Past
Grantees

VIRGILIO BRAVO, Brooklyn, New York, will travel to Santiago and Valparaiso, Chile, to reconnect with former political exiles and victims of political violence. His 2007 film Estilo Hip Hop chronicled Latin American hip hop activism and its impact on class and racial politics. He is extremely eager to reconnect with his native homeland and learn from former political exiles. He will travel under the mentorship of Rosa Ayress, who heads a non-governmental cultural arts institution that works with families of former political exiles. He hopes to learn from oral storytellers, working with families and elders on issues of loss of life and reconciliation. This will inform future film work.

Support was awarded to NICOLE BRENDING for an experimental narrative short titled Grandpa, about a small town stripper who gets a call that her grandfather has died, but she must finish her shift dancing for the old men who patronize the club where she works, before allowing herself to experience the overwhelming grief she feels. The film examines the interior world of the young woman who tries to put on an outward smile while attempting and failing to do her job. The impossibility of existing between the worlds of fantasy and reality, in circumstances that blur the two, are the focus of this story.

MICHAEL BROWN received support for 25 To Life, a documentary about a young man named William Brawner, who as a one-year-old received a blood transfusion that left him HIV Positive. Brawner's family cloaked his illness in secrecy, telling no one except close family members. William himself embraced the secrecy of his HIV status well into his adulthood. He even deluded himself about the seriousness of his situation by adopting a promiscuous lifestyle of unprotected sex with many different women. After years of neglecting his illness, William's world is shattered when his doctor tells him he will die soon if he does not change his lifestyle. He reflects on his promiscuous past and decides to confront the realities of his HIV status. With great courage, he chooses to break his silence, tell his past girlfriends about his situation and announce his HIV status on a popular Philadelphia radio station. This film is about his pursuit of redemption and liberation from his dubious past.

ANN CARTER, Minneapolis, Minnesota, will travel to the Appalachian Mountains; San Francisco, California; Portland, Oregon; and throughout the Midwest to study with masters of clogging, percussive dance, and social dance calling to further her work with these community-building dance forms. Carter is a member of the Wild Goose Chase Cloggers (WGCC), whose mission is to spread the joy of Appalachian music and dance. Within these social dance forms, calling is an integral part of the choreography. She wants to study these forms to better integrate this into her work with the WGCC as well as her own intergenerational collaborative dance group, Steppin' Out, which fuses cloggers with African American step teams.

CAVE CANEM, New York City, received $17,000 to support two workshops for emerging African American and Asian American poets. Twelve weeks in duration, the two workshops will each engage up to 15 emerging poets. Workshops offer rigorous instruction, careful critique and an introduction to the work of contemporary African American poets. They are led by noted poets who have strong teaching abilities. Cave Canem is a home for the many voices of African American poetry and is committed to cultivating the artistic and professional development of those poets. It has provided supportive programming for eleven years and has significantly influenced the literary landscape in the United States and abroad.

Directors authorized $8,500 for CAVE CANEM, New York City, in support of a workshop for emerging African American poets. Cave Canem is a home for the many voices of African American poetry and is committed to cultivating the artistic and professional development of African American poets. Jerome Foundation provides support for writing workshops based in New York City. The workshops are structured as 11 two-hour sessions that include instruction in craft, and the creation and critique of new poems, followed by public readings with poets presenting work produced while in the workshop. Noted African American poets who have strong teaching abilities lead the workshops. Outcomes are participants' increased self-confidence, a deepened appreciation of diverse aesthetics and a willingness to experiment with new strategies and forms.

CHERRY LANE THEATRE, New York City, received a grant of $30,000 in continued support of the Mentor Project. The 83-year old Cherry Lane Theatre serves established and emerging playwrights in mainstage productions and developmental activities. Through the Mentor Project, Cherry Lane aims to develop the careers of three nascent playwrights each year, who've been identified through a highly selective process. Mentors, noted American playwrights, guide the emerging playwrights through an intensive six-phase developmental process, culminating in a showcase production. Cherry Lane transfers one play each season from the Mentor Project to the mainstage series for its world premiere.

