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A note from Eleanor Savage |
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| The northern lights over Minneapolis, Minnesota. Credit : Steven Garcia/NurPhoto/Shutterstock. |
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| In November in Minnesota, the home of Jerome Foundation’s office, the aurora borealis appeared—reminding us of our cosmic belonging. Charged particles from the sun met the gases of our atmosphere, painting the night sky in vibrant color. A conversation between worlds. A reminder that brilliance emerges through collision, reciprocity, and relationship. As we enter the long nights of December, Jerome Foundation celebrates artists, culture bearers, and arts leaders far and wide. We offer gratitude for the brilliance and magic you bring forth. As Robin Wall Kimmerer notes in Braiding Sweetgrass, winter is a season for slowing down and returning to the practices that nourish imagination. “In winter, when the green earth lies resting beneath a blanket of snow, this is the time for storytelling.” Thank you to all the artmakers for the constellations of stories you bring into the world and for the roles you play as messengers—keepers of memory and makers of new worlds. As we move through the winter months, may we listen deeply: to silence, to ancestors, to the land in its rest, and to the stories that want to be born. |
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| Frozen yoga at Art Shanty Projects. Photo credit: ASP staff. |
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| Pauline Oliveros asks in Quantum Listening, “Can you imagine listening beyond the edge of your own imagination?” And Ruha Benjamin invites us into a related, radical practice: “Remember to imagine and craft the worlds you cannot live without, just as you dismantle the ones you cannot live within.” Let this be our north star in the dark—worldbuilding as listening, care, and the seeds of change. May you find spaciousness, restoration, and sparks of aurora-bright inspiration in this season of deepest darkness. Let us rest, dream, and imagine together the worlds that are calling us forward. —Eleanor Savage |
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| | | The Institute fosters a generative, supportive space for artists to strengthen their critical approach to and practice of making socially engaged art in any genre. Application deadline December 8, 2025. |
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| | The Laundromat Project invites NYC artists, activists, neighbors, designers, organizers, healers, storytellers, and cultural producers to apply for the 2026 Create Change program to explore social practices through community engagement. The program has 3 tracks: Application deadline December 15, 2025. |
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| | Each year, two Van Lier Fellows are selected for the Fellowship from a panel of former Van Lier alumni and industry professionals. Each receives a $35,000 living stipend, a $5,000 artistic fund to support career development, mentorship with a veteran playwright, workshops and sharings of their work, and participation in Rattlestick’s artistic communities and programming. Application deadline December 18, 2025. |
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| | The New York Youth Symphony, in partnership with EarShot, a program of American Composers Orchestra, announces a call for scores for the Jon Deak First Music Program, the New York Youth Symphony’s young composer competition. Seven awards are given each season for orchestral, jazz, and chamber music compositions. Application deadline January 4, 2026. |
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| | The speculating on Plurality 12-week project-based residency invites artists and creatives who are interested in further developing or expanding current or ongoing work or projects that offer new frameworks, platforms, interventions, or inventions to address the issues and ideas most critical to building the futures we seek. Application cycle opens in December 2025. |
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| | Cancellation funds are available to experimental artists with previously confirmed public presentations, including exhibitions, readings, and performances. Recognizing that artists and venues need to rethink budgets, redirect resources, and limit or eliminate programming, cancellation funds aim to mitigate the loss of financial commitments and outlays made prior to the cancellation. Grants are accepted on a rolling basis and distributed monthly in amounts up to $3,000. |
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| | Providing short-term, rapid relief to artists facing unexpected expenses or loss of income due to personal/professional emergencies or natural disasters. The ERF application is designed to be straightforward, so that artists can access funds when they need it most. Minnesota’s Regional Arts Councils administer these funds and have varying guidelines and deadlines. Learn more about the pilot programs and get connected. |
