www.playbill.com/news/article/165081-Doris-Duke-Foundation-Announces-Inaugural-Doris-Duke-Artists-Receiving-225000-Grants-Anne-Bogart-Rinde-Eckert-Among-Recipients *https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702304299304577349910365901358 *http://www.theatermania.com/new-york-city-theater/news/04-2012/anne-bogart-rinde-eckert-young-jean-lee-basil-twis_55097.html *http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/culturemonster/2011/10/artist-grants-jazz-dance-theater-.html *http://foundationcenter.org/pnd/news/story.jhtml?id=377100011 *http://www.giarts.org/blog/steve/doris-duke-charitable-foundation-announces-first-recipients-performing-artists-initiative Acting awards American dance awards American music awards Awards established in 2011