THE CHILDREN'S THEATRE COMPANY, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received $7,840 to complete Round III of the Playground program. The Children's Theatre creates extraordinary theatre experiences that educate, challenge and inspire young people. Since 2001, with Jerome Foundation support, The Children's Theatre Company has collaborated with New Dramatists, New York City, on Playground, a program that enables emerging playwrights affiliated with New Dramatists to submit projects for development and possible production. Playwrights selected for the program receive full developmental support including dramaturgical resources and workshops with professional actors. This commitment to Playground will enable The Children's Theatre Company to continue to develop a new play by Liz Duffy Adams.

TZE CHUN, Brooklyn, New York, will travel to Buenos Aires, Argentina to research the history and culture of Argentine Tango through an intensive apprenticeship in tango, exploration of local Milongas, and investigation of tango shows in Buenos Aries. Chun is working choreographically with and against the emotional distance and cultural silence of her native Chinese culture and sees a parallel in Tango between the physically restrictive dresses with released and passionate movement. She is searching for a new movement style that explores themes of intimacy, social resistance, and unspoken personal histories.

THE CIVILIANS, New York City, received $9,800 to support the creation, development, and production of new works in the 2008-09 season. The Civilians is a company that works to strengthen the connections between theater and contemporary society. The central idea is to create investigative, collaborative theater in a sustained relationship with the public at every phase of a project's life. Under the artistic direction of Steve Cosson, The Civilians engages many associate artists who collaborate on the development of new works. Works in development include Brooklyn at Eye Level, The Great Immensity, Mr. Burns and Escaping the Modern World.

CLUBBED THUMB, New York City received $15,000 in support of the production of new works by emerging New York City-based playwrights. Clubbed Thumb commissions, develops and produces funny, strange and provocative new plays by emerging writers. Since 1996, it has presented readings and workshops of over 100 plays and over 60 productions. Its works range in form and content. While it supports all emerging artists, it is particularly committed to providing opportunities for women. Support for emerging playwrights includes commissions, development and full productions.

MICHAEL COLLINS received a grant for Island Fever: The Case of Paco Larraaga, a documentary feature-length film about how a family driven grassroots campaign to save an innocent man's life culminated in the abolition of the death penalty in the Philippines. Simultaneously a murder mystery and an investigation of the endemic corruption in the post-Marcos era, the film centers on the trial of Paco Larraaga, a Mestizo (meaning of mixed European and Filipino blood) accused of killing two young sisters.

The Jerome Foundation elected to renew its support of the COUNCIL ON FOUNDATIONS, Arlington, Virginia, in the amount of $10,230. The Council on Foundations engages its members in a commitment to the public good and to their individual philanthropic purposes. The Council calls on its members to adhere to the highest standards of ethical behavior, stewardship, accountability and transparency, diversity and inclusiveness, sound governance and respect for applicants. Jerome Foundation has been a member since 1975.

DANCE NEW AMSTERDAM, New York City, received a two-year grant of $38,000 in support of commissioning and producing new works within the program In the Company of Men. Dance New Amsterdam is committed to providing a dynamic environment in support of contemporary dance education, creation and performance. It maintains a comprehensive, integrated approach that focuses on four objectives, one of which is fostering the creation and development of new works. In the Company of Men, created in 1994, gives voice to the unique and distinctive energy of men creating and dancing together. Jerome grant dollars support the development of new works by emerging male artists working in contemporary dance. They will be given performance and commissioning fees, subsidized rehearsal time in Dance New Amsterdam studios, subsidized production costs, front of house and production personnel and promotional support.