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| | WCWD? is a grant program for artists creating community-care projects that engage and support Asian communities and other communities of color in NYC. Each artist receives $1,500 to develop and implement creative projects that engage, support, and care for AAPI and other communities of color in New York City. Application deadline January 8, 2026. |
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| | The NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship is open to artists living in New York State and/or one of the Tribal Nations located therein. It is not a project grant, and is intended to fund an artist’s vision or voice at all levels of their artistic development. The 2026 round is currently accepting applications for $8,000 unrestricted cash grants in the categories of Craft/Sculpture, Digital/Electronic Arts, Nonfiction Literature, Poetry, & Printmaking/Drawing/Book Arts. Application deadline January 27, 2026. |
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| | Session provides artists a workspace in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn and 6–10 weeks to develop a new inquiry-based project meant to push the boundaries of their practice. They will receive an artist honorarium, planning meeting fees, project expenses, technical support, and mentorship. The application opens January 5 and the deadline is February 23, 2026. |
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| | The program will consider proposals that strengthen the arts and culture sector to serve all individuals and communities across the East Metro region (Dakota, Ramsey, and Washington counties) and Greater Minnesota and expects to fund ten organizations, with grantees receiving $100,000 per year in general operating funds for a five-year grant period. Priority will be given to arts and culture organizations that seek to amplify narratives that address challenges facing communities experiencing marginalization through the arts. Applications begin with a letter of inquiry starting in January 2026. |
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| | The Minnesota State Arts Board’s Operating Support provides general support to organizations that produce, present, or exhibit works of art; to organizations that provide a broad range of services to practicing artists; and to community arts schools and conservatories that make arts learning available to Minnesotans of all ages and abilities. Applications are due before 4:30 pm on January 16, 2026. |
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| | | | Health Insurance Resources for Individual ArtistsWith grant support from Venturous Theater Fund, United Hospital Fund has updated its comprehensive, online guidebook to help theater workers navigate the complex world of health insurance, find affordable care, and become their own best advocates. The 2025 guide—Riskier Business: A Guide for Dramatists and Performing Arts Workers on Finding Affordable Health Coverage and Care—is now available and reflects recent Federal changes to healthcare access. Venturous has also supported the Entertainment Community Fund’s free webinars on the ACA and Medicare for the current open enrollment period. Use and share these resources to stay healthy and creative! While these resources focus on New York City, they include general information on health care, health insurance, and Federal changes applicable to everyone. |
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| | | The Crewsaide (a new space for Minnesota filmmakers)Founded by Allison Guessou (MN Film Production 2019), The Crewsaide is a new online coworking community created by filmmakers, for filmmakers. It’s designed to bring together Minnesota’s creative professionals from writers and directors to crew, producers, and students, all in one shared space. Members can post projects, find collaborators, share events, and access a private forum built entirely around film production. Membership starts at $8 a month, helping support the larger goal of establishing a physical coworking space for Minnesota’s film community. |
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| | | Building Resilience in Uncertain Times (from the Nonprofit Finance Fund)This collection of NFF’s most practical tools, guides, and webinars is for nonprofit leaders navigating uncertain times. From budgeting resources to a cash flow projection template (NFF’s most downloaded template of all time), to a nonprofit budgeting scenario planning tool, these resources will guide you through your most important first steps in building resilience. |
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| | We are grateful to the many organizations and initiatives who compile opportunities for artists in Minnesota, New York City, and beyond! We recommend you visit these sites often (and bookmark them!) to learn about opportunities both near and far, across artistic fields. Additional Resources |
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| | | Dance/USA Fellowships to Artists (DFA) for 2026, supporting dance and movement-based artists who work at the intersection of social and embodied practices, were announced and include: Arthur Aviles (BAAD! Co-Founder and Artistic Director) Leila Awadallah (2021 Jerome Hill Artist Fellow, Dance and 2019 Jerome@Camargo) Kayla Hamilton (2023 Jerome Hill Artist Fellow, Dance) Sage Ni’Ja Whitson (2022 Jerome@Camargo)
