A nerve-racking year punctuated by tectonic shifts in key sources of support has prompted grant makers and recipients to ask big questions about the dance funding model. The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Doris Duke Foundation, and Ford Foundation—decades-long supporters of the performing arts—rained down a trio of blows in recent months, with each announcing that […]

Some of the largest financial awards a dance artist can win are the ones you can’t even apply for. You’re simply told one day that you’ve won, say, up to $550,000, in the case of the Doris Duke Artist Award, or $800,000, in the case of the MacArthur “genius grant.” And those two grants are […]

It was March 2019. Waiting inside my daughter’s doctor’s office, I scrolled through my email, coming upon a grant notification that seemed hopeful. Usually, I delete email responses to applications, sparing myself the piercing disappointment of “Thank you for your application…We received an unusually high volume of…regret to inform you…” Something about this one seemed […]

At a time when many artists are feeling more financially strained than ever before, one of the most coveted grants in the arts is expanding. The Doris Duke Charitable Foundation has responded to the economic crisis by handing out eight Doris Duke Artist Awards, up from six in 2019. What’s more, half of those have […]

Philadelphia’s Pew Center for Arts & Heritage announced its 2019 grantees Monday evening, and the list included a couple of familiar names: Dinita Clark and David Gordon. Clark has been named the recipient of a Pew Fellowship, worth $75,000. Formerly known as Princess Di, the choreographer co-founded Just Sole! Street Dance Theater in 2011 with […]

2017 was full of memorable dance moments, but as we start the new year, we can’t help but wonder what it will bring to the stage and the field at large. Here’s what the Dance Magazine team is wishing for in 2018. A Can’t-Miss Show “What I’m dying to see in 2018 is Akram Khan‘s […]

Although discussing money is often considered taboo, it’s an essential skill for choreographers looking to produce work and directors wanting to build their companies. “Fundraising is a practice, like rehearsing a dance,” says Stephen Clapp, executive director of Dance Metro DC, which provides support, promotion, education and advocacy for dance artists and organizations in the […]

The Doris Duke Charitable Foundation has named the inaugural 21 Doris Duke Artists, each of whom will receive a multi-year cash grant of $225,000, plus up to $50,000 more for audience development and retirement funding. The selected artists were chosen in the fields of contemporary dance, theater, and jazz, via an anonymous peer review They […]