New York’s Theatre Communications Group (TCG) announced last Thursday that it has been awarded a re-grant from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation (DDCF) and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Included in TCG’s award was an amount of $711, 746 from the DDCF to be used as general operating support for selected grantees.  While the Foundation’s award to TCG is a response to the current trying economic climate, it also reiterates the Foundation’s ongoing commitment to securing great artists and arts institutions.

The grants will be used to increase awareness and support TCG’s New Generations Program–a program designed in three-prongs: Future Leaders, Future Audiences and Future collaborations. The Future Leaders program nurtures emerging theatre practitioners through a hands-on mentorship. Since the start of the program in 2000, 71 mentees have been awarded grants and 72% of the 53 mentees who have already completed the program have gone on to leadership positions in theatres across the country. The Future Audiences program strengthens the efforts of theatres of all sizes to expand their reach to more diverse audiences while simultaneously reaching deeper into their own communities. Since 2000, 106 grants have been awarded to theatres working beyond traditional mehtods in cultivating new audiences. The Future Collaborations program–solely funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation–promotes international collaborations by funding creative exhagnes between U.S. theatre profesisionals and colleagues around the world with direct travel grants. 40 Future Collaborations grants have been awarded to date in addition to 7 international fellowships awarded prior.

More information about the Theatre Communications Group can be found at tcg.org, ddcf.org for the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, and mellon.org for the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Photo Credit: tcg.org