Past
Grantees

FAWN KRIEGER, New York City, will travel to Berlin, Germany, to visit the Trmmerbergen, rubble mountains constructed by women after World War II. She expects this to inform a new body of work. Kuger is interested in the community of women warriors who transformed rubble into the shape of land and scarred cities into communities. Her practice is the search for intimate encounter and forgotten subjective histories, surfacing them through sculptural and architectural installations There are eight recorded Trmmerbergen in Berlin.

CORNUCOPIA ART CENTER, Lanesboro, Minnesota, received $15,000 to support residencies for emerging artists in the Lanesboro Residency Program. Cornucopia, founded in 1993, provides opportunities for emerging and established Minnesota artists as well as for the local community to experience diverse art from the Midwest and beyond. The Lanesboro Residency Program provides opportunities for emerging artists to reside in Lanesboro and create new work while engaging with the community.

The LARK PLAY DEVELOPMENT CENTER, New York City, received a two-year grant of $24,000 to support developmental programs serving emerging playwrights. A laboratory for new voices and new ideas, Lark provides playwrights with resources to develop their work, nurtures writers at all stages of their careers, and invites playwrights to express themselves freely in a supportive and rigorous environment. The Lark's strength lies in its ability to identify the particular needs of each writer and tailor the process to support each play. Its repertoire of programs includes a Literary Department that reviews and responds to script submissions, Barebones productions, the Playwrights Workshop, studio retreats, roundtables, a Playwrights Week festival of workshop productions, international exchange residencies, and an alumni playwright program.

THE FIELD, New York City, as fiscal sponsor for Young Jean Lee's Theater Company, received $10,000 to develop Church, which will be presented in April 2007. Drawing from personal experiences, Young Jean Lee plans to make the most moving, breathtakingly beautiful church service she's capable of making, an original ceremony that borrows from a wide range of religious and cultural traditions. Her intent is to create a complicated and evocative experience for the audience. This grant recognizes the promise of experimental playwright and director Young Jean Lee.

Composer and performer DOUGLAS LITTLE, Minnesota, will travel to Salvador Bahia, Brazil, to study Brazilian music at its source in order to improve the quality of his compositions and inspire them in new and dynamic ways. Little will undergo a specific course of study over a six week period with Bira Reis, a percussion specialist, and other performers. These experiences will fuel Little's artistic output as a composer and ensemble leader.

THE SOUTHERN THEATER, Minneapolis, Minnesota, as fiscal sponsor for LIVE ACTION SET, received $10,000 in support of the creation and production of Desire for the Undesirable. Four emerging artists form the collaborative Live Action Set: Vanessa Voskuil, Galen Treuer, Megan Odell and Noah Bremer. Their shared aesthetic produces performances that dissolve artistic boundaries and address relevant issues. Desire for the Undesirable, to be produced in June 2007, is inspired by recent events in Colorado and Pennsylvania in which middle-aged men entered schools and eventually killed some of the intended victims and themselves. The company is interested in exploring the inner conflict of a fantasy or desire that is not wanted; and in investigating those desires found to be morally or intellectually repulsive.

THE LOFT LITERARY CENTER, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received a two-year grant of $100,000 in support of the Minnesota Writers Career Initiative Program. Founded in 1974, The Loft, an independent literary center, fosters a writing community, supports the artistic development of individual writers, and builds an audience for literature. Jerome Foundation has supported the Writers Career Initiative Program since 1992. It serves writers who have achieved artistic recognition for their work and who have the potential to significantly expand that recognition and audience. The program's purpose is to utilize and leverage this potential in order to advance those writers. The program is open to poets, prose writers, authors of children's literature and spoken word artists. Projects may include editorial or mentoring support for new manuscripts, career development activities such as developing public speaking skills, book tours and collaborations with other writers or artists; strategies for connecting with communities or regions important to a writer's voice or genre; and the creation of audio books, CDs and websites.

