Past
Grantees

DANCE THEATER WORKSHOP, New York City, received $32,400 in support of commissions for emerging choreographers/movement artists from New York City and/or Minnesota. Dance Theater Workshop provides independent artists with production programs and resources that nurture their creativity and growth over time. Through presentation programs, residencies and community interaction, Dance Theater Workshop builds the context for work to be created, noted, and discussed, forging a deeper understanding about the importance of art and artists in everyday life. Jerome Foundation has provided commissioning support to Dance Theater Workshop since 1980. The Foundations current commitment will support commissions for eight emerging choreographers/movement artists to create new work for presentation at Dance Theater Workshop. Coupled with production support, the commissions provide critical resources for the creation of new work.

The NEW YORK MILLS ARTS RETREAT AND REGIONAL CULTURAL CENTER, New York Mills, Minnesota, received $8,000 in support of a retreat residency program for emerging artists. The Arts Retreat provides space and support for artists in all disciplines to work and share their creativity with the surrounding area. The purpose of the Regional Cultural Center is to expand the cultural and creative opportunities in rural west central Minnesota. Jerome support will be directed to two and four week residencies of emerging artists, a majority of whom will be based in New York City and/or Minnesota. A home and studio for the artists are provided as they pursue their own work and provide a specified amount of community service.

NEW YORK THEATRE WORKSHOP, New York City, received $18,000 in support of the creation, development, and production of new plays by emerging playwrights. New York Theatre Workshop is committed to the development of innovative theatre by supporting theatre artists at all stages of their careers, providing an environment where work can be created free from the artistic compromise and forbidding financial demands often associated with commercial ventures. The Workshop is dedicated to exploring and presenting theatrical experiences that reflect, respond to, and invigorate the world. Artist Development Activities provide emerging playwrights and other theater artists with opportunities to focus on their work in a highly professional setting, and to collaborate with other artists and administrators. Activities include the Play Reading Series, Usual Suspects, Companies-in-Residence, Jonathan Larson Lab, Summer Residencies, and Emerging and Resident Artists of Color Fellowships. Jerome dollars are directed to the participation of emerging playwrights based in Minnesota and New York City.

The NORTHERN CLAY CENTER, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received $23,850 in support of the 2010 Jerome Ceramic Artist Project Grants Program. The mission of the Center is the advancement of the ceramic arts. Ongoing programs include classes and workshops for children and adults at all levels of proficiency; exhibitions of work by regional, national, and international artists; studio space and grants for artists; and a sales gallery representing many of the top ceramic artists from the region and elsewhere. The Ceramic Artist Project Grants Program annually awards three grants of $6,000 each to emerging artists to support self-designed projects intended to advance their art and careers. An independent selection panel reviews proposals submitted in response to an open call. Projects may include, but are not limited to, experimenting with new techniques and firing methods, spending time with a mentor, purchasing equipment to facilitate an aesthetic or technical investigation, dedicating time to work, and collaborating with other artists. The grant year culminates with a group exhibition at the Center.

NORTHERN LIGHTS, Shoreview, Minnesota, received a grant of $58,500 for Art(ists) on the Verge, which will support five Minnesota-based emerging artists and artist groups. Norther Lights was founded in 2007 by Steve Dietz, is a roving, collaborative, interactive media-oriented arts organization presenting innovative work in the public sphere, both physical and virtual. It focuses on artists creatively using technology, both old and new, to engender new relations between audience and art work and more broadly between citizenry and their built environment. This intensive, mentor-based fellowship program serves artists who are working experimentally at the intersection of art, technology, and digital culture with a focus on network-based practices that are interactive and/or participatory. Artists and artist groups will be selected through an open call for applications reviewed by a selection panel. Fellows will be awarded $5,000 commissions with some additional support for technical development and public presentation.

Artist JEANINE OLESON, Brooklyn, New York, will travel to Svalbard, Norway, Boston and Philadelphia to research post-apocalyptic images. She proposes a visual cultural analysis of language, images, the science of potential destruction and apocalyse drawings. She is interested in the efficacy of the Svalbard Global Seed Vault or Doomsday Vault, a secure seedbank established to preserve a wide variety of worldwide plant seeds in an underground cavern as a refuge in case of large scale regional or global crises. She will also conduct research at the Center for Millenial Studies at Boston University and consult with a professor of Mathematics and Physics at the University of Science in Philadelphia. She will incorporate this research into the production of critical writings, performance, film, photographic works and performative public projects.

