2015 Class of Doris Duke Artists Announced
The Doris Duke Charitable Foundation has announced the 2015 class of Doris Duke Artists. Twenty performing artists will each receive $275,000 in flexible, multi-year funding as an investment in and celebration of their ongoing contributions to the fields of contemporary dance, theater, and jazz. With this year’s class, the foundation will have awarded $22 million among 80 Doris Duke Artists since the awards program’s inception.
The 2015 Doris Duke Artists are as follows.
In jazz:
Muhal Richard Abrams
Ambrose Akinmusire
Darcy James Argue
Steve Coleman
Okkyung Lee
Yosvany Terry
In dance:
Camille A. Brown
Ronald K. Brown
Ann Carlson
Nora Chipaumire
Alonzo King
Stephen Petronio
Doug Varone
In theater:
Paul S. Flores
Cynthia Hopkins
Daniel Alexander Jones
Linda Parris-Bailey
Mildred Ruiz-Sapp
Steven Sapp
Shawn Sides
Muhal Richard Abrams, a recipient in the jazz category, commented, “This award will give me additional time and facility for expanding and exposing my work to a wide audience. It’s energizing when something like this award happens, and it encourages me to keep working hard. The variety of challenges that are inherent in the music are quite stimulating. I’m accessing a world of raw material that’s infinite, and the inexhaustibility of it is the challenge.”
The program is one of two awards offered through the Doris Duke Performing Artist Awards, which is part of a larger $50 million, 10-year commitment of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation to empower, invest in and celebrate artists by offering flexible, multi-year funding in response to financial challenges that are specific to the performing arts and to each artist.
To learn more about the 2015 Doris Duke Artists and to view samples of each artist’s work, visit
www.ddpaa.org.
(–from the press release)