The Rockefeller Foundation established MAP in 1988 as the Multi-Arts Production Fund, offering open call national grants to support innovation and cross-cultural exploration in new works of live performance.
MAP launched our flagship Scaffolding for Practicing Artists (SPA) Program in 2011, helping artists build thriving and sustainable careers. From 1988-2024, our Grant Program funded artists creating radical, bold, and experimental performance work. MAP retired our grantmaking in December 2024.
From 2001 to 2016, MAP was a fiscally sponsored affiliate of Creative Capital Foundation. In 2016 MAP transitioned from a sponsored program to an independent organization, and now operates under the leadership of its own governing board. MAP is a proud member of ArtsPool.
MAP launched Scaffolding for Practicing Artists (SPA) in 2011. SPA was co-designed by MAP staff and consultant/SPA coach David Sheingold to support independent artists and ensembles.
Starting in the early 2010s, MAP staff noticed a pattern: artists were more frequently contacting them with concerns about self-production. Fewer large arts institutions were providing comprehensive commissions to support the creation of new work. As a result, individual artists faced increasing pressure to secure funding from multiple sources, identify development residencies, manage collaborating creative staff, and contribute to the technical production and marketing elements of bringing a new work to life. MAP created SPA to address this gap, providing artists with individualized support and the concrete tools they need to create and maintain sustainable, thriving artistic careers.
Since its launch, SPA has engaged more than 360 artists. In 2019, MAP commissioned an assessment of the program. The report indicates that participation in the program has a strong, positive impact on the lives and work of artists, with 91% of respondents indicating that they would participate in the SPA Program again.
MAP’s Grant Program ran from 1988-2024.
Alberta Arthurs and Suzanne Sato established MAP as the “Multi-Arts Production Fund” at The Rockefeller Foundation in 1988. They created MAP to support innovation and cross-cultural exploration in new works of live performance. The program exemplified its founders’ efforts to address issues of cultural difference in the United States. Led by Moira Brennan for almost two decades, MAP’s mandate evolved in parallel with changing notions of multiculturalism and diversity. Its guidelines broadened to embrace artists exploring issues of race, disability, class, sexual orientation, gender identity, religious affiliation, and other aspects of cultural pluralism.
MAP’s Grant Program was one of the longest-running private funding sources for performing arts in the United States. Over thirty-five years, MAP awarded nearly $40 million to artists, supporting 2,500+ individual artists and ensembles through 1,600+ funded projects. With MAP support, artists questioned, disrupted, complicated, and challenged inherited notions of social hierarchy across the country. Throughout, MAP remained constant in its encouragement of innovation, experimentation, and risk-taking in artistic forms and production as a means of investigation.
In 2022, MAP expanded grantmaking to include artist-directed microgrants. Each MAP grantee awarded $1,000 directly to a peer artist of their choice, further expanding the reach of MAP’s funding and circle of support. Microgrants constituted unrestricted funding, and required no application or reporting. 54% of micrograntees were not previously aware of MAP’s funding, and 27% of MAP micrograntees had never applied to any funder for support.
Following its founding by The Rockefeller Foundation in 1988, the MAP Fund’s longest partnerships were with Doris Duke Foundation and Mellon Foundation. From 2008-2024, Doris Duke Foundation was the primary funder in MAP, investing $21.8 million; from 2010-2024, Mellon Foundation invested $6.8 million in MAP. With these generous pillars of support, MAP maintained a national grantmaking program for artists creating radical, bold, and experimental performance work.
In 2024, Doris Duke Foundation and Mellon Foundation concluded their funding for regranting through MAP. As a result, after 35 years, MAP retired its national Grant Program and shifted focus to providing coaching and peer gatherings to artists through the Scaffolding for Practicing Artists (SPA) program. MAP’s final grantee cohort was announced in August 2024.
Since its founding, MAP has collaborated with numerous organizations to launch multiple research initiatives and programs, including Scaffolding for Practicing Artists (SPA), Artist Relief, and Equity in the Panel Room.
Learn more about MAP's partnerships →