The Black Genius Foundation announced its 2025 Strokes of Genius cohort, which includes André Zachery (2019 Jerome Hill Artist Fellow, Dance). Foundation for Contemporary Arts announced the 35 experimental artists who received its 2025 Creative Research Grant, including Anh Vo (2023 Jerome Hill Artist Fellow, Dance). The National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures (NALAC) announced the recipients of the 2025 NALAC Fund for the Arts (NFA): National Arts Partners grants, including ¡Oye! Group, where Modesto Flako Jimenez (2021 Jerome Hill Artist Fellow, Theater/Performance and 2024 Jerome@Camargo) is the founder and artistic director. Contemporary Anishinaabe Art: A Continuation is on view at the Detroit Institute of Arts through April 5, 2026. It celebrates the enduring cultures and creative achievements of over sixty Anishinaabe artists from across the Great Lakes region and includes works from Delina White (2021 Jerome Hill Artist Fellow, Visual Arts) and Maggie Thompson (2023 Jerome Hill Artist Fellow, Visual Arts). Read more about the exhibition on Artscape. |
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| We are also celebrating new and forthcoming books! In March 2026, Janani Balasubramanian (2019 Jerome Hill Artist Fellow, Theater/Performance and 2022 Jerome@Camargo) and their long-term collaborator, Dr. Natalie Gosnell, will publish Art–Science Undisciplined with University of California Press. The book is a practical and visionary guide for artists, scientists, funders, and leaders who are embarking on or supporting art–science collaborations. Revolutions Are Made of Love: The Story of James Boggs and Grace Lee Boggs by Mélina Mangal and Sun Yung Shin was illustrated by Leslie Barlow (2021 Jerome Hill Artist Fellow, Visual Arts). Published by Carolrhoda Books/Lerner Publishing Group, this book shares the inspiring story of James Boggs and Grace Lee Boggs, pioneers of social justice and community activism, who fought alongside many others to make the world a better place for all. The House on Rondo by Debra Stone (2023 Jerome Hill Artist Fellow, Literature) was published by University of Minnesota Press. In it, a young girl reckons with the demolition of a Black Saint Paul neighborhood to make way for the Interstate in the early 1960s. Sage Ni’Ja Whitson’s debut book, Transtraterrestrial: Dark Matter and Black Divinities, was published by Wesleyan University Press. The experimental book blends African Diasporic practices with innovative performance methodologies to explore themes of gender, sexuality, race, and spirit.
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| Sarah Friedland’s Familiar Touch (2021 NYC Film Production) was nominated for Best Feature, and Friedland was nominated for Breakthrough Director for the Gothams 2025 Film Award. Fana Fraser (2021 Jerome Hill Artist Fellow, Dance) had her first film, nesting, screened at the Trinidad + Tobago Film Festival in September. Brooks Turner (2023 Jerome Hill Artist Fellow, Visual Arts) had his article, “Counter-Aesthetics and American Fascism in Reel Time” published in Labor Art Review. Nazareth Hassan’s (2023 Jerome Hill Artist Fellow, Theater/Performance) Practice was recently named a New York Times Critics’ Pick, with the review calling it a “shocking, darkly witty and visually stunning play.” Liberation, directed by Whitney White (2021 Jerome Hill Artist Fellow, Theater/Performance), is on Broadway, with its run extended through February 1. It was also named a New York Times Critics’ Pick. Whitney was also honored as an Artist in Residence for Ebony Magazine’s 2025 POWER 100 List. Jerome Program Officer (NYC) Melissa Levin co-edited, with Alex Fialho, the monograph Michael Richards: Are You Down?, published in November by the Center for Art, Research and Alliances (CARA) and the Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami. It features historic and contemporary documentation of Richards’s work alongside ephemera from his life and practice, and photographs of the artist and his family and friends. |
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Color Congress held its second National Convening in Chicago, hosting 136 BIPOC leaders—both in person and online—from 93 member organizations (80% of its membership). You can watch a video summary of the conference. MN Lead (a program of the Minnesota Black Collective Foundation) released a field report titled, “Insights from Building Organizational & Ecosystem Resilience in a Shifting Landscape.” Pregones/PRTT was honored with a special Drama Desk Award for its prominent role in New York arts and culture. Its founding Artistic Director Rosalba Rolón was named recipient of the 2025 Gish Prize for “outstanding contribution to the beauty of the world and to mankind’s enjoyment and understanding of life.” Pregones/PRTT was also announced as one of five new members of the Cultural Institutions Group (CIG) by the Office of the New York City Mayor and the Department of Cultural Affairs. Third World Newsreel was named a Luminary Award recipient at BlackStar’s 2025 Gala in Philadelphia, honoring its nearly sixty years of championing cultural and social justice in media. This fall, TWN’s newly-digitized historic Newsreel