
New York, NY – May 23, 2017
The MAP Fund proudly announces the selection of 40 new, live performance works that will receive a total of $1.2 million in direct support for project development and distribution.
Established in 1988, MAP is among the longest-running grant programs in national arts philanthropy, having supported more than a thousand new works of performance with a total of $29 million. Primarily supported by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation (DDCF) with additional funds from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, MAP invests in artistic production as the critical foundation of imagining — and ultimately creating — a more equitable and vibrant society.
Maurine Knighton, Program Director for the Arts at DDCF, said, “This latest group of MAP grantees wonderfully illustrates the way artists are working today — across disciplines and genres, and with communities. The diverse array of emergent voices, aesthetic inquiry, and new forms among the grantees reflects society’s deep and abiding desire for connection and meaning more broadly. We are excited to see how their exploration and experimentation will tap into and inform the zeitgeist in important ways.”
The announcement of the 2017 list of grantees marks a moment of excitement as the 40 projects move closer to fruition. The MAP Fund Executive Director, Moira Brennan, said, “The heart of the MAP Fund’s mission, which is more urgent than ever given the current cultural and political landscape, is clearly reflected in this remarkable list of visionary artists. It’s an honor to support these projects in collaboration with our peers in the field and our generous funding partners.”
Please join us in celebrating the boldness of artistic vision among the following grantees:
- 509 Cultural Center for Always Get On the Boat by Constance Hockaday
- Abrons Arts Center for Séancers by Jaamil Olawale Kosoko
- Alarm Will Sound for Paper Pianos by Alarm Will Sound, Mary Kouyoumdjian, and Alan Pierson
- ArtSpot Productions sponsoring Jubilee by NEW NOISE, Bear Hebert, and Philip Cramer
- Brooklyn Arts Exchange sponsoring bathtub by Tanisha Christie
- Brooklyn Arts Exchange sponsoring Memoirs of a…Unicorn by Marjani Forté-Saunders
- Center for New Music sponsoring At The Point Where The Rivers Crossed, We Drew Our Knives by Raven Chacon and The Living Earth Show
- Construction Company Theater / Dance Associates, Inc. sponsoring The Treasures of our Chinatown: Wu Wei Za Chen 五味杂陈 by Mei-Yin Ng / MEI-BE WHATever
- Cuyahoga Community College Foundation for OUR VOICES: DEMOCRACY RE:visited by Terence Blanchard
- Dancers’ Group sponsoring House/Full of Blackwomen by Amara Tabor-Smith and Ellen Sebastian Chang
- Dances For A Variable Population for LES Citizens Parade by Naomi Goldberg Haas / Dances for a Variable Population and Laura Nova
- East Bay Center for the Performing Arts for Richmond Second Line by Howard Wiley
- Ensemble Robot, Inc. for Kai ‘Apapa: Of the Reefs by Christine Southworth, Evan Ziporyn, and Diane Burko
- Everett Dance Theatre for Trauma into Art (working title) by Everett Company
- Fractured Atlas sponsoring BEE BOY by Guillermo Brown
- Fractured Atlas sponsoring Descent From Beauty by Alice Sheppard
- Fractured Atlas sponsoring ink by Camille A. Brown, Talvin Wilks, and Allison Miller
- Intersection for the Arts sponsoring GROUNDWORKS by Rulan Tangen / Dancing Earth
- Intersection for the Arts sponsoring Dreaming of You: The Unauthorized Education of Selena and the Queens of San Antonio by Richard Montoya, Sean San José, and Joan Osato
- Links Hall for Clutch by Darrell Jones
- Los Angeles Poverty Department for Public Safety For Real by John Malpede, Henriëtte Brouwers, and Kevin Michael Key
- Miami Foundation sponsoring Make Believe by Rosie Herrera
- Ministry of Maåt for The Nubian Word for Flowers; A Phantom Opera by Pauline Oliveros, Ione, and the International Contemporary Ensemble
- National Performance Network sponsoring Vessels by Rebecca Mwase and Ron Ragin
- Noor Theatre, Inc. for Dead Are My People by Ismail Khalidi and Hadi Eldebek
- Northern Lights.mn sponsoring THERE | HERE by Pramila Vasudevan / Aniccha Arts
- Ordway Center for the Performing Arts sponsoring Weave by Rosy Simas
- PAʻI Foundation for LILIʻU: Tribute to a Queen by Robert Uluwehi Cazimero, Galliard String Quartet, and Moses Goods
- Springboard for the Arts sponsoring Kill the Idiot Save the Fan by Rory Wakemup and Rhiana Yazzie
- The Field sponsoring A Voluptuary Life by James Scruggs and Mark Rayment
- The Field sponsoring JACK & JILL by Kaneza Schaal and Cornell Alston
- The Flying Carpet Theatre Company sponsoring Forging Ahead by Shontina Vernon
- The Painted Bride Art Center sponsoring Let ‘im Move You: This Is a Formation by jumatatu m. poe and Jermone “Donte” Beacham
- Theater Mitu Inc. for Remnant by Theater Mitu
- Unique Projects sponsoring Untitled(1-2) by Kimberly Bartosik
- Urban Bush Women for Hair & Other Stories by Jawole Willa Jo Zollar / Urban Bush Women
- Water in the Desert sponsoring Notes from the Riverkeepers by Holcombe Waller
- Yerba Buena Center for the Arts for We Have Iré by Paul Flores
- Yerba Buena Gardens Festival for Black Ball: The Negro Leagues and the Blues by Marcus Shelby and the Marcus Shelby Orchestra
- Youth Speaks for Banneker Home by Youth Speaks, Tassiana Willis, and Angela Zusman
Each year MAP hires peer artists and arts workers, tasking them with identifying as many different notions of deep inquiry as the applicant pool provides — this year’s total pool numbered 911 applications — and ultimately selecting 40 proposals that incite passion, and convey a sense of experimentation and great social urgency. Learn more about MAP’s process here.
This year, MAP was honored to dream forward alongside a remarkable group of panelists:
- Cristina Ballí | Executive Director, Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center (TX)
- Marc Bamuthi Joseph | Artist, Chief of Program and Pedagogy, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (CA)
- Elena Park | Independent Curator/Producer, National Sawdust, Metropolitan Opera, Kennedy Center, Mozart in the Jungle, Bel Canto (NY)
- Ronee Penoi | Associate Producer, Octopus Theatricals (D.C.)
- Charles Rice-Gonzalez | Writer, Co-founder & Executive Director, BAAD! (Bronx Academy of Arts & Dance) (NY)
- Miranda Wright | Founder & Director, Los Angeles Performance Practice & LAX Festival (CA)
See the full list of 2017 reviewers and panelists here.
About the MAP Fund
The MAP Fund is founded on the principle that exploration drives human progress, no less in art than in science or medicine. MAP awards $1 million annually to up to 40 projects in the range of $10,000 – $45,000 per grant, supporting original live performance projects that embody a spirit of deep inquiry. In particular, MAP is interested in supporting artists that question, disrupt, complicate, and challenge inherited notions of social and cultural hierarchy across the current American landscape.
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 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. For more information, please visit http://www.ddcf.org.
About The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
Founded in 1969, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation endeavors to strengthen, promote, and, where necessary, defend the contributions of the humanities and the arts to human flourishing and to the well-being of diverse and democratic societies by supporting exemplary institutions of higher education and culture as they renew and provide access to an invaluable heritage of ambitious, path-breaking work. Additional information is available at mellon.org.