Val Jeanty Receives 2026 Doris Duke Artist Award
Val Jeanty, who teaches with the Ensemble Department and Berklee Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice, has been named a 2026 recipient of a Doris Duke Artist Award.
Image courtesy of the artist
The Doris Duke Charitable Foundation (DDCF) named Val Jeanty, associate professor of ensembles, as a recipient of the 2026 Doris Duke Artist Award, the nation’s largest prize dedicated to individual performing artists. As part of the Foundation’s Creative Labor, Creative Conditions campaign, DDCF has awarded six grants this year, totaling more than $1 million to programs and initiatives advancing artists as workers.
Jeanty, who teaches in the Ensemble Department and with the Berklee Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice, was noted as a recipient in the jazz category. Also known as Val-Inc, she is an acclaimed Haitian composer, percussionist, turntablist, and educator whose work has been presented at world-class institutions including the Biennale, the Whitney, and the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). She pioneered Afro-Electronica, honoring her ancestors through sound chemistry while sharing her Haitian culture with the world.
“The recognition is particularly meaningful as an electronic musician who hopes to make a difference in music, art, and sound as its own all-encompassing art form,” said Jeanty. “This award is a tremendous blessing—I hope to continue to create, inspire, and thrive alongside my fellow awardees as we bring our artistic contributions out into the world. I’m grateful for all of those who have supported me at Berklee, in the arts space, and of course the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation for this honor.”
Jeanty is the fourth Berklee faculty or staff member to be recognized as a Doris Duke Artist Award recipient. In 2019, founder and artistic director of the Berklee Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice, Terri Lyne Carrington, received an award. In 2021, Kris Davis, associate program director of creative development for the Berklee Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice, and Danilo Pérez ’88, founder and artistic director of the Berklee Global Jazz Institute, were announced as recipients in the jazz category.
About the Doris Duke Artist Award
Established in 2012, the Doris Duke Artist Award aims to support the conditions that individual artists need to thrive. In addition to a cash prize of $525,000 in unrestricted funds, the foundation also provides winners professional development support, financial planning and management services, and enhanced networking and performance opportunities. The unrestricted nature of the award allows artists to use the funds for personal needs, accessing the benefits of a social safety net that is not accessible to individual artists in the U.S. Funds are allocated over seven years and include a $25,000 incentive for those who choose to allocate funds for retirement.
“When we provide artists with access to unrestricted financial resources, we break down the barriers that hold the artist community back from being truly free to create, experiment, and move society forward,” said Ashley Ferro-Murray, program director for the arts at DDCF. “The Doris Duke Artist Awards program is more than an award—it is the realization of our commitment to the essential investments our society must make in sustaining, cultivating, and celebrating creative labor as a necessary pillar of our communities and country.”
