Doris Duke Foundation Announces 2026 Artist Awards, Launching New Grant Program

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DDF has awarded six grants totaling more than $1M to programs and initiatives advancing artists as workers.

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The Doris Duke Foundation (DDF) announced the six recipients of the 2026 Doris Duke Artist Awards — the nation's largest prize dedicated to individual performing artists. As part of the Foundation’s Creative Labor, Creative Conditions campaign, DDF has also awarded six grants totaling more than $1M to programs and initiatives advancing artists as workers.

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Established in 2012, the Doris Duke Artist Awards aim to support the conditions that individual artists need to thrive. In addition to a cash prize of $525,000 in unrestricted funds, the foundation also provides winners professional development support, financial planning and management services, and enhanced networking and performance opportunities. The unrestricted nature of the award allows artists to use the funds for personal needs, accessing the benefits of a social safety net that is not accessible to individual artists in the U.S. Funds are allocated over seven years and include a $25,000 incentive for those who choose to allocate funds for retirement.

“When we provide artists with access to unrestricted financial resources, we break down the barriers that hold the artist community back from being truly free to create, experiment, and move society forward,” said Ashley Ferro-Murray, PhD, program director for the arts at DDF. “The Doris Duke Artist Awards program is more than an award — it is the realization of our commitment to the essential investments our society must make in sustaining, cultivating and celebrating creative labor as a necessary pillar of our communities and country.”

In celebration of the Foundation’s longstanding commitment to supporting artists’ labor and working conditions, DDF also awarded more than $1M in grants to six organizations working to build a more sustainable and equitable ecosystem for artists.

“At the Doris Duke Foundation, we honor the dignity of artists as workers. For too long, our society has treated the performing arts as a luxury rather than a labor force. With this new round of grants, the Doris Duke Foundation is doubling down on our commitment to systemic change,” said Sam Gill, CEO of the Doris Duke Foundation. “By partnering with organizations like the Artist Corporations Foundation and Starfish Accelerator, we are moving beyond traditional philanthropy to help build a permanent, protected infrastructure for the creative workforce."

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_Originally reported by [BroadwayWorld](https://www.broadwayworld.com/industry/article/Doris-Duke-Foundation-Reveals-2026-Artist-Awards-and-New-Grants-20260504)._