PATRICKS CABARET, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received $15,120 to support fees for emerging artists to develop and present new works in cabaret evenings. The mission of the Cabaret is to support artists in their growth and development, providing an environment that encourages risk taking and artistic growth. The Cabaret addresses the need for artists to have a place to create new works and refine their artistic abilities in front of audiences receptive to such raw work. Since 1996, the Cabaret has maintained its original, successful model of presenting a shared evening with artists of mixed artistic disciplines and levels of experience.

Artist JESSICA ANN PEAVY, New York City, will travel to Jamaica to study rituals of consumption in the African-inspired Pocomania and Revivalist churches and Dancehalls, which are rooted in ceremonial practice, Christian ideology, African psychology and performance. Peavy will research and develop artistic concepts, building upon earlier investigations in the United States and West Africa. The material gathered will be valuable in contextualizing the complex nature of consumption and the black female existence and perception of form.

PENUMBRA THEATRE COMPANY, St. Paul, Minnesota, received $22,500 in support of the 2009-10 OKRA: New Play Development Program. The mission of Penumbra is to create professional productions that are artistically excellent, thought provoking, relevant, and that illuminate the human condition through the prism of the African American experience. Associate Artistic Director Dominic Taylor manages OKRA, which invests in talented emerging playwrights by offering substantial learning opportunities to explore works; receive guidance from professional artists with established careers in visual theater design, music and dance; and experience Penumbras culturally specific aesthetic and ensemble performance concept. OKRA currently offers three program tracks. The ideas playground, The Gym, is designed for multidisciplinary pieces that have something besides spoken dialogue as their primary form of communication. Thats Cold is a monthly series of readings of new scripts, the entry point for fully scripted plays into the development process. Word(s) Play is a developmental exploration of a text with dramaturgical assistance, a director, collaborating artists and professional actors. Several days of intensive development culminate in a final public reading of the script.

PERFORMANCE SPACE 122 (P.S. 122), New York City, received $31,600 in support of emerging artists commissions for new works to be presented in the 2009-10 season. P.S. 122 is dedicated to supporting and presenting artists whose works challenge the traditional boundaries of dance, theatre, music, and performance. Committed to exploring innovative form as well as material, P.S. 122 is steadfast in its search for pioneering artists from a diversity of cultures and points of view. It operates two performance spaces and a small gallery. Commissions are paid to select emerging artists in order to assist them in creating and developing new works.

DAVID PETERSEN, Minneapolis, Minnesota, will travel to Greensboro, North Carolina, to work with and study the artist-run Elsewhere Artist Collaborative, in order to further his development as an artist, curator and organizer. Peterson is Artistic Director of the artist-run gallery Art of This. In residence with the Elsewhere Artist Collaborative, he will explore and develop as a multidisciplinary artist, broaden the scope of his practice and expand the possibilities for residencies and installations at Art of This.

MARGARET PEZALLA-GRANLUND, artist, Minneapolis, Minnesota, will travel to Boston/Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Washington, D.C., to study collections of mathematical models and meet mathematicians, historians and designers to discuss folding, curves and modeling geometric shapes. She seeks a deeper understanding of the mathematical and engineering principles behind her structures and inspiration for paper engineering, the construction of complex models, and new materials and fabrication techniques.

The Jerome Foundation elected to renew its $1,000 Associate Membership in PHILANTHROPY NEW YORK, an association of grantmakers acting as a catalyst and connector of people, institutions, ideas, resources, advocacy, and action for change. It represents a large community of funders dedicated to promoting and supporting effective philanthropy for the public good.

PILLSBURY HOUSE THEATRE, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received $31,050 in support of the 2009 Non-English Speaking Spoken Here: The Late Nite Series. Pillsbury House Theatre creates challenging theatre to inspire choice, change and connection. Housed within an inner-city neighborhood center, it mounts an annual mainstage season, a reading series and the Late Nite Series. Envisioned by founder Laurie Carlos, Late Nite is a transformation of culture where text, music, spoken word, sounds and images weave together in a fearless celebration of new voices and new art. Emerging artists from the disciplines of dance, music, poetry and theatre explore the intersections of social change, community and identity and push the boundaries of their art forms. Late Nite presents opportunities for artists to develop and perform works-in-progress in front of knowledgeable audience members who provide critical responses, as do the curators. Several emerging artists present new work on each of the rosters in the series. One established artist presents a work-in-progress and provides critical feedback to the emerging artists in each roster. The structure of Late Nite creates a sense of camaraderie and an opportunity for artists to engage with one another in the development of new work.