collective films (1968-1972)—many unseen for decades—will screen at BAM and Anthology Film Archives. First Peoples Fund welcomed new President/CEO, Tina Kuckkhan. Tina most recently served as Managing Director of the Foundation at NDN Collective. Before her work at NDN Collective, she served 21 years as Executive Director of The Evergreen State College Longhouse, and led the development of the Indigenous Arts Campus at The Evergreen State College before becoming its first Vice President of Indigenous Arts, Education, and Tribal Relations. Minnesota Center for Book Arts announced its new Executive Director, Courtney Gerber. Courtney has held senior leadership roles at the Minnesota Council of Nonprofits, Minnesota Museum of American Art, and Walker Art Center. In Progress’ co-board chair Sai Thao received a 2025 Saint Paul & Minnesota Foundation Facing Race Award. The awards recognize anti-racism advocates in Minnesota who challenge absent and harmful narratives on race, build solutions that unite instead of divide, and push for justice and equity. Sai was also awarded the McKnight Foundation’s 2025 Virginia McKnight Binger Heart of Community Honor, celebrating people who are the pulse of Minnesota’s caring and connected communities. Watch this video that celebrates Sai’s family, work, and community connections. |
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| Exterior of the Studio Museum in Harlem's new building. Photo: © Albert Vecerka/Esto |
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| Congratulations to Thelma Golden and team on the historic reopening and rebuilding of the Studio Museum in Harlem in November! Enjoy this time-lapse video of the construction, and this Critics’ Pick review by Holland Cotter in The New York Times. Cotter says, “Some museums, just by existing, plant a bright radical flag in history. Fifty-seven years ago, when it opened in a drafty rented loft space over a liquor store on upper Fifth Avenue, the Studio Museum in Harlem did that . . . Now that bright banner is unfurling as in a fresh wind, with the opening next week of the museum’s fine new purpose-built home on West 125th Street. And the arrival comes at yet another pressure-point political moment around issues of diversity and equity.” |
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| | Playwrights’ Center opened its new cultural hub in Saint Paul in September. In this cultural hub, playwrights from all backgrounds will thrive, surrounded by the talent, support, and tools they need to craft their best work. Local communities will come together, engaging with diverse stories of the human experience. The world will find an innovative, highly accessible, and internationally renowned art center in the heart of the Twin Cities. |
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| | Haiti Cultural Exchange officially opened the doors to its new space on 35 Lafayette in Brooklyn! |
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| 🥳 Happy milestone anniversaries to: |
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| Ananya Dance, 20 years Open Eye Figure Theatre, 25 years The Jazz Gallery, 30 years Movement Research, 45 years Danspace Project 50 years Soho Rep, 50 years American Composers Orchestra, 50 years Franklin Furnace, 50 years
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| | Haiti Cultural Exchange welcomes its ninth cohort to its creative residency program, Lakou NOU (“OUR Yard” in Haitian Creole). The program provides four artists of Haitian descent with the opportunity to create and present new work while connecting their skills and talents to four Brooklyn neighborhoods, home to generations of Haitians and Haitian-Americans: Crown Heights, Canarsie, East Flatbush, and Flatbush. The 2025 Lakou NOU cohort members are: Bo Dautruche, Cici Osias, Georgie Exinord, and Zarita Zevallos. New York Live Arts (NYLA) announced this season’s Fresh Tracks artists. The program is a season-long residency for the following emerging movement-based artists in support of new work creation and professional development: Dorchel Haqq, Ariel Lembeck, Cristina Moya-Palacios, Dahlia Qumhiyeh, and Sacha Vega. The Poetry Project shared its 2025–2026 cohort of Emerge—Surface—Be fellows: basalt hsu, Christopher Kazar Janigian, Mace Dent Johnson, Marc Solomon, and Hayley Stahl. Fellows will be given the opportunity to work one-on-one with their Mentor to develop their craft; explore publication and performance opportunities; and reflect on the professional and community-based dimensions of a writing life. Third World Newsreel announced the first cohort of its new, four-month Advanced Production Workshop, designed to advance the documentary projects of past TWN Production Workshop graduates as they take the next steps in their filmmaking journeys. The cohort includes: ManSee Kong, Patrick G. Lee, and Felix Rodriguez for their feature documentaries, and Danite Arefaine and Jennica Carmona for their documentary shorts. |
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| | 🤩 New Year, New PerformancesThe new year in New York City is teeming with opportunities to engage with the performing arts. Check out an incredible range of artists and presenters in Jerome Foundation’s ecosystem this January! |
