Past
Grantees

Painter and video artist CAITLIN PARKER, New York City, will travel to the Ukraine to conduct research and gather video footage of the area surrounding the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. This visual exploration will inform the development of a new body of work. She is searching for a narrative in her work, which can only be cultivated through firsthand experience. She will focus on locations within the exclusion zone, landscapes, ghost towns, and herds of wild horses.

RACHEL PERKOFF was awarded a grant for a feature-length documentary called Another Lost Angel. On June 26, 1980, Kat Perkoff, the sister of the filmmaker, died in a white Mercedes after it veered off a highway, hit a concrete bridge support and split cleanly in half. Kat's high-drama, high-impact death was in some way an inexorable conclusion to a life lived with voracious and feverish intensity. In her brief 23 years, Kat Perkoff inhabited many personae: runaway, drug smuggler, gay bar manager, writer, local icon, and key player in the murky underworld of the New Orleans lesbian mafia-a demimonde populated by pimps, prostitutes and corrupt cops. Even for the fast lane of the French Quarter in the early 1970's, Kat's life hurtled along at several times the average speed. Another Lost Angel explores Kat's poetic life and violent death. The official report of the New Orleans Police Department states that Kat's death was caused by accidental collision. But rumors at the time pointed to a hit, mafia score, and a police cover-up. The filmmaker's quest to remember and reconstruct has become the catalyst for a broader meditation on collective memory, amnesia, fate and biography.

The NEW YORK REGIONAL ASSOCIATION OF GRANTMAKERS, New York City, received $750 as a Associate Membership for the Jerome Foundation. This organization is a nonprofit forum that conducts research, advocates for its members, tracks proposed legislation and regulations that affect its membership, offers an array of educational programs, provides a networking function, convenes and provides support services to members, posts employment opportunities, and interfaces with the general public on behalf of its members. Founded in 1979, NYRAG is at the forefront of grantmaking in the New York metropolitan area with nearly 300 members.

Pillsbury United Communities, Minneapolis, Minnesota, on behalf of PILLSBURY HOUSE THEATRE received a grant of $34,500 in support of the 2007 Non-English Speaking Spoken Here: The Late Nite Series, a transformation of culture where text, music, spoken word, sound and images weave together in a fearless celebration of new voices and new art. Late Nite supports emerging artists by creating opportunities for them to develop and perform works-in-progress in front of audiences. Produced three times a year, each Late Nite series features emerging artists who work in dance, music, poetry and theater. The structure of Late Nite creates a sense of camaraderie and mentorship.

PLAYWRIGHTS HORIZONS, New York City, received a two-year grant of $46,000 in support of its American Voice artistic development activities for emerging writers and productions of new works in the Peter Jay Sharp Theater. 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. Throughout its 36-year history, it has served as a launching pad for emerging writers as well as a home where established writers may bring new work. Its American Voice activities include evaluation of script submissions, readings of new work, developmental musical theater workshops, and playwright commissions. It welcomes submissions from writers and conducts up to 20 play readings each season. Some Jerome support finds its way to Peter Jay Sharp Theater productions of plays by emerging writers.

THE PLAYWRIGHTS' CENTER, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received a two-year grant of $122,000 in support of the Jerome Fellowship Program for emerging playwrights. An additional commitment of $23,000 was authorized for the Jerome Many Voices Program, which serves emerging playwrights of color. The Playwrights' Center fuels the theater by providing services that support playwrights and playwriting. The Jerome Fellowship Program, initiated in 1976, serves five emerging playwrights each year. Competitively selected by an independent panel, the emerging playwrights are given fellowship subsidy and assistance to maximize their creative work and professional advancement. The Many Voices Program awards eight nine-month residencies to writers of color interested in developing their playwriting skills and creating theater. They attend biweekly roundtables, and receive stipends, scholarships for classes, developmental funds and a public showcase of their work.

PROTO-TYPE THEATER, Brooklyn, New York, received $8,000 to create and produce a new work titled WHISPER. Proto-Type Theater creates new works of live performance that give equal weight to form and content. Physical theater, text, circus, original music and evocative lighting merge into an unpredictably dynamic form through which the Theater dissects modernity. The content continually returns to family, obsession, mythology, sexuality and life in an urban landscape. WHISPER is an audio-driven performance work. The audience dons headphones to listen to the secrets of three performers who create a virtual world of sound. The work is a discussion of what it means to be in a shared space in the modern age of mediation.

