The Princess Grace Foundation-USA is a national foundation in the United States which is dedicated to identifying and assisting emerging talent in theater, dance, and film by awarding grants in the form of scholarships, apprenticeships, and fellowships. It was named after Princess Grace of Monaco. Currently, John F. Lehman, Jr. is at the helm, Albert II, Prince of Monaco serves as Vice-Chairman, and Ms. Toby Boshak, who has been with the Foundation for fourteen years, is the Executive Director. The organization's goals are helping emerging artists. The Foundation’s Trustees share Princess Grace’s dedication to supporting the arts and they believe, as She did, that cultivation and training of emerging talent is essential to ensure sustained excellence in the arts.
Over the past 28 years, the Foundation has awarded over $8 million to nearly 500 theater, dance, and film artists nationwide. It continues to fund its inaugural disciplines and has expanded its grants program to include playwriting and choreography grants within the theater and dance categories.
In keeping with the Princess Grace Foundation’s mission to identify and celebrate talented emerging artists, the Arts Advisory Board (AAB) created Special Project Awards to provide Princess Grace Awards winners with funds for project-specific ventures. The AAB funds projects that offer unique, consequential artistic opportunities at a critical juncture in an artist’s career. Since 2003, fifty-nine Special Project Awards have been granted. In 2010, the AAB conferred seven Special Project Awards: three in Theater, one in Dance, and three in Film.
In 2008, the AAB formed a partnership with Baryshnikov Arts Center (BAC) to provide further support for Princess Grace Awards winners. The Works in Progress Residency provides a cash award of around $25,000 and residence at the Baryshnikov Arts Center, in support of the multimedia and interdisciplinary artistic pursuits of Princess Grace Awards winners. The Residency enables these artists to explore, experiment, and push the boundaries of their work in an environment that focuses on process over product. In 2010, three artists received BAC Residencies: two in Theater and one in Dance.
In 2009, the AAB formed a partnership with Steppenwolf Theatre Company to provide further support for its Theater Awards winners. The goal of this alliance is to provide a Princess Grace Theater Awards winner with an opportunity to learn from a more established Awards winner by serving as a Co-Assistant Director on a production scheduled as a part of the Steppenwolf season. The partnership has paired Alex Torra with Anna D. Shapiro on a production of UP! in 2009 and plans to pair another director with Tina Landau on a production of Hot L Baltimore in 2011.
The Foundation hopes to foster a community network for continued support of Awards winners as they progress in their careers.
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Prince Rainier of Monaco established the program to keep helping emerging artists realize their career goals as Princess Grace did during her lifetime. Prince Rainier's children continue to assist in the program in its 28th year. Notable supporters of the Foundation during its inception include Gant Gaither, Frank Sinatra, Cary Grant, John Johnson, William Rogers, Mary Wells Lawrence, and Lynn Wyatt. In 1982, the Board of Trustees, under Robert Hausman, incorporated Princess Grace Foundation-USA as a not-for-profit public charity. In 1984, after the initial fund raising phase was complete, financial grants in the form of scholarships, apprenticeships, and fellowships were awarded to artists associated with schools or companies in the dance and theater disciplines. An arts advisory board composed of distinguished professionals in each of those fields was appointed to choose the most talented applicants as Awards recipients. President Reagan and his wife oversaw the first gala in Washington, D.C.; a tradition now continued annually in the Awards Gala in New York City.
Past winners of the Awards who distinguish themselves in their artistic disciplines since receiving their initial Princess Grace Awards are eligible to win the Foundation’s highest honor, the Princess Grace Statue Award. In addition to a $25,000 unrestricted cash gift, these awardees are presented with a bronze statuette of Princess Grace created by the Dutch artist Kees Verkade. To date, fifty-one artists have received this award.
In 2005, the board of trustees inaugurated the Prince Rainier III Award, in honor of the man who helped begin the Foundation. This Award is presented to eminent artists who have not only been highly successful in their careers, but have made significant humanitarian contributions to their fields. To date, Mikhail Baryshnikov (2005), Twyla Tharp (2006), George Lucas (2007), Glenn Close (2008), Mandy Patinkin (2009) and Denzel Washington and Pauletta Washington (2010) have received this honor, which includes a grant to the philanthropic organization of their choice.