LOWER MANHATTAN CULTURAL COUNCIL, New York City, received $23,000 to provide stipends to emerging artists selected for the 2007-08 Workspace Artist Residency Program. The Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, in operation for 33 years, is a leading arts presenter, advocate and service provider to artists and arts groups throughout the borough of Manhattan. Through progressive cultural planning, innovative artist workspace programs, funding opportunities, and free events in the visual, performance and new media arts, the Council enriches New York's creative capital. The Workspace Artist Residency Program, now celebrating its 10th anniversary, provides studio space for artists in vacant and under-utilized real estate property in Lower Manhattan. It currently provides 15 emerging artists working in photography, painting, new media, sculpture and installation with open-plan studios, a shared community area, stipends, opportunities to meet with renowned critics and curators, and access to resources and services to strengthen their work. This program builds an environment for artists to learn from each other, create new work and access career-building resources.

MABOU MINES, New York City, received a two-year grant of $60,000 in support of the Suite Resident Artist Program. Mabou Mines, founded in 1970, is a collective of artists who believe that life is performance and that the study and practice of one is the study and practice of the other. It has a distinguished production history and has won numerous awards for its groundbreaking theater works. In 1991, Mabou Mines established the Suite Resident Artist Program to meet the needs of emerging artists in search of a nurturing place to develop work. The members of Mabou Mines believe that the opportunity to experience process-focused development can be pivotal in an artist's career. Company members see it as their privilege and responsibility to offer emerging artists assistance in that formidable journey. The program is open to individual artists as well as partnerships and small ensembles. Artists from all fields may apply. Suite is a laboratory for artists to experiment with performance ideas; it is not a showcase or production program.

THE FIELD, New York City, as fiscal sponsor for LUIS LARA MALVACIAS/FULL FAT DANCE, received a two-year grant of $18,000 in support of the creation, development, and presentation of two new works. The Field's purpose is to encourage and cultivate appreciation of the performing arts. It supports and sponsors the development, creation and presentation of musical, dance, theatrical, film and video works, serving more than 2,000 artists per year. Malvacias is a choreographer and multidisciplinary artist who is intensely interested in exploring the interaction among a variety of artistic disciplines. His first new work, Reason without Meaning, will deal with ideas of perception. He is interested in the organization of perceptions that exist in their own right but that are not necessarily attached to a particular meaning. He will place ideas in the context of an installation/scenery, a soundscore/landscape and a form of psycho-visual-physical vocabulary. The second work, Contemplating Impotence: present day reality is a lot more like this that I wish it were, plays with reversals of meaning and subversion of predictability. Sensations look like disturbing realities and feelings are perceived as banal experiences. The piece will contain images and characters that Malvacias has been observing over the years from the window of his studio in the rapidly changing Williamsburg area of Brooklyn, overlapped with images and inspirations from selected paintings by the German artist Neo Rauch.

SUSAN MARKS received support for Our Wildest Dreams: A True Crime Documentary of Dolls and Murder, an intimate look at dolls that are used to solve crimes, the woman who created them, our collective fascination with forensics, and the stories we like to tell ourselves about death. This film will be very unpredictable, even quirky, humorous and shocking as it challenges viewers through its revealing examinations of our odd relationship with death, our own mortality, our need for mythical death storytelling (i.e. crime television) and the reality that murderers usually know their victims.

MITCH MCCABE received a grant for Youth Knows No Pain, a feature-length documentary about the fear of aging and one filmmaker's comical journey through America's anti-aging industry, all set against the backdrop of her father's plastic surgery practice. Traveling across America and visiting everyone from doctors to celebrities, scientists, Star Magazine editors and a cross-section of real life characters who have gone to crazy lengths to beat the clock, Youth Knows No Pain creates a tableau of the aging hysteria. As the film sheds light on both the absurdity and the biological foundation of this obsession, it entertains as it dispels myths, exposes dark truths, and confirms that one thing is for sure-the aging obsession has become a national obsession.

THE FIELD, New York City, as fiscal sponsor for choreographer SARAH MICHELSON, received a two-year grant of $20,000 in support of the creation of a new work, Plain (working title), to be premiered in 2008 and presented in Wales the following year. Plain is a musical that imitates the aesthetic of cartoon. It is Michelson's aim to sustain a collaborative laboratory for the rigorous investigation of new dance/art ideas, processes and forms. She makes works that challenge current discourses on dance.

