Past
Grantees

ROULETTE INTERMEDIUM, New York City, received $24,000 to support programs and services for emerging composers. Roulette's purpose is to increase the awareness and understanding of experiments in music and intermedia by providing opportunities for innovative composers, musicians, sound artists and interdisciplinary collaborators to present their work in accessible, appropriate and professional settings. Founded in 1978, Roulette is an incubator for young talent and a laboratory where new ideas and new technologies are examined, appraised and developed. It presents the work of over 150 artists each year. Funding supports the contemporary music series, rehearsal and recording facilities, distribution and information services and television and Internet programs that bring the work of contemporary composers to audiences worldwide.

SPRINGBOARD FOR THE ARTS, St. Paul, Minnesota, as fiscal sponsor for SAVAGE AURAL HOTBED, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received $7,840 in support of the creation and production of new work. Savage Aural Hotbed is a musical ensemble that composes and performs with found objects and conventional percussion instruments, bass guitar, electronically modified horns and vocals and power tools. The ensemble creates visual and aural spectacles with high-energy rhythms, flailing drummer arms, unusual looking instruments and flying sparks. Drawing from many different styles of music, the four ensemble members collaborate in the compositional process. Jerome support will be directed toward the creation and recording of singular sounds or rhythmic phrases, later assembled in various compositions performed in a concert setting and recorded on a CD.

AARON SCHOCK was awarded a grant in support of CIRCO, a visually immersive feature-length documentary examining the life, tradition and hardships of Mexico's rural traveling circuses. The film follows the Ponce family, a ten-member circus troupe, as it struggles to survive in contemporary Mexico. Living and performing on the road since the 19th century, the Ponce family is just one of thousands of traveling Mexican circuses in existence today, continuing its rich artistic tradition against the backdrop of a collapsing rural economy and declining audiences. For the Ponces, these challenges are felt intimately and have led to a crisis within the family. While one of the oldest circus families in Mexico, the Ponces are now too poor to hire outside help, which forces all the child performers in the family to strike, move, and pitch the circus themselves. The Ringmaster was born into the circus and is devoted to preserving the family tradition. His wife, who ran away with the circus at 15, becomes increasingly bitter as she watches her children give up their childhood for a life that renders few rewards. She wants out. Her decision to leave, as seen at the end of the film, resonates with consequences not only for her children and family, but also for the fate of this century-old family tradition.

The JAMES SEWELL BALLET, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received $11,760 in support of the Ballet Works Project. Founded in 1990, the Ballet's mission is to create and perform works that connect artists with audiences and to advance contemporary ballet. One of its goals is to create and present new choreography. Since 1999, Jerome Foundation has provided support to the Ballet so that emerging choreographers within and outside of the company would have opportunities to develop new works utilizing the resources of the Ballet. This new grant will continue to support the development of new works by emerging choreographers with the aim of producing those works.

NORAH SHAPIRO received support for Miss Tibet: Beauty in Exile, a documentary that explores the improbable connection between a Tibetan beauty pageant and the contemporary Tibetan struggle for survival. Nestled in the majestic mountains of the outer Himalayas is Dharamsala, India, seat of the exiled Tibetan Government and home to its leader, the Dalai Lama. As an older generation of Tibetans struggles to preserve their traditional culture while living in exile, their children, who have grown up entirely outside their homeland, are exposed to the trappings of an increasingly homogeneous global youth culture. The challenges of a people facing diaspora, tensions between a desire to preserve traditions versus the need to be part of the modern world, and a universal concern amongst Tibetans about their homeland, intersect in the Miss Tibet Beauty Pageant, now approaching its eighth year. Miss Tibet: Beauty in Exile transports viewers to the exotic and paradoxical realm in which a beauty pageant aims to simultaneously serve as a celebration of Tibetan girls as well as a platform for promoting its exiled people's struggle against Chinese rule. It delves into this contradictory manifestation of decades of continued exile in the midst of ever increasing global influences that are, for better or worse, unavoidable.

UNIQUE PROJECTS, New York City, as fiscal sponsor for JILL SIGMAN/THINKDANCE, received $7,500 in support of the creation and production of ZsaZsaLand. Jill sigman/ thinkdance is an experimental company presenting work at the intersection of dance, theater and visual installation, often employing non-traditional environments, formats and ways of engaging the viewer. Sigman asks questions through the medium of the body. ZsaZsaLand will be a full evening multimedia dance theater work involving five dancers, a DJ, a composer/live vocalist, projected video and a set including a large quantity of hyperbolic brightly colored fake flowers. In this new work, Sigman intends to explore the collision of abundance, decadence, violence and fatalism in contemporary American culture.

