Protecting Artists' Livelihoods

In 2025, the Doris Duke Foundation (DDF) intentionally announced the Doris Duke Artist Awards recipients on May Day—a day honoring the struggles and achievements of the international labor movement—to affirm that artists are workers. By celebrating artists as creative laborers, DDF underscores how society thrives when artists have resources, compensation and the support they need to live and work. With a $6.3M investment, DDF is reaffirming its commitment to the performing arts through the national Creative Labor, Creative Conditions campaign, which includes:

• $1.5M to the United States Artists for their national policy alliance and financial literacy trainings for artists
• A $1.5M partnership with the Center for Cultural Innovation on a national policy initiative that ensures artists are included in labor protections
• Arts policy convenings in Washington, D.C. with DCJazz (summer 2025) and in Colorado with Aspen Art Museum as part of their 2025 Investing In Artists As Leaders initiative
• A growing network of national partners dedicated to advancing equitable wages for artists, growing healthy communities with thriving cultural sectors and creating affordable spaces for performing artists to develop and produce work

United States Artists (USA) and the Center for Cultural Innovation (CCI) are nonprofits that help individual artists build sustainable careers and, more broadly, work to improve the social and financial infrastructure that allows artists and other freelancers to be creatively and financially successful in the long term. Through expanded technical assistance, financial services and direct support via USA programs and the National Arts Policy Alliance, DDF is equipping the organization’s member artists with tools to navigate a shifting policy landscape and preserve their long-term financial health.

"The independence and freedom necessary for an artist to roam, to imagine and to create visionary work, can leave those very artists vulnerable to being excluded from the protections and benefits awarded to those in stable and consistent environments of care," said Judilee Reed, CEO of United States Artists. “As cultural laborers, we want to understand these challenges and create systems to accommodate resources for artists, not just because they’ve created beauty in the world but because this care is inalienable to all people."

"A healthy democracy needs artists, yet artists are silenced when they struggle financially, are encumbered by debt or are losing housing. Everyone should be freely expressive, yet these kinds of struggles hold back too many people. We are excited to be working together on solutions for unharnessing artists’ potential in ways that benefit everyone in society." — Angie Kim, President & CEO, Center for Cultural Innovation and Founding Director of its Research to Impact Lab.

The campaign kicks off on May 1 in Times Square with a multidisciplinary performance and large-scale choral activation, alongside partners. In addition to USA and CCI, partners include One Nation, One Project, Creatives Rebuild NY, and IndieSpace. As part of the effort, DDF will host two additional convenings with cross-sector leaders and artists between May Day and Labor Day in Aspen, Colorado and Washington, DC.

Established in 2012, the Doris Duke Artist Awards aim to create conditions for individual artists so they can thrive. In addition to providing a cash prize, the foundation also gives the award winners support including professional development, financial planning and management services, enhanced networking and performance opportunities. 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 choosing. In 2023, the foundation doubled the amount of the award to signal the power of sustained support for individual performing artists.

For more information about the Doris Duke Artist Awards, visit ddaa.dorisduke.org.