The AMERICAN COMPOSERS FORUM, St. Paul, Minnesota, as fiscal sponsor for composer ANN MILLIKAN, received $12,000 in support of a recording of Millikan's orchestral compositions by the Bulgarian Orchestra and in cooperation with Innova. Millikan will explore orchestration in depth and further enrich and promote herself as an orchestral composer. Having a recording of her orchestral music will give her an important tool for encouraging new performances and commissions. The recording will include three new compositions scored for full orchestra. Innova released the CD in 2010.

A two-year grant of $158,000 was awarded to the MINNEAPOLIS COLLEGE OF ART AND DESIGN (MCAD), Minneapolis, Minnesota, in support of the MCAD/Jerome Fellowship Program for Emerging Artists. The College is an independent, accredited educational institution offering B.S., B.F.A. and M.F.A. degree programs as well as a post-baccalaureate certificate program and educational opportunities for the general public. The College educates individuals to be professional artists and designers, effective leaders and active citizens. Since 1981, MCAD has supported 129 artists as MCAD/Jerome Fellows. Through a highly competitive application and independent panel review process, five emerging artists are given fellowships to work over a period of 12 months. Nationally recognized critics meet with the Fellows to examine their work and discuss professional opportunities. There is a culminating exhibition, accompanied by a catalog and an artists' panel, in the College Gallery.

The MINNESOTA CENTER FOR PHOTOGRAPHY, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received $28,000 in support of the participation of emerging artists in the 2007 exhibition season and the provision of services to artists. The Center has presented over 125 exhibitions featuring works by over 1,400 artists. Its mission is to promote the creation and appreciation of the photographic arts. In its main gallery space, the Center mounts group exhibitions, often including emerging artists from New York City and Minnesota. In its Minnesota Projects Gallery, the Center mounts one-person shows featuring experimental, artist-driven work by photographers living in Minnesota. Services to artists include portfolio reviews, classes, workshops and lectures.

Founded in 1990, the MINNESOTA CENTER FOR PHOTOGRAPHY, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received a two-year grant of $66,300 in support of the Minnesota Projects Gallery. The Center is dedicated to the creation and presentation of photography in the Upper Midwest. The Minnesota Projects Gallery is an artist-driven space that explores new ideas and investigates new directions in an individual's work. To provide a compelling opportunity for Minnesota photographers and to encourage exploration and experimentation, the Center designed a new Minnesota Projects Gallery program that includes exhibition honoraria; subsidies of up to $3,000 for collaborators, rental of equipment, special installation needs, materials and other creative expenses that strengthen the works exhibited; and allocations of up to $2,000 in enrichment funds, which may be used for such purposes as publishing a catalog or brochure, commissioning an essay from a noted critic or curator, and traveling to present the work to galleries elsewhere in the country. This in-depth engagement allows the Center to support emerging artists in substantive ways. Some funding provided through the grant will support the participation of emerging artists in main gallery exhibitions and educational and technical assistance services for emerging artists.

The MINNESOTA COUNCIL ON FOUNDATIONS, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received $6,750 and a membership and general support grant. The Council provides substantial service to itsmembers and to the general public, and promotes responsible and effective philanthropy.

LIZE MOGEL, New York City, will travel to Shanghai and Shenzen, China, to research World Fair sites as a jumping-off point to create work about globalization. She will see the construction site of Expo 2010, the World's Fair under development on the Huangpu Riverfront in Shanghai, and a new factory city in Shenzen where 400,000 workers will produce goods for global consumption. This would be her first opportunity to visit a World's Fair site during its planning and construction phases. This trip will yield rich source material to continue her mappamundi body of work in which she conflates real and imaginary geographies.

Support was awarded to MOON MOLSON for MEADOWLANDZ, a narrative short about a crew of four black street kids who find a drunken African passed out in the hallway of their tenement building. When it is revealed that the drunk is actually the father of Marquis, one of the four teens in the crew, the young men find themselves on a rag-tag journey through the urban darkness in search of a place for the unconscious man to sleep. As the night dwindles on, tensions flare and a final explosion of street codes, machismo and youthful pride threaten to make the place they find for the drunken man to sleep, the bottom of a swamp between New York City and New Jersey-the murky, reed-clotted depths of The Meadows. Although MEADOWLANDZ is a hip-hop neo-noir, instead of glorifying the street culture of violence and misogyny typical of this urban youth culture, the film indicts it as a dangerous code of conduct found in terminal machismo values. The film is a parable on the dangers of peer pressure and humiliation.