Grammy Award-winning jazz artists Esperanza Spalding and Miguel Zenón are among six recipients of the 2024 Doris Duke Artist Awards. This honor comes with a significant cash reward. Each of the six honorees is awarded $525,000 in unrestricted funds and up to $25,000 in retirement funds. It is billed as the largest award in the US specifically dedicated to individual artists.
The Doris Duke Artist Award, established in 2012, recognizes artists for their record of achievement in the disciplines of contemporary dance, jazz and theater. The other four honorees this year are Nataki Garrett and Chay Yew (both from theatre) and Shamel Pitts and Acosia Red Elk (both from dance).
The unrestricted nature of the award allows artists to use the funds for either personal or professional needs and enjoy the freedom to pursue projects of their choice. Last year, the foundation doubled the award amount. Including the 2024 recipients, the foundation to date has awarded 135 artists $38.8 million through the Doris Duke Artist Award program.
On Friday, April 26, the Doris Duke Foundation will host a symposium in New York on the future of the performing arts entitled Creative Labor, Creative Conditions: A Symposium and Celebration of the Doris Duke Artist Awards. The foundation will also launch an annual retreat for award-winning artist Doris Duke at Duke Farms, its 2,700-acre environmental center. This year's retreat runs from April 29th to May 2nd.
Spalding, 39, has won five Grammys. The bassist and singer famously won Best New Artist in 2011, beating a hot field that also included Justin Bieber, Drake, Florence + the Machine and Mumford and Sons. It has since won three Grammys for Best Jazz Vocal album Radio Music Society, 12 Small Spells and Songwrights Apothecary Lab and one for the backing singer(s) cover of “City of Roses”.
Zenón, 47, won his first Grammy this year for best Latin jazz album El Arte del Bolero, vol. 2, a collaboration with Luis Perdomo. The alto saxophonist had previously gone 0-11 at the Grammys, so this year's win was a breakthrough.
Duke, a tobacco heiress, socialite and philanthropist, died in 1993 aged 80. Her philanthropic work in AIDS research, medicine and child welfare continued into her old age. Her estimated $1.3 billion fortune was largely left to charity.
The Doris Duke Foundation is one of only two institutions to receive the National Medal of Arts from the National Endowment for the Arts. The foundation's mission “is to build a more creative, just and sustainable future by investing in artists and the performing arts, environmental conservation, medical research, the well-being of children and greater mutual understanding between diverse communities,” according to statement. Visit www.dorisduke.org to learn more.
from our partners at https://www.billboard.com/music/awards/2024-doris-duke-artist-awards-esperanza-spalding-miguel-zenon-1235664593/