The Doris Duke Charitable Foundation has awarded $3 million in grants to the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing arts in Washington DC. Two of the three million will go to the Center's Millennium Endowment Fund, including a dollar-for-dollar matching campaign to help the organization mount festivals that "reflect the diversity of world cultures." The rest of the money will go towards mounting three specific festivals exploring the "performing, visual and literary arts of Africa, Ireland and Latin America."

All told, the Duke Charitable Foundation handed out $5.5 million in performing arts grants June 29, with $1 million given to the Library of Congress to create the Martha Graham Archives and mount five of her works; $100,000 going to the Boston-based dance presenter Dance Umbrella; and $1.4 million to Kentucky's Appalshop [sic], which nurtures theatre, film and the visual arts in Appalachia.

In September 1998, the Duke Foundation awarded $8.1 million in grants to four arts organizations, including $3.5 to the New 42nd Street to support the construction of a 10-story rehearsal and office building on 42nd Street.

A lifelong philanthropist, Doris Duke distributed more than $400 million to charity during her lifetime. She died in 1993 and left provisions for the Foundation -- which has $1.4 billion in assets -- to be established. Joan E. Spero, Foundation President, said in a statement that performing arts grants target institutions that are "centers of excellence" in presenting live performance, and to service organizations that provide space and assistance to artists and ensembles.

-- By David Lefkowitz & Robert Simonson