Support for The Multi-Arts Production Fund Expands

Doris Duke Charitable Foundation to Support
The Multi-Arts Production Fund with $3.3 Million Grant

New York, NY (January 9, 2008) The Multi-Arts Production (MAP) Fund, a program of Creative Capital, announced today that the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation (DDCF) will support MAP with $1.1 million annually through 2010. This grant will provide $1 million each year for funding to performing artists.


DDCF will join the Rockefeller Foundation, which established the MAP Fund in 1989, in underwriting the awards. The highly regarded MAP Fund supports annually 40 groundbreaking new works in contemporary dance, theater, music and multidisciplinary performance.


The DDCF-Rockefeller partnership represents a historic coming together of two nationally focused arts-funders to benefit one of the most venerable grant programs in modern arts philanthropy. For two decades, with more than $17 million in funding from the Rockefeller Foundation, MAP has assisted nearly 700 projects by artists across the United States. The Fund is known as a major driver of new and unexpected experimentation in the performing arts disciplines. Its grantee alumni list includes such varied and influential artists as jazz composer Vijay Iyer, choreographer John Jasperse, playwright Suzan-Lori Parks, video and performance artist Mary Ellen Strom, and the late poet-performer Sekou Sundiata, to name a few. Under the new partnership, all live-performance disciplines will continue to be supported, with DDCF focused on new works in dance, theater and jazz and the Rockefeller Foundation funding across all performance genres.

The MAP Fund is administered by Creative Capital, a national artists' support organization that seeks to catalyze the development of adventurous and imaginative ideas in the arts.

Joan Spero, President of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, stated: "We are delighted to join the Rockefeller Foundation in supporting the MAP Fund. MAP has clearly established itself as a critical program for innovative artists in this country, and the quality of the work it has supported is truly astounding. We see MAP as an important expansion of our dedication to artists and innovation and eagerly look forward to the new works our funds will support."

"For twenty years, the Rockefeller Foundation has been delighted to support the commissioning of bold new work in theater, music, dance and other performance art through our grants to the Multi-Arts Production Fund," said Judith Rodin, President of the Rockefeller Foundation. "We're thrilled that the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation is joining us to help expand this exceptional creative endeavor."

About the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation: The mission of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation is to improve the quality of people's lives through grants supporting the performing arts, environmental conservation, medical research and the prevention of child maltreatment, and through preservation of the cultural and environmental legacy of Doris Duke's properties.

About the Rockefeller Foundation: The Rockefeller Foundation was established in 1913 by John D. Rockefeller, Sr., to "promote the well-being" of humanity by addressing the root causes of serious problems. The Foundation supports work around the world to expand opportunities for poor or vulnerable people and to help ensure that globalization's benefits are more widely shared. With assets of nearly $4 billion, it is one of the few institutions to conduct such work both within the United States and internationally.