Doris Duke Charitable Foundation

Jazz Initiative

Purpose

From 1999 through 2003, the foundation's five-year Jazz Initiative supported the jazz field by awarding grants to support jazz presenters, jazz artists and ensembles, and media projects that increased the opportunities for the creation, presentation and distribution of jazz nationwide.

Revision of Initiative

During the five years of the Jazz Initiative, the foundation approved 10 grants totaling $14.2 million. Although the initiative as a whole is concluding, the Arts Program will incorporate future support for jazz into two of its other initiatives:

• Support for jazz presenters will be included in the Mid-Sized Presenting Organizations program of the Presenting Institutions Initiative.
• The foundation will continue to support the Doris Duke Jazz Ensembles Project, which will continue to be administered by Chamber Music America, one of several National Service Organizations supported by the foundation.

Additional grants for jazz media projects will not be awarded.

Initiative History

Acknowledging the challenges prevalent in working with the field of jazz, the Arts Program staff conducted a thorough, year-long research and planning phase in 1998 to develop the Jazz Initiative. Staff convened presenters, artists, media executives and other funders and produced a report outlining their conclusions and recommendations.

To respond to the findings and holistically support the creation and presentation of jazz, the Arts Program developed a five-year Jazz Initiative with three components:

JazzNet

Administered by the Nonprofit Finance Fund, JazzNet provided 14 regional jazz presenters with multi-year artistic program, administrative and matching endowment support. The Nonprofit Finance Fund assisted grantees with endowment planning, fundraising and financial management. The endowments now provide a permanent and flexible source of revenue for the presenters' jazz programs. Approximately 25 jazz presenters were invited to apply, and grantees were selected based on a peer-review panel's evaluation of their applications. The foundation awarded $8.5 million for artistic programming and matching endowment support for JazzNet and partnered with the National Endowment for the Arts, which provided $456,000 in artistic programming support.

Doris Duke Jazz Ensembles Project

Administered by Chamber Music America (CMA), the Doris Duke Jazz Ensembles Project supports New Works: Creation & Presentation, which is a re-granting program that enables ensembles to expand their jazz repertoire and performance experience. The project also will support the jazz component of CMA’s Residency Partnership Program, which promotes the development of new audiences for chamber music, jazz and world music by supporting creative collaborations between ensembles, presenters and community organizations.

In addition, CMA will create a new initiative designed to encourage presenters to program jazz, with a focus on artists and compositions commissioned through the New Works re-granting program. The project also supports services for the jazz community, including national conferences and workshops and web-based services for jazz artists. To date, the foundation has awarded grants totaling $3.465 million for the Doris Duke Jazz Ensembles Project, which is now a part of the Arts Program’s National Service Organizations initiative.

Media

This component of the initiative was designed to promote jazz and develop new and younger audiences for jazz through 4 grants totaling $4.45 million, which supported projects including Ken Burns’ Jazz series for PBS and National Public Radio's jazz programming and Web site.