A grant of $10,000 was awarded to RAIN TAXI, Minneapolis, Minnesota, in support of the State-to-State Poets Exchange, operated in cooperation with The Poetry Society of America, New York City. Rain Taxi is dedicated to promoting a broad spectrum of contemporary literature. It publishes the Rain Taxi Review of Books, enhanced by a website, a reading series, a chapbook publishing program, and the Twin Cities Book Festival. Jerome funding will enable Rain Taxi to launch a pilot program, the State-to-State Poets Exchange, serving two emerging poets, one from Minnesota and one from New York City. The purpose is to provide opportunities for emerging poets to advance works-in-progress by reading and discussing them in public dialogues with noted literary editors in the two cities. Rain Taxi will publish an edited version of each dialogue in the Rain Taxi Review of Books. Poets will be selected through review of applications submitted in response to an open call.

RAGAMALA MUSIC AND DANCE THEATER, Minneapolis, Minnesota, as fiscal sponsor for choreographer APARNA RAMASWAMY, received $10,000 in support of the development and production of two new dance works, Yathra (Journey) and Sva (Vital Force). Yathra explores the intricacies of the human journey from the dawn of birth to the twilight of life, tracing the physical and emotional passage of a soul through the phases of life. Sva is a collaboration between Aparna Ramaswamy and Nagano, a Japanese Taiko ensemble. Sva will explore rhythm and movement through the cultural and philosophical kinships between the Bharatanatyam style of dance and Taiko.

Playwright MARCIE RENDON, Minnesota, will travel to Bega, New South Wales, and Melbourne, Australia, to conduct research for a play that explores such questions as: why and how do Native American expatriates connect so intensely with Aboriginal people and spiritual communications in Australia; and how do their shared histories of being invaded by English-speaking, protestant peoples and forced boarding schools polarize these two indigenous groups as soul mates across continents? She will conduct interviews. She is at a stage in the development of the play when having a physical visit to place and people will help move the script to fruition.

RHIZOME.ORG, New York City, received a two-year grant of $30,000 in support of the Commissions Program. Rhizome supports the creation, presentation and preservation of contemporary art that engages new technologies in significant ways. It maintains a focus on works that deal with the Internet and network technology. Rhizome awards commissioning fees for the creation of new works by emerging artists, chosen from a field of applications submitted in response to an open call. Approximately 11 commissions are awarded each year. Rhizome delivers substantial audiences for the online exhibition of the new works.

The ROCHESTER ART CENTER, Rochester, Minnesota, received $12,000 in support of the 3rd Floor Emerging Artist Series. The mission of the Center is to foster an appreciation and understanding of contemporary art through the organization and presentation of exhibitions and the creation of innovative educational programs and interpretive materials that effectively engage regional audiences with contemporary art. An open call to Minnesota artists results in applications, reviewed by an independent panel, for exhibitions in the 3rd Floor Emerging Artists Series. The focus is on emerging Minnesota artists who are producing exciting new works that both challenge and inspire viewers. Each exhibition is on view for seven weeks and is accompanied by a brochure containing a curatorial essay as well as color images of the works. Artists deliver lectures for each show.

ROULETTE INTERMEDIUM, New York City, received a two-year grant of $40,000 in support of the Jerome Commissioning Program for Emerging Composers. Since its founding in 1978, Roulette's purpose has been to increase the awareness and understanding of experiments in music and intermedia by supporting artists creating work in these forms. The Jerome Commissioning Program identifies and supports young composers of promise whose explorations promise valuable contributions to the development of contemporary music. Commissions support an extraordinary variety of musical approaches including music for traditional concert situations in the classical experimental tradition, sound installations, avant jazz, digital multimedia, music composed for the Internet and even Frankenstein-type resuscitations of obsolete digital and analog technology. The commissions are made through a nominating process that relies on the experience and generosity of more established artists who serve as nominators. Each nominates one artist, paying special attention to artists who've not yet entered the world of competitive grants and commissions, and artists who are unlikely to receive support from other sources due to the experimental nature of their work.

