Steppenwolf Theatre Company Awarded $1.075M Doris Duke Grant

The Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and Nonprofit Finance Fund have awarded Steppenwolf Theatre Company a $1,075,000 grant to create groundbreaking new programming aimed at engaging young artists – and enhance the theater's Visiting Companies Initiative.  Steppenwolf and nine other performing arts organizations across the country are receiving grants as part of Leading for the Future: Innovative Support for Artistic Excellence, a landmark arts initiative to fund innovative projects that address sector-wide challenges such as shifting audiences, decreased funding sources, and new technologies.

"Steppenwolf Theatre is honored by this extraordinary opportunity," comments Artistic Director Martha Lavey.  "Through this multi-year initiative, we aim to engage young artists through innovative programming and challenge them to create work that will engage a broader community. The effort will be spearheaded by ensemble member Anna D. Shapiro, head of Northwestern University's MFA Directing Program.  Additionally, we will enhance Steppenwolf's Visiting Companies Initiative, allowing more young companies to benefit from the supportive use of our theater spaces," adds Lavey.

Funded by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, Leading for the Future is a 5-year, $15.125 million dollar initiative. The program will provide Steppenwolf with significant funding, along with technical assistance from Nonprofit Finance Fund. The goal of this national initiative is to enable a group of artistically outstanding organizations to strengthen their business in a changing environment, while providing instructive examples and models for other arts organizations to learn from and possibly replicate.

"Leading for the Future will help trailblazing arts organizations continue to thrive in a society that is changing at lightning speed," said Ben Cameron, director for the arts for the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. "Together with Nonprofit Finance Fund, we hope to learn valuable lessons about how arts organizations can innovate, even when faced with the challenges of a slumping economy, shifting generational interests, and emerging technologies."

Other Leading for the Future grant recipients include:  Alvin Ailey Dance Foundation, Center Theatre Group, Cunningham Dance Foundation, Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival, Misnomer Dance Theater, National Black Arts Festival, Ping Chong & Company, Siti Company and The Wooster Group.

"Leading for the Future participants have already proven themselves adept at artistic innovation; now, they will lead the way for arts organizations to reinvent their business platforms so the artistic side will be reliably supported," said Clara Miller, president and CEO of NFF. "At a time when restricted gifts and carefully predicted outcomes are the status quo, this program offers these organizations the latitude and support that is required for true experimentation and change."

ABOUT Steppenwolf Theatre COMPANY

Committed to the principle of ensemble performance through the collaboration of a company of actors, directors and playwrights, Steppenwolf Theatre Company's mission is to advance the vitality and diversity of American theater by nurturing artists, encouraging repeatable creative relationships and contributing new works to the national canon.  The company, formed in 1976 by a collective of actors, is dedicated to perpetuating an ethic of mutual respect and the development of artists through on-going group work.  Steppenwolf has grown into an internationally renowned company of forty-one artists whose talents include acting, directing, playwriting, filmmaking and textual adaptation.  For additional information, visit www.steppenwolf.org.

ABOUT NONPROFIT FINANCE FUND
Nonprofit Finance Fund (NFF) is a national leader in nonprofit, philanthropic and social enterprise finance. Founded in 1980, NFF (www.nonprofitfinancefund.org) provides loan financing, access to capital and direct advisory services that build the capacity and the financial health of nonprofits. A leading community development financial institution with over $80 million in assets, NFF has provided over $175 million in loans and access to additional financing via grants, tax credits and capital in support of over $1 billion in projects for thousands of nonprofit clients nationwide. NFF has a staff of more than 75 serving nonprofits nationally from offices in Philadelphia, New York City, Newark, New Jersey, Boston, Detroit, Washington, D.C., and San Francisco.

ABOUT THE DORIS DUKE CHARITABLE FOUNDATION

The mission of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation (www.ddcf.org) is to improve the quality of people's lives through grants supporting the performing arts, environmental conservation, medical research and the prevention of child maltreatment, and through preservation of the cultural and environmental legacy of Doris Duke's properties. 

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