SMACK MELLON, Brooklyn, New York, received a two-year grant of $30,000 in support of the participation of emerging artists in the 2008 and 2009 Exhibition Programs. Smack Mellon's core programs include an Exhibition Program, which produces ambitious contemporary visual arts exhibitions; an Artist Studio Program, which provides artists with free studio space, technical support and a fellowship; and an arts education program. Jerome support is directed toward the participation of emerging artists in an Exhibition Program that annually presents three group shows and two solo exhibitions. Smack Mellon's exhibitions advance public interest in the visual arts while providing opportunities for emerging and under-recognized visual artists.

JACKIE SMITH received a grant for Secrets in the House of Myrrh, a narrative short about a 22-year-old nun named Zipporah who has been part of a religious community called Sisters of Piety (located on the outskirts of the conservative military town of Colorado Springs, Colorado) since she aged out of the foster care system at age 17. As part of the religious order, Zipporah not only experiences what she views as a beautiful relationship with God, she also has a stable family that promises permanence and love for the first time in her life. But she harbors a growing secret confliction about her commitment to a life of religious limitations. She starts to hunger for the outside world and is put to the test when a young soldier and friend, Luca, seeks refuge at the convent after going A.W.O.L. from the army. Zipporah finds her vows at odds with her intense personal desires and is forced to decide whether to remain in the convent or return to the outside world.

Support was awarded to RACHEL SMITH for the feature-length documentary The Problem of Haiti, which examines the effects of foreign involvement in Haiti, focusing on the United Nations stabilization mission, known as MINUSTAH. The film tells its story through the lens of Cite Soleil, a small slum community that bears the tangible, visual ramifications of destructive foreign policy. Conditions in the slum and other parts of Haiti have been called worse than Darfur, with Cite Soleil singled out as the most dangerous place in the world according to the United Nations. The Problem of Haiti is a multidimensional film that melds verit footage of everyday Haitian life with interviews of UN officials, analysts, political actors, Haitian elite, journalists, gang members, and Cite Soleil grassroots organizations and community members-all in an effort to encourage foreign policymakers to take a more constructive role in Haiti's evolution.

Directors authorized a grant of $24,000 to THE SOAP FACTORY, Minneapolis, Minnesota, in support of the participation of emerging artists in the 2008 Exhibition Program. The Soap Factory is dedicated to the production, presentation and promotion of emerging contemporary practice across the visual arts. Committed to experimentation and risk-taking, it offers audiences an immediate experience of the arts and encourages a wider understanding of and appreciation for artists and their works. It presents large-scale group exhibitions, project and video room exhibitions, and events. Artists and independent curators may submit work samples and exhibition proposals in an open review structure.

SOCRATES SCULPTURE PARK, Long Island City, New York, received a two-year grant of $46,000 to support the Emerging Artist Fellowship Program. Socrates is an internationally recognized outdoor museum and artist residency program that serves as a vital New York City park offering a wide array of free public services. It believes that reclamation, revitalization and creative expression are essential to the survival, humanity and improvement of the urban environment. It provides artists with opportunities to create and exhibit large-scale sculpture and multimedia installations in an environment that encourages interaction among artists, art works and the public. The Emerging Artist Fellowship Program gives emerging artists a chance to experiment, realize innovative and ambitious projects and exhibit in an open, professional forum.

SOHO REPERTORY THEATRE, New York City, received a two-year grant of $26,000 to support the commissioning, development and production of new works by emerging theater artists. Soho Rep is a hothouse for the development and production of contemporary theatre, committed to nurturing innovative and uncompromising new work from first impulse through fully mounted production. Its programming includes mainstage productions, Studio staged workshops and the Writer/Director Lab. Jerome support is directly tied to Soho Rep's development of new works by emerging playwrights based within the Foundation's geographic areas.

SPRINGBOARD FOR THE ARTS, St. Paul, Minnesota, received a two-year grant of $62,000 in support of services for emerging artists and diversity and accessibility initiatives. Springboards mission is to cultivate a vibrant arts community by connecting artists with the skills, contacts, information and services they need to make a living and a life. Springboard provides practical information, training and resources; it convenes artists and their organizations to address specific issues facing them; and it stimulates the development of new organizations and programs that address the needs of artists.

