Past
Grantees

Alessandra Zeka/Rob Rapley - T Durosh, a one-hour documentary which examines the recent history of Albania from the perspectives of ordinary people, and of women in particular, focusing on the ways in which historical currents have affected their lives. The film will be divided into three sections. The first section will examine the dictatorship of Enver Hoxha, in particular the unique conditions created by his radical social engineering. The second section will relate the events that led to the regime's collapse. The final section will examine the fragile democracy that emerged from the ashes, including the recent collapse of the pyramid schemes and the ensuing crisis.

The SOUTHERN THEATER FOUNDATION, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received a two-year grant of $20,000 in support of CHRIS AIKEN DANCE. Aikens work draws from extensive training, practice and performance in improvisation. Over the next two seasons, Aikens plans include a strong residency and touring schedule, the development of new choreographic works and the continuation of collaborations with other dancers and choreographers. Aiken will create an evening-length performance in which he is the only dancer collaborating with a composer/musician, a lighting designer and a visual artist. Hell test informal presentations of new choreographic ideas during the duration of the grant period.

The MINNESOTA DANCE ALLIANCE, Minneapolis, acting as fiscal agent for ARENA DANCES BY MATHEW JANCZEWSKI, received $8,000 toward the development of new dance works. This is the second Jerome grant to Janczewski, awarded in recognition of his potential as an emerging choreographer. The funds will assist in the presentation of new work in the winter of 1998.

A two-year authorization of $20,000 was awarded to the SOUTHERN THEATER FOUNDATION, Minneapolis, Minnesota, as fiscal agent for the CONCRETE FARM DANCE COLLECTIVE. Concrete Farm consists of dancers and choreographers Susan Scalf, Morgan Thorson, Kristin VanLoon and Arwen Wilder. The first phase of this two-year program is a Dance Laboratory, an extended time in which members of the Collective will experiment with their singular creative processes and choreographic collaborations. This will lead to the presentation of a full concert event a the Southern Theater in the spring of 1999. There will be open rehearsals during the duration of the grant period.

MO DONAHUE, Minneapolis, MN, $11,500. Donahue received support for Soft Boiled Desire, a 30-minute experimental narrative video exploring the story of a woman who struggles for the courage to free herself and her daughter from an abusive relationship. Through improvisation, Donahue will create and develop characters and scenes which express her thoughts and feelings about perceived reality and the nature of being female in a male dominated world.

MIKE HAZARD, St. Paul, MN, $12,000. Hazard will receive funds to produce a 30-minute video titled Solar Power & Moonshine, composed as an imaginary year in the life of a videopoet named Mediamike. This first-person, narrative video is a montage of light and dark-hearted essays, random notes, chance images, documentary portraits of individuals, and lyrical videopoems.

DEJUNIUS HUGHES, Minneapolis, MN, $14,545. Funds were awarded to hughes to produce Phillips Gateway Documentary, a 30-minute video work on the Phillips Gateway Project, the work of Rafala Green and the youth of the Phillips neighborhood. The Rafala Green public art project, at the intersection of Chicago and Franklin, affirms the neighborhood's determination to make Phillips a safe place for kids and community. hughes will show the breadth of participation in the project, its early history and its larger social context.

The Directors of Jerome Foundation authorized a $7,500 grant to the NEW YORK FOUNDATION FOR THE ARTS, New York City, acting as fiscal agent for choreographer Koosil-Ja Hwang and her company, DANCE KUMIKOKIMOTO. Hwangs work embodies her relentlessly driving, creative energy. She layers visual movement and vocal elements in swirling patterns that may at first seem impenetrable, but convey a deep and lasting imagery. This grant commitment will subsidize the creation and production of new work in the 1997-98 season.

HARVESTWORKS, a New York City organization which provides, at low cost to artists, access to equipment, technologies and materials for electronic music and audio production, acted as fiscal agent for a requested crafted by composers/librettists LISA KARRER and DAVID SIMONS. A grant commitment of $10,000 was made toward the development and workshop production of a new work by Karrer and Simmons, The Birth of George. This highly experimental chamber opera is scored for conventional and microtonal instruments, electronics, vocal soloists and chorus. The work is scheduled for a two-week run in October of 1997 at La MaMa in New York City. Bizarre characters and fantastic theatrics will be invented using unusual combinations of sounds and mixed musical genres.

Directors authorized a grant of $8,000 to the NRITYA JYOTI DANCE THEATRE, Crystal, Minnesota, in support of the creation and presentation of a new work by choreographer Rita Mustaphi. Nritya Jyotis mission is to present, promote and strengthen the understanding and advancement of Kathak, the classical dance of North India, through creation, preservation and sponsorship of artistic and cultural endeavors. It maintains a company of dancers and presents traditional and innovative Kathak dance and multidisciplinary performances. Mustaphis new work, Chitra: A Woman, will be performed in November of 1997 at the Southern Theater in Minneapolis.