DAVE RYAN received a grant for The Hungering Deep, an experimental animated video that explores the foundations of self in the murky mixture of memory, subconscious realms of longing, and the physical realms of neural signals. As science peers deeper into the mechanics of our physical brains, the mystery of that mixture, and of the self inside it, grow ever more potent to the contemporary imagination. The primary metaphor for The Hungering Deep is an ocean at the very roots of the nervous system-the imaginary shore of the synapse. This metaphor establishes three levels: memory, subconscious and neural signal-each represented as distinctly different chapters in the film. The Hungering Deep brings video and film footage into a 3D environment, and applies texture mapping to create animated moving landscapes.

THE FIELD, New York City, as fiscal sponsor for artist ERIK SANKO, received $8,000 to produce the new work Dear Mme.,. Sanko is a musician and visual/performance artist best known in the downtown music scene. After secretly making marionettes for 15 years, with a small grant from Henson Foundation and a HERE Arts Center HARP residency, he created his first marionette play, The Fortune Teller, in 2006. Jerome funding will assist in the creation of the new work Dear Mme.,, which has been commissioned by the Kronos Quartet to be premiered during its performance series in the Next Wave Festival at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Dear Mme., is the story of a writer who continually endeavors to rewrite his life story, taking the role of the heroic protagonist in a series of short stories in which he tries to win the affections of a woman. He fails until he finally learns that it is simplicity and pureness that ultimately win her.

JAMES SEWELL BALLET, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received $12,000 to develop new works by emerging choreographers in the Ballet Works Project. The mission of the James Sewell Ballet is to create and perform works that connect artists with audiences and to advance contemporary ballet. The annual Ballet Works Project supports the creation of new works by two emerging choreographers using company dancers and rehearsal space. The program invests in the aesthetics of individual choreographers, in the cross training of the company's dancers and in the overall health of the dance community. Some of the choreographers use the program to work on ideas without specific outcomes in mind. Some use it to create new dances that are performed by the Sewell Ballet, set on other companies or produced in other venues. In-progress public showings of the works are presented.

THE SOUTHERN THEATER, Minneapolis, Minnesota, as fiscal sponsor for artist KAREN SHERMAN, received $12,000 in support of the creation, development and production of copperhead, a new work to be produced in the fall/winter of 2008. The Southern Theater cultivates artistic exploration by providing a vibrant home for performance, fostering a multiplicity of voices, and catalyzing connections among artists and audiences. Karen Sherman is a choreographer and performance artist whose work is known for its commentary, both humorous and dark, on the human emotional landscape. copperhead explores violence and the relationship among victim, aggressor and place. Excerpts of performance material for copperhead will be workshopped before the 2008 premiere.

Photographer XAVIERA SIMMONS, New York City, will travel to Istanbul, Turkey, to study the history of that country's women's rights movement with a focus on birthing and child bearing practices, through meetings with women's advocacy and health organizations. Simmons expects the journey to enrich, enlighten and encourage her artistic pursuits. Her photographs explore a non-fixed and multiple self.

THE SOAP FACTORY, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received $30,000 in support of the participation of emerging New York City and Minnesota artists in the 2007 Exhibition Program. This alternative space is dedicated to the production, presentation and promotion of emerging contemporary practice across the visual arts. Committed to experimentation and risk taking, The Soap Factory encourages a wider understanding of and appreciation for artists and their work. The 2007 program began with the Art Shanties project on Medicine Lake. It continues with a Circuit Bending Festival and a group exhibition curated from submissions to the annual open call. Curatorial processes are designed to insure a variety of viewpoints and aesthetics. Independent curators bring exhibition concepts and new artists to the mix. Each season, The Soap Factory serves approximately 100 emerging artists and is steadily increasing its visibility and reach.

GABRIELLA SPIERER received funding toward the production of Raising Inmate 3851, a documentary that takes a look at the practice of prosecuting children as adults in the United States, a phenomenon that has put thousands of children behind bars with adult criminals. It unfolds in segments, using personal stories to illustrate different aspects of the problem. The idea of the film is to offer glimpses into the lives of children who committed crimes, their parents and the authorities, in order to raise questions about and provide perspectives on the real consequences of judicial and legislative policies.