The artistic director of Forklift Danceworks has been named a 2026 Doris Duke Artist Award winner, which comes with an unrestricted $525,000 prize.
“It’s not only a recognition of me; it’s a recognition of all who have contributed to my work — my work at Forklift, my work in the world,” said Allison Orr, who founded the dance company in 2001. “And it’s a vote of approval.”
The annual award celebrates six individuals working in the fields of contemporary dance, jazz and theater. Recipients are free to use the prize money as they see fit. It includes a $25,000 incentive to put money toward retirement.
Orr poses in front of billboard featuring her photo as a winner of the Doris Duke Artist Award in New York’s Times Square.
“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,” Ashley Ferro-Murray, the foundation’s program director for the arts, said in a press release.
The award money is given to each winner over the course of seven years. The foundation has distributed more than $40 million to artists since the fund was created.
Forklift collaborates with communities on its dance performances. Partnering with different city departments, it centers workers whose labor often goes unseen. In The Trash Project, for example, sanitation workers took center stage, demonstrating the skill and expertise their work requires while sharing stories about their lives.
Orr is the third Austinite to receive the prestigious award, which was established in 1996. She joins choreographer Deborah Hay (2012) and the Rude Mechs’ Shawn Sides (2015).
“It’s a big deal for our arts community to have three of us who’ve now received this award,” Orr said. “I think that’s something to be very proud of.”
Orr said she was invited to a Zoom meeting with the head of the Doris Duke Foundation’s arts grants program, believing it would be a conversation about a potential new campaign.
“I thought I was just going to listen to them talk about something they were doing at the foundation and give them my input,” she said. “She tricked me and said, ‘Oh, we’re going to talk to you about artist labor, this new campaign.’ Then she said, ‘Well, we actually have something to tell you.’ And I started crying. I couldn’t believe it. I was speechless, which is a lot to say for me.”
Orr said she has not yet decided how she will use the money.
“I will do some financial planning for the future in a way that I’ve never had the capacity to do before,” she said.
Orr laughed, saying she couldn’t quit now.
“It is a question that I — and, I imagine, many artists — have: Am I going to be able to keep at it?” she said. “This is a huge vote of confidence saying, ‘You need to keep at it. We want you to keep at it. And here’s some help to keep at it.’”