The Jerome Foundation Board of Directors approved a request from INTERMEDIA ARTS, Minneapolis, Minnesota, to foster the 2009-10 Naked Stages program through an agreement with PILLSBURY HOUSE THEATRE, Minneapolis, Minnesota. The program will continue to operate as it has in the past with the same mission and artistic direction.

A grant of $11,760 was authorized for PILLSBURY HOUSE THEATRE, Minneapolis, Minnesota, in support of the development and production of new works by emerging playwrights in the 2009 mainstage season and a play reading series. Pillsbury House Theatre is a professional arts institution committed to the Settlement House tradition of creating art in collaboration with community. Its mission is to create challenging theatre to inspire choice, change and connection. This diverse company of artists, working in partnership with diverse audiences, creates arts experiences that transform and inspire. Three plays by emerging playwrights will be fully produced in 2009. During the latter half of the year, Pillsbury House will mount Three Mondays, its annual reading series of new works.

PLAYWRIGHTS HORIZONS, New York City, received $20,700 in support of the American Voice artistic development activities for emerging playwrights and production. The mission of Playwrights Horizons is to support and develop the work of contemporary American playwrights, composers, and lyricists, and to produce their new plays and musicals. As a writers theater dedicated to producing new works, development is a crucial component of the theaters mission. The American Voice developmental activities include evaluation of script submissions, cultivation of relationships with writers and scouting new writers, developmental readings, workshops, and commissions. Select works move forward to production.

THE PLAYWRIGHTS CENTER, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received $91,900 in support of the Jerome Playwright Fellowship Program and the Many Voices Fellowship Program. The Playwrights Center champions playwrights and plays to build upon a living theater that demands new and innovative works. Throughout its history, the Center has launched and expanded programs that support the growth and development of new work for the American theater. Since 1977, the Jerome Foundation has provided support for a named fellowship program for emerging playwrights. This Jerome grant supports a new structure for the Jerome Playwright Fellowship Program in which fewer playwrights will be supported but the level of the fellowship stipend will increase. This is an open application program in which Jerome fellows are selected by an independent panel. The Many Voices Fellowship Program provides stipends, seminars, critiques, readings, and workshops for writers of color residing in Minnesota. The program operates in two tracks for emerging playwrights and beginning playwrights, also competitively selected by an independent panel in response to an open call for applications. The placement of these two programs at The Playwrights Center creates a synergy that builds upon the value of each one. The Center adds depth through its expertise in the field and strong programmatic connections with national and international theaters and theater leaders.

MARLO PORAS received a grant for Untitled China Documentary (working title), a feature-length documentary about a spirited daughter of a rapidly disappearing matriarchal society, who is thrust into China's recent economic downturn when she loses the only job she's ever known. As she scours a hustling wholesale market in Beijing for affordable gifts to bring home to her family, 25-year old Jua Ma stretches $40 far beyond its imaginable value. Arms loaded with bags, she's nostalgic as she crowds onto the subway and heads to the tiny basement apartment she shares with nine of her co-workers. It's her last night in Beijing and she is still reeling from the recent closure of Madami, the ethnic minority themed bar where she's worked as a hostess and performer for the past four years. Beijing's fiercely competitive job market and rising cost of living have left her with only one option-to return home to her remote village in Yunnan Province, leaving the city for good. With her life savings of $360 safely tucked in her bra, Jua Ma sets off on a three-day train ride home. Untitled China Documentary is about her journey to this point in her life and beyond, where hopes surrounding the Olympics and other possibilities of new employment failed to materialize.

STEPHANIE POWELL, an artist based in Brooklyn, New York, will travel to Yokosuka, Japan, to research the history of the U.S. Military naval base where she was born and to Tokyo to study the theatrics and narrative structure of the post World War II art form, Butoh, at the Dairakudakan School. Powell's intent is to learn through Butoh new ways of using the body in space. She also hopes to find inspiration for future images to express the tensions of being mixed race, Japanese and American.