The grant to support the Katherine Dunham Legacy Project is the second the Library has received from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. The foundation gave the Library a $1 million grant as a "Gift to the Nation" in honor of the Library's Bicentennial in 2000 to purchase the Martha Graham archives, support performances of the Martha Graham Dance Company and document Graham works.
Doris Duke, a lifelong philanthropist, distributed some $400 million, often anonymously, to a variety of charitable causes. When she died in 1993, she left her fortune, including her properties, to the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation.
The mission of the foundation, which was established in 1996, is to improve the quality of people's lives by nurturing the arts, protecting and restoring the environment, seeking cures for diseases and helping to protect children from abuse and neglect. With approximately $1.4 billion in assets, the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation is among the largest philanthropies in the United States. As of Dec. 31, 2001, the foundation had awarded more than $286 million in grants. Additional information can be found on the foundation's Web site at www.ddcf.org.