THE STUDIO MUSEUM IN HARLEM, New York City, received a two-year grant of $25,000 in support of the Artists-in-Residence Program. For over 40 years, the Studio Museum's exhibitions, programs and publications have defined historical themes and concepts, set scholarly standards and provided support for generations of artists excluded from the larger art world. The Museum's mission is to be the nexus for black artists locally, nationally and internationally, and for work that has been inspired and influenced by Black culture. It is a site for the dynamic exchange of ideas about art and society. The Artists-in-Residence Program offers studio space in the Museum to three emerging artists each year, with substantial stipends, funds for materials, professional mentoring and a culminating exhibition. The residency program is designed to support the creation of new work by emerging artists of African decent. It offers artists a rare opportunity for a year-long residency in New York City with studio space, financial assistance and professional development. They are free to work in all media and experiment with new forms.

The TEXTILE CENTER, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received $20,000 to launch the Jerome Fiber Artists Project Grant Program. A national center for fiber art, the Textile Center's mission is to honor textile traditions and promote excellence and innovation in fiber art. One of the Center's goals is to strengthen and expand its services for fiber artists in order to develop their skills and foster creativity. The pilot Jerome Fiber Artists Project Grant Program is designed to serve emerging textile artists who seek support for specific artistic projects that enable them to advance professionally. Artists may use funds to purchase equipment, devote time to studio work, study with a mentor, attend a seminar or workshop, experiment with new techniques and materials, rent a studio space and other purposes. Any eligible textile artist may apply. Recipients will be selected by an independent jury. The program will culminate in an exhibition of works made during the grant period.

Marian Yalini Thambynayagam, Brooklyn, New York will travel to India and two locations in Sri Lanka to deepen her perspectives by examining the conditions vulnerable communities in Sri Lanka and the Diaspora are currently facing. Her spoken word poetry explores issues pertaining to the Sri Lankan Diaspora, using gender and sexuality as a lens, focused primarily on the US, Canada and England. This trip will expand her explorations and inform future work.

THEATRE COMMUNICATIONS GROUP (TCG), New York City, received $18,620 in support of the National Theatre Criticism/Affiliated Writers Program. TCG's mission is to strengthen, nurture and promote the professional, nonprofit American theatre. Since its founding in 1961, TCG's constituency has grown to 470 member theaters and 17,000 individuals nationwide. Among its many activities, it publishes American Theatre, a national, general circulation magazine dedicated to theatre. It's published ten times a year with a readership of more than 75,000 and a subscriber base that includes all 50 states and 90 foreign countries. In 1989, with Jerome support, TCG launched the National Theatre Criticism/Affiliated Writers Program to help emerging writers from Minnesota and New York City develop careers in arts journalism. The program allows the magazine to greatly expand its coverage of the national theatre scene while simultaneously encouraging a new generation of cultural reporters and critics by establishing ongoing relationships with regionally based writers. During the course of the program's 19 years, 59 emerging writers have contributed 183 articles to American Theatre. The three Affiliated Writers chosen each year receive stipends, travel funds and editorial support.

VA-MEGN THOJ was awarded a grant for the documentary/narrative Occult Racism: The Masking of Race in the Hmong Hunter Killings, concerning the erasure of race in the media coverage of the case of the Wisconsin Hmong hunter killings, illuminating the active and ongoing occulting, or masking, of race in Hmong-white relations. The film is based on a conversation between Va-Megn Thoj and anthropologist Louisa Schein, published in American Quarterly, the journal of the American Studies Association. The subject of the conversation was the 2004 killing of six white hunters by Chai Soua Vang in Wisconsin. The video work will feature elements of the real life conversation between Thoj and Schein while interweaving fictional elements extracted from a screenplay written by Thoj called Die by Night, which portrays the terror of a group of Hmong campers who are methodically hunted and maimed by what they think is a Hmong demon from Laos. Daybreak, however, reveals to the sole survivor that it is white hunters in ski masks who have ruthlessly murdered the party over one long night. This dark story inadvertently suggests that Chai Soua Vang, vastly outnumbered by eight hostile white hunters, perceived a similar threat to his life and could see no other response than the violent one he embraced. His intent is a sustained critique of the hunting incident and the media coverage of it to provoke needed dialogue about race relations.

Kim Thompson, Minneapolis, Minnesota, will travel to Seoul, South Korea, her birth land in order to lend her voice to her fellow 200,000+ Korean adoptees so that a more complete version of the adoption story can be told. She intends to use her time in Korea to continue a collection of prose/poetry/essay centered on the themes of race, cultural identity and the mythology and truth of her birth mother. She expects to gain more information through interviews about adoption and the social systems that support adoptees, orphans and single mothers.

Samantha Thornhill, Brooklyn, New York, will travel to Trinidad to conduct cultural research and draw sustenance and ideas from the culture and the place, which will inform upcoming writing projects. She will connect with the Trinidadian novelist Earl Lovelace and spend time in the rural village of Caparo.