Making Creative Risks Possible for Performance: Doris Duke Foundation (DDF)

Walker Publishing

Out There: Cécile McLorin Salvant, Ogresse: Envisioned, 2023. Photo by Yasmin Yassin. Courtesy Walker Art Center.

Doris Duke Foundation (DDF) has a long history of making life-changing grants to both artists and organizations, with a particular focus on contemporary dance, jazz, and theater artists. The Walker’s performing arts program has long benefited from this support through a generous endowment grant made in 1998. More recently, the Walker was fortunate to be among the first recipients of a DDF Creative Inflections grant, a program created to support modern jazz masters’ exploration of new directions in their artistic growth and development and expand the genre’s listenership by attracting younger and more diverse audiences. The result of this latest partnership between the Walker and DDF was Cécile McLorin Salvant’s Ogresse: Envisioned, which premiered in February 2023.

A Grammy Award–winning vocalist renowned in the jazz world, Salvant, also a visual artist, was intrigued by the opportunity to combine her artistic practices to turn her Ogresse song cycle into a multimedia premiere.

“The Walker has been on the forefront of supporting contemporary jazz artists as they broaden their creative practices to include multidisciplinary approaches,” says Philip Bither, McGuire Director and Senior Curator of Performing Arts. “The support from Doris Duke Foundation allowed the Walker to present a world-class artist with an international reputation, while also allowing Cécile to take a creative risk and deepen her practice.