The Doris Duke Charitable Foundation has announced grants totaling more than $1.4 million to artists and arts organizations in the United States working to increase public demand for jazz, theater, and contemporary dance.

Unlike traditional residency programs, the Doris Duke Building Demand for the Arts program (formerly known as the Doris Duke Artist Residencies to Build Demand for the Arts program) supports partnerships between artists and organizations, enabling participants to create and pilot methods for reaching the public and developing individuals' interest in and access to the performing arts. The grants were awarded as part of a ten-year, $50 million commitment by the foundation to the performing arts augmenting its existing grantmaking for the arts.

The inaugural class of participants includes BRIC Arts Media and Ronald K. Brown; Childsplay and Zarco Guerrero; Epic Theatre Ensemble and Heather Raffo; the Ferst Center for the Arts at the Georgia Institute of Technology and Jonah Bokaer; Lookingglass Theatre Company and Michael Rohd; Studio @620 and Sharon E. Scott; the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts at the University of Illinois and Anne Bogart; the Northrop Auditorium at the University of Minnesota and Emily Johnson; the Wooster Group and Young Jean Lee; and the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts and Myra Melford.

"Nothing concerns artists and arts organizations today more than nurturing and developing public demand for the performing arts," said DDCF program director for the arts Ben Cameron. "This program deliberately departs from conventional notions about artist residencies to encourage organizations and artists to work in new, imaginative ways to meet this challenge. We are excited by this first class of grantees and eagerly look forward to watching their partnerships unfold."