The Duke Endowment has announced a $7 million grant to Duke University in support of the arts, including funds to launch an exchange program with music institutions such as the New England Conservatory (NEC) and the Curtis Institute as well as investments in the arts community in Durham, North Carolina.

The grant will enable the university to launch a conservatory exchange program this fall with NEC, Curtis, and similar arts-focused institutions to create formative experiences for Duke students majoring and deeply involved in the arts. The university received the first $3.75 million portion of the gift in March 2020 and the second $3.25 million portion this March.

In addition, the university will rebrand its Duke Performances program, renaming it Duke Arts, which will encompass genres beyond its current offerings of music and dance by adding visual and literary arts to the portfolio. The reconfigured Duke Arts will present multiple types of art performance more aligned with existing university programs like the Nasher Museum of Art, the Center for Documentary Studies, Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, American Dance Festival, and Duke’s curriculum. And the funding includes a $1 million endowment to support the visiting artists program, which the Duke Endowment helped establish in 2007.

“The arts at Duke are an essential, foundational part of the student experience and touch every pillar of Duke’s strategic framework,” said Duke University president Vincent E. Price. “I am grateful to the Duke Endowment for its generosity and its strategic alignment in supporting a culture of the arts at the university.” 

(Photo credit: Getty Images/Ryan Herron)