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| Friday January 9, 2026, 10 am–2:30 pm Eastern Produced in collaboration with The Bronx Music Hall, Hostos Center for the Arts & Culture, the Bronx Artist Showcase & Conversation event features over 15 artists at the Bronx Music Hall (morning) and Hostos Rep Theatre (afternoon). Transportation available from the Hilton Hotel (see RSVP page for details). Please note: this event is geared towards presenters, funders, and others with resources to support artists. |
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| | January 3–11, 2026 at Judson Memorial Church Curated by Pioneers Go East Collective and presented in partnership with Judson Church and JanArtsNYC/APAP, Out-FRONT! Fest. is a Radical Queer Art + Dance festival championing LGBTQ+ and Feminist artists for a lively exchange of art and culture. |
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| | Beginning January 7, 2026 For over two decades, the Under the Radar Theater Festival has brought bold, risk-taking work to New York City, celebrating groundbreaking theater and performance from around the world and just down the street. Produced in collaboration with venues across the city, the festival showcases innovative multidisciplinary artists whose work speaks powerfully to the present moment. |
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| Photo of j. bouey’s A Tale of Fire and Flight by Rachel Keane. |
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| | January 7–17, 2026 New York Live Arts is proud to present its biggest festival ever, with 21 events over 11 days featuring 26 lead artists. As one of NYC's most attended dance-specific platforms during the annual presenter conference season, New York Live Arts is proud to co-present performances with partners Triskelion Arts, Danspace Project, The Chocolate Factory Theater, L’Alliance New York, Sweat Variant Studio, and Under the Radar. |
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| Photo of Ogemdi Ude’s Major by Fabian Hammerl. |
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| For even more information about performance in January, check out JanArtsNYC, the world’s most comprehensive platform for celebrating and experiencing the newest work in theater, dance, opera, music, and performance. |
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| Dyani White Hawk, in her studio in Minneapolis. (Photo by Ben Brewer for The New York Times) |
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| Jerome grantees in the news… |
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| Dyani White Hawk (Sičáŋǧu Lakota) was a 2019 Jerome Hill Artist Fellow in Visual Arts. “Finding Affinity Between Native and Western Abstraction.” The New York Times, October 16, 2025. (read more) Her midcareer survey, Dyani White Hawk: Love Language, is now on view at the Walker Art Center. Studio Museum in Harlem and Charisse Pearlina Weston (2023 Jerome Hill Artist Fellow, Visual Arts): “‘Now I’m on the Stage’: 7 Artists on Their Museum Residencies in Harlem.” The New York Times, November 14, 2025. (read more) Literary Arts Fund: “A new fund will route millions to the literary arts.” NPR, October 28, 2025. (read more/listen) National Black Theatre’s Executive Artistic Director, Jonathan McCrory, made the Ebony Magazine 2025 POWER 100 List as an Artist in Residence. The November issue of Town & Country included an article by former Ford Foundation President Darren Walker about the partnership between CEO Sade Lythcott and Dasha Zhukova (founder of Ray) and a new building that is the future home of NBT. Tricia Heuring (Public Functionary), Thair Thursday (2023 Jerome Hill Artist Fellow, Film), and Maggie Thompson: “Minnesota artists and arts organizations find ways to combat attacks.” The Minnesota Star Tribune, September 12, 2025. (read more) “Harlem Stage Takes Its Show on the Road for the First Time.” The New York Times, October 10, 2025. (read more) Keisha Williams (Minneapolis College of Art and Design): “Duo aims to make art collection accessible and affordable.” MinnPost, November 4, 2025. (read more) |
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| | | | Rachel Jendrzejewski (1982–25), an interdisciplinary writer, artist, and Co-Artistic Director of Red Eye, passed away in July. In her work, Rachel frequently collaborated with choreographers, musicians, and visual artists and leaves a profound and lasting impact on our theater community as a whole, and on countless artists within it. |
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| | We join the dance community in remembering and celebrating the life of Toni Pierce-Sands (1962–2025), who passed away in late November. Toni was a teacher and mentor to so many in the Minnesota dance community through her work at TU Dance, the University of Minnesota, and Macalester College. |
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| Get to know the 2025 Film grantees: 18 early career filmmakers from Minnesota and New York City. |
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| Learn more about Jerome-funded programs supporting early-career artists run by arts organizations in Minnesota and New York City. |
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