Columbus, OH - The Doris Duke Charitable Foundation (DDCF) has awarded a $200,000 grant to the Jazz Arts Group of Columbus (JAG) to create a national model for building jazz and music audiences, entitled the Jazz Audiences Initiative.

The 21-month project, which spans November 1, 2009 through July 31, 2011, will enable the Jazz Arts Group to research and test new strategies for overcoming barriers to jazz participation and for building jazz audiences through more targeted marketing and programming efforts. The initiative will tackle fundamental questions about how and why people engage with jazz. Jazz artists and presenters nationwide will learn new ideas for building audiences and infusing the art form with new energy. In addition, research of this kind has not been conducted by another organization in the United States.

“The Doris Duke Charitable Foundation is delighted to support this project," commented Ben Cameron, Program Director for the Arts at DDCF. “The quality and expertise of the participants are exceptional, and the potential for impact on the entire jazz field is enormous. We look forward to following this project as it moves forward."

“We are incredibly honored to be a recipient of DDCF funding and see this as a significant opportunity to provide insight into how contemporary audiences are attracted to the arts, and specifically to the creative forms such as jazz," expressed Robert Breithaupt, Executive Director of the Jazz Arts Group. “Our intent is to share the outcomes of this research with presenters and artists so they may shape their products with a goal to expand audiences." The project will investigate and create deeper understanding of the musical tastes, and perceptions of jazz and music preferences, with particular attention on the language used to describe the music; develop new segmentation models for current jazz audiences and potential jazz audiences; and nurture and sustain a “community of practice" to create opportunities for meaningful discussion between project partners and jazz stakeholders.

The Jazz Arts Group will lead this project and has attracted notable research partners from across the country including: Jazz at Lincoln Center; San Francisco Jazz (SFJAZZ); the Cleveland Jazz Orchestra; the University of Florida Performing Arts; the University of Iowa Hancher Auditorium; the Ohio State University Wexner Center for the Arts; and Dave Powers, a Columbus jazz musician. A team of highly skilled national researchers including Alan S. Brown, Principal, and Jennifer Novak-Leonard, Senior Research Consultant, Wolf Brown; Joe Heimlich, Senior Research Associate, Institute for Learning Innovation; and Jerry Yoshitomi, Chief Knowledge Officer, Meaning Matters, LLC will assist JAG staff to understand and use audience participation trends and data gathered from the Jazz Audiences Initiative.

“This project is extremely timely. It will serve as a catalyst for better informed conversations about jazz; its audiences; and how best we grow them," shared Adrian Ellis, Executive Director of Jazz at Lincoln Center.

Felice Swapp, Executive Operating Director of SFJAZZ stated “we are readily willing to engage in the research exploration of what motivates audiences to participate, what various audience segments perceive jazz to sound like and mean, and how a national learning community could strengthen the sector."

About the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation:

The mission of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation 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.

The foundation's Arts Program supports performing artists in contemporary dance, jazz and theatre, and the nonprofit arts organizations that nurture these artists and produce and present these art forms.

About the Jazz Arts Group:

The Jazz Arts Group of Columbus (JAG) is America's oldest not-for-profit arts organization dedicated to producing, performing and promoting jazz. JAG is the third largest performing arts organization in Columbus and consists of four focus areas: the Columbus Jazz Orchestra (CJO), one of the world's finest professional jazz orchestras; the Jazz Academy, JAG's extensive instructional programs educating both students and adults about jazz and American music; Inside Track, a new jazz and blues performance series to be produced at the historic Lincoln Theatre; and Affiliate Musicians, a program providing employment opportunities for professional musicians.