A $9,600 grant was awarded to DANSOLOGY, KOOSIL-JA/DANCEKUMIKO, New York City, to support the presentation of Dance Without Bodies in the iDANS 2008 International Festival of Contemporary Dance and Performance in Istanbul, Turkey. Dance Without Bodies utilizes a system and a performance technique called live processing to generate movement. The work extracts and dissects the component processes of embodied performance, allowing for a new creative assemblage ripe for digital interface and experimentation. The iDANS Festival supports international exchange and collaboration in the field of contemporary dance and performing arts. The 2008 Festival will explore the experience of time in performance and question the implications of preservation, documentation, historiography and the archive in dance.

DANSPACE PROJECT, New York City, received a two-year grant of $57,000 in support of the participation of emerging choreographers in its Commissioning Initiative. The Danspace mission is to stimulate, promote and present challenging new work in dance from a broad range of artistic voices within a distinguished and nurturing environment. Jerome Foundation support enables Danspace Project to make commissions to support the creation and development of new work by emerging choreographers who will present that work at Danspace.

ELIZABETH MANDEL and BETH DAVENPORT were awarded support for their documentary film about the tense relationship between a Congolese woman named Rose Mapendo and her daughter Nangabire. In the late 1990s, Rose Mapendo lost her family and home to violence that engulfed the Democratic Republic of Congo. She emerged from the suffering as a strong advocate of forgiveness and reconciliation. In a country where politically engineered ethnic violence has created seemingly irreparable rifts among Tutsis, Hutus and other Congolese, this remarkable woman remains a compelling voice in the beleaguered nation's search for peace and harmony. Now, Rose is confronted with a new challenge, teaching one of her most recalcitrant students how to forgive-her own daughter Nangabire. The film tells the harrowing story of this extraordinary woman and her now 17-year-old daughter as they are reunited in the United States after 12 years and a lifetime of sorrow.

LIZA DAVITCH received a grant for Czar of Cinema, a documentary on the life and work of Al Milgrom, founder of the University Film Society and the Minneapolis/St. Paul International Film Festival. The 85-year-old Milgrom has devoted more than half his life to bringing obscure films and directors from around the world to Minnesota. He travels each year to international film festivals to find new films, most of which would otherwise not be seen in Minnesota. He is a legend in film circles worldwide, hailed as the Henry Langlois of the Midwest. He is also a cantankerous, grumpy old man. According to his family, these are character traits that began in his youth with the onslaught of Attention Deficit Disorder. The toll that both his onerous character and compulsive commitment to film has had on his family, friends and colleagues will be explored in the film. Czar of Cinema will be an intimate portrait that focuses on three aspects of Milgrom's life: film programmer, filmmaker and father.

DIXON PLACE (a.k.a. Open Channels), New York City, received a two-year grant of $57,000 in support of Mondo Cane! artists' commissions and Under Construction artists' fees. Jerome support is directed toward emerging creative artists based in New York City and/or Minnesota. Dixon Place, a laboratory for performing and literary artists, supports the creative process by presenting original work of theater, dance, music, puppetry, literature and performance art at all stages of development. Through Mondo Cane!, Dixon Place commissions artists or ensembles to develop and produce new works of theater and dance. Each receives a commission, designer, director, and performer fees; funds for production materials; free rehearsal space; technical staff; and marketing support. Under Construction presents new and developing work by innovative emerging artists, over 12 to 15 nights each month. The program features diverse disciplines and perspectives, and encourages risk taking in a supportive, intimate and professional environment.

A grant of $14,000 was authorized for the DULUTH ART INSTITUTE, Duluth, Minnesota, in support of the participation of emerging artists in the Exhibition Program. The mission of the Institute is to enrich daily life with dynamic, innovative arts programming. The Institute operates three program strands: exhibitions, education and artists' services. One of the primary purposes of the Exhibition Program is to nurture the careers of regional emerging artists. Individuals and groups may submit exhibition proposals and work samples to the Institute. An Artist Search Committee aids in identifying artists. Some of the exhibitions are invitational and some are thematic. The Institute has a longstanding commitment to the artists of its region and a growing commitment to identifying emerging artists in that region whose works are a vibrant part of the Exhibition Program.