FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Moira Brennan: 212.226.1677
Over $1,000,000 to support adventurous live performance, with additional short-term funds to stabilize operating budgets during a time of need
New York, NY – June 15, 2009 The MAP Fund, a program of Creative Capital, supported by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and The Rockefeller Foundation announced today the selection of 41 projects, covering a wide array of performing arts practices, to receive its annual grant. Grantees were chosen from over 700 submissions – the largest annual increase in the program's 20-year history – by peer panels in four discipline categories: Dance, Theater, Music Composition and Interdisciplinary Works.
The MAP Fund also announced today its participation in a new initiative by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, to provide general operating support for 2009 MAP grantees in Theater, Dance, Interdisciplinary Works and Jazz, with the goal of providing greater stability to the arts sector during the global economic crisis. MAP will receive an additional $400,000 from DDCF for this purpose.
Ben Cameron, Program Director for the Arts at the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation said: “DDCF is delighted to support this year's roster of grantees and the MAP Fund, which for years has identified and nurtured some of the nation's most vibrant and innovative work in the performing arts. We are especially pleased to be able to deepen our support for these organizations during difficult times by adding general operating funds to their project grants—a recognition of their importance in the arts community and our way of promoting their longer term financial health.”
Among this years artists, an unprecedented number (over one-half) are first-time grantees, including Minneapolis choreographer Emily Johnson, for a work on her upbringing in the Yup ‘ik Nation in Alaska, and USA Fellow Artist, composer Molly Sturges, for a contemporary opera to take place on an active city bus. The grantee group represents artist communities and audiences in 16 cities across the United States, including Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland, OR, Minneapolis, Chicago, Santa Fe, NM, Houston, and New York City.
Joan Shigekawa, Associate Director in Foundation Initiatives at the Rockefeller Foundation said: “The Rockefeller Foundation is proud to mark the 20th Anniversary of its support for the MAP Fund and its pioneering work in the performing arts. It has been a privilege and an honor to support the wonderful playwrights, choreographers, composers and directors whose talents, each year, create and expand our vision of the American culture.”
The MAP Fund also announced that as a result of a new initiative by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, 2009 MAP grantees in Theater, Dance, Interdisciplinary Works and Jazz will receive unique funding for organization operating expenses, with the goal of providing greater stability to the arts sector during the global economic crisis.
Ben Cameron, Program Director for the Arts at the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation said: “DDCF is delighted to support this year's roster of grantees and the MAP Fund, which for years has identified and nurtured some of the nation's most vibrant and innovative work in the performing arts. We are especially pleased to be able to deepen our support for these organizations during difficult times by adding general operating funds to their project grants—a recognition of their importance in the arts community and our way of promoting their longer term financial health.”
Ruby Lerner, President of Creative Capital said:
About the MAP Fund The Multi-Arts Production Fund was created by the Rockefeller Foundation in 1989 to support innovation and cross-cultural exploration in theater, dance and music. Among the longest-lived programs in arts philanthropy, MAP has disbursed over $18 million dollars to nearly 1,000 projects. Since 2001, the program has been administered by Creative Capital. In 2008, MAP became the recipient of a three-year, $3.3 million support grant from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation.
About Creative Capital Ten years ago, Creative Capital embarked on a mission to reinvent the existing model of arts philanthropy, to construct a new paradigm, and to fulfill the specific needs of the country's most innovative artists. Today, it is the premier national artist support organization, committed to the principle that time and advisory services are as crucial to artistic success as funding. Over the lives of its funded projects, Creative Capital provides artists with a flexible program of multi-faceted, sequential support and partners with them to determine how those targeted funds and services can best work in concert to progress towards the grantees' own goals. Since its founding in 1999, the organization has committed more than $14 million in financial support and services to 324 projects representing 411 artists. A complete list of grantees, profiles of funded projects, and up-to-date grant cycle information can be found online at the foundation's website at www.creative-capital.org.
MAP Fund 2009 Grantees