About

Performers in 2024 grantee project Kinematic/Kinesthetic, presented by AXIS Dance Company, Nadia Adame, and Ben Levine.
Photo by David De Silva.
MAP supports risk-taking artists with time, resources, and connections to create their work and develop thriving artistic careers.
We serve artists across all disciplines including choreographers, directors, filmmakers, multimedia artists, musicians, playwrights, writers, and visual artists. We work towards a society where artists from marginalized communities have concrete resources and the support they need to create new work, develop their practice, and build community. 
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3,100+

artists served

$40 million+

awarded to artists in grants, SPA stipends, and microgrants

1,900+ hours

of artist coaching

Scaffolding for Practicing Artists (SPA)

MAP’s SPA Program provides artists with one-on-one coaching and peer artist gatherings, helping them thoughtfully address their artistic and professional goals and challenges. Since 2011, SPA has supported‌ ‌360+ artists with 1,900+ hours of‌‌ coaching and 40+ peer gatherings.‌ SPA is free for artists and artist-directed at each step.

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Our History

MAP was founded in 1988 to support innovation and cross-cultural exploration in new works of live performance. Our Grant Program ran from 1988-2024, funding artists creating radical, bold, and experimental performance work. We currently support artists at all stages of their careers via our Scaffolding for Practicing Artists (SPA) Program and fieldwide partnerships.

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Team

MAP’s staff, board, and SPA coaching ensemble are made up of artists and arts workers.

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Values

Respect: We believe that every person has inherent worthiness and dignity, and we practice inclusion, compassion, and holistic care.

‍Equity: We understand the work of artists in the context of intersecting systems of oppression. We commit to undoing these inequities in and through our work. 

‍Ease: Life is stressful enough. We design our programs with a balance of structure and flexibility, to invite artists to take risks, play, and relax into their practices. 

‍Responsiveness: We recognize the arts as a dynamic ecosystem. We invite and integrate feedback from artists and our partners.

‍Collaboration: We do not have all the answers. We embrace the unknown with curiosity and through partnership – with artists, sibling organizations, and funders – to share tools, skills, resources, and perspectives that advance the field.

Impact

Since 1988, MAP has supported 3,100+ individual artists and ensembles with over $40 million in project grants and SPA stipends. MAP has been the subject of five outside evaluations, all highlighting the critical impact of MAP on artists’ careers.

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Land Acknowledgment

The MAP Fund’s staff work from the Lenape island of Manhahtaan (Mannahatta) in Lenapehoking and on land originally and still inhabited and cared for by the Gabrielino/Tongva Nationland. We pay respect to the Lenape and Gabrielino/Tongva peoples, past, present, and future and their continuing presence throughout the Lenape and Gabrielino/Tongva diaspora. We offer our care and gratitude to the land, water, and air of Lenapehoking and Tovaangar.

We host virtual meetings on Zoom, whose headquarters are located on the unceded land of the Muwekma Ohlone peoples in what is today known as San Jose, California. We acknowledge the Muwekma Ohlone community, their elders both past and present, as well as future generations. 

These acknowledgements are a commitment to disrupting systems of settler colonialism that seek to displace and erase these histories and peoples. We are committed to resisting colonialism and imbalance with the Earth through the support of Indigenous artists and Indigenous artistic practices.