JOHN KOLOMVAKIS AND JAMES DOWELL were awarded support for The Worlds of Charles Henri Ford, which will present the life and work of this poet, novelist, photographer, filmmaker and collagist. The work will present Ford as a catalyst and keen observer of the art and literary worlds of New York and Paris for a period of more than 68 years, as well as an important force in creating an honest gay identity.

THE KITCHEN, New York City, acting as fiscal agent for choreographer JENNIFER MONSON, received a grant of $8,000 to support the development and production of a new work entitled Sender. Monson will create, in collaboration with composer Zeena Parkins, a 60-minute work for six dancers and four musicians, scheduled to premiere in February of 1997. The piece, constructed in three sections, explores ideas of confinement and resistance, force and enforcement; and reflects upon the rise of imprisonment as a means of social control in contemporary culture. Experimenting with the line between speed and danger, Monsons full bodied dancing encompasses trust and delicacy.

ALISA LEBOW AND CYNTHIA MADANSKY received support for Treyf, an unorthodox documentary exploring what it means to be Jewish and lesbian on the eve of the 21st Century. Treyf synthesizes the lessons learned by Jews throughout history in order to develop a perspective that revels in the diversity of Jewish communities.

Funding was awarded to JULIE LOKTEV to produce Moment of Impact, a feature-length experimental documentary about the filmmaker's father who was hit by a car and in one instant became a different person, a different being, stuck between life and death. This film will be an intimate expressionistic portrait of her father-then and now. It is also a portrait of her mother, who left her job to care for her husband at home.

DANSPACE PROJECT, New York City, acting as fiscal agent for choreographer SONDRA LORING, received a grant of $8,000 to support the development of a new work. The Bridge will be presented at Danspace Project in the fall of 1997, bringing together two choreographers, one composer and six professional performers, three from New York and three from Mexico. The Bridge signals a new direction in Lorings choreography toward work that is cross-cultural, cross-generational, and produced on a large scale.

Two years of subsidy, $7,000 in each year, were awarded to the MINNESOTA DANCE ALLIANCE, Minneapolis, Minnesota, as fiscal agent for choreographer PAULA MANN, to create and present her 1997 season. Mann will celebrate the 10th anniversary of her dance-making in the Twin Cities by presenting highlights of work to date, along with a new piece. Maze is an exploration of the human desire to find freedoma way out of surroundings that entrap. Set on seven dancers, the piece is inspired by Serbian actor/narrator Srdjan Pesics Flight From Croatia.

SUSAN MUSKA AND GRTA LAFSDTTIR received funding toward a 60 to 90-minute documentary titled The Brandon Teena Story, based on the Humboldt triple murder and how and why it took place, destroying the lives of at least five young people forever, and significantly affecting friends, family and lovers left behind. The themes of homophobia and self-hatred are embedded in this story.

P.S. 122, New York City, acting as fiscal agent for independent choreographer CYNTHIA OLIVER, received a grant of $10,000 toward the development and production of the new work Unremovable Jacket. Olivers mix of dance, theater and the spoken word incorporates Caribbean themes and cultural conflicts. In Unremovable Jacket, Oliver will create a work which implicitly and explicitly engages the burdens of race and classification as entities that are signs and cannot be removed. Oliver will explore the volatile territory of race awareness, unawareness, relations and talk wrapped up in a confusing tangle of fashion.

The PICK UP PERFORMANCE COMPANY, New York City, acting as sponsor for artist Ain Gordon, received $8,000 toward the development of the new work Burning on the Eleventh Floor. In 1995, the Jerome Foundation made its first grant in support of his work, resulting in a piece titled Wallys Ghost, for which Gordon received an OBIE. Burning on the Eleventh Floor will look at the theme of history and its relation to modern everyday existence. As the world careens toward the year 2000, Ain Gordons mind rolls back to the turn of the last century when the creation of a mass culture was fed by rapidly expanded means of transportation, communication, production and education. The play will be developed in workshops this spring, followed by a rewriting stage and further developmental work leading to full production.

The MINNESOTA DANCE ALLIANCE, Minneapolis, Minnesota, acting as fiscal agent for writer, performance artist and administrator J. OTIS POWELL!, received $12,000 to support the development and production of Theology. This is a multidisciplinary performance work which includes spoken word, dance, music, publication of a sequel book and CD recording. Powell! describes Theology as a journey into a dream that is filled with all of the struggle, ambiguity and potency of loving in a mendacious world. It is a documentation of lives lived in spiral revolutions that return to the original point of departure, which is love, and the reflections that love reveals. It is the wisdom of the blues. Powell! will work with several collaborative artists.