Map Fund Grants $2.883 Million To 93+ Performing Artists, Its Largest Grant Cycle To Date

MAP Fund—one of the longest running, private funding sources championing cultural equity and formal innovation in performance practices—is awarding $2.883 million to 93 grantees for their live performance projects. 

With a record-breaking 2,378 total submissions, the 2024 grant cycle saw a 50 percent increase in applicants, marking the largest one-time award distribution in the organization's 36-year history. Currently, each MAP grant comprises a total of $31,000: $25,000 for grantee project development, $5,000 for grantee unrestricted support and $1,000 microgrant for the grantee to direct to a peer artist of their choice. 

Grantees will create experimental music, public art installations, opera, multi-sensory media, live electronics, poetry, ritual, musical theater, puppetry, culinary arts and more. Their projects explore the politics of memory, healing collective trauma, cultural continuity despite colonization and expanding our collective understanding of disability and confronting catastrophe—from climate to pandemics to the violence of borders. Audience experiences will include:

• A dance project that uses technological innovation as a tool for artistic generation by developing robotic technologies to research new movement possibilities for disabled and non-disabled dancers;

• A durational performance of 321 plays, each two minutes long, celebrating the lives of transgender people;

• A site-specific dance focusing on female autonomy and community empowerment, unfolding in a multifamily affordable housing complex;

• A devised performance that explores the history of American labor practices through the disassembling and reassembling of a 1983 Dodge Rampage;

• A play with music and dance offering the undocumented memories of elders to a new generation, bringing oral history to life through a community theatre project that raises awareness of forgotten elements from Puerto Rico's rich heritage and pays tribute to unsung heroes; 

• And a bilingual opera about a Mexican migrant family's journey, evolving perceptions and shifting discussions through authentic depictions of border realities. 

“It is a tremendous honor to resource the creative process of artists at all stages of their career, who serve as such intimate mirrors into generative futures for humanity,” said David Blasher, Executive Director of MAP. “We witnessed an unprecedented number of applications this year, and we know that this is but a tiny glimpse into the imaginative, innovative and revolutionary work of performing artists. We are thrilled for what is to come and affirmed by the poignant role that seed grants like MAP Fund play in the enrichment of the field.”

"I've received many grants throughout my career, but being a MAP grantee stands out for being such a thoughtful and restorative process, rooted in the artists' life and needs, not just the end project,” said Nikki Brake-Sillá, playwright and 2022 MAP grantee. “Through this support, I've developed ReWombed, a play about motherhood, infertility and faith that I feel is seminal in my career as an artist and playwright. The funding allowed me to host a retreat with myself and the actors that left us all feeling refreshed, joyful and creatively invigorated. I also cannot speak highly enough of MAP's SPA program; I am so grateful to my mentor Sharon Bridgforth and the MAP team for creating such a divine experience that has given me tools to lead a sustainable and fulfilling practice." 

“The Doris Duke Foundation seeks to strengthen the conditions for artists to thrive and unlock the power of creativity that impacts our world in positive ways,” said Ashley Ferro-Murray, Program Director for the Arts at the Doris Duke Foundation. “We celebrate MAP Fund's holistic approach to funding. By providing flexible financial support and removing traditional funding barriers, MAP Fund has charted a path that allows artists to create boundary-breaking and risk-taking work.”

MICROGRANT

Accompanying the award, MAP incorporates an unrestricted $1,000 microgrant for grantees to distribute to an artist in their community. The microgrants program launched in 2022 as an artist-directed initiative to share the wealth of a MAP award, enhance grantees' agency and extend the reach of MAP resources. Fostering a place for valuing mutual recognition, appreciation and camaraderie, the microgrants underscore MAP's practice of directly turning to artists to determine who in their own communities would benefit from resources. Micrograntees will be announced in October of this year. 

“MAP extends trust and resources to artists who are helping shape our communities in life-affirming ways,” says Ron Ragin, Director of Programs. “It's inspiring to see how grantees in this cycle are making work that speaks directly to the political, economic and ecological collapses we face and showing us paths forward.” 

HISTORY OF MAP FUND

Since 1989, MAP Fund has distributed more than 1,600 grants and over $38 million to thousands of performing artists who interrogate presumptive cultural norms, challenge entrenched ideologies and remind us over and over again of our shared humanity. MAP Fund's seed investment is transformational in helping artists test their bold ideas and attract resources to further actualize their long-term ambitions, supporting emerging artists who were later recognized as major contributors to the culture.

MAP Fund's work is made possible through partnership with Doris Duke Foundation, Mellon Foundation, Howard Gilman Foundation and Walder Foundation. Additional support comes from Jerome Foundation, The National Endowment for the Arts, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, the New York State Council on the Arts and dozens of individual donors. For the full list of 2024 MAP Fund Grantees visit https://mapfund.org/2024-grantees. For more, visit www.mapfund.org.