Past
Grantees

The WALKER ART CENTER, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received a two-year grant of $40,000 in support of the Momentum Series. The Walker is a catalyst for the creative expression of artists and the active engagement of audiences, examines the questions that shape and inspire individuals, cultures and communities. The Walker emphasizes the visual, performing and media arts. Funding will be used to commission, develop and present new contemporary dance works by emerging Minnesota choreographers. The new works created will be presented within the festival Momentum: New Dance Works, curated and co-presented by the Walker and The Southern Theater in Minneapolis. Choreographers benefit from the production services offered by these two major presenting institutions and by receiving commissioning funds early in the process to assist in the development of new works.

The Jerome Foundation Board authorized a grant of $12,000 to MOVEMENT RESEARCH, New York City, in support of the publication of dance and movement criticism in the Performance Journal. Movement Research supports emerging ideas and those dance/movement-based artists who engage in such investigations. First published in 1990, the Performance Journal is a forum fostering the exploration and evolution of written and graphic languages that engage current issues of dance and performance. Each issue is conceived by an Artist Editorial Team around a specific topic or structure, and includes contributions from artists, writers, scholars and others.

A two-year grant of $46,000 was awarded to NAUTILUS MUSIC-THEATER, St. Paul, Minnesota, in support of the Composer-Librettist Studio. Nautilus Music-Theater explores the dynamics of individual and communal integrity with artists dedicated to the creation, development and production of new operas and other forms of music-theater, including innovative productions of existing work. The Composer-Librettist Studio is an intensive two-week studio focusing on the process of collaboration through a series of exploratory assignments that deal with the challenges of writing for the music-theater form. The studio is not intended as a developmental activity for existing pieces but concentrates more on the collaborative process, nurturing relationships and suggesting ways that artists can work together.

NEW DRAMATISTS, New York City, received a two-year grant of $80,000 in support of the New Works Process and the Composer-Librettist Studio. Founded in 1949, New Dramatists is dedicated to the playwright. Its mission is to find gifted playwrights and give them the time, space and tools to develop their craft, so that they may fulfill their potential and make lasting contributions to the theatre. New Dramatists offers playwrights an artistic home and self-guided laboratory for seven years in the company of their peers. The New Works Process consists of the Playwrights Lab, a writer-driven readings and workshop series, and Playwright Services, which include symposia, craft discussions, international playwright exchanges, retreats, fellowships, grants, script duplication, writing facilities, a script library, advocacy and other efforts. The Composer-Librettist Studio, undertaken in partnership with Nautilus Music-Theater under the direction of Ben Krywosz, is a two-week studio that focuses on music-theater development and the principles of collaboration. It matches five writers with five composers and five performers to develop new works.

NEW RADIO AND PERFORMING ARTS, Staten Island, New York, received a two-year grant of $36,000 in support of emerging artists commissions to create networked art for Turbulence. This organization fosters the development of new and experimental work for radio and sound arts. Its website, Turbulence.org, was launched in 1996. Turbulence commissions, exhibits and archives works that explore networked technologies, and supports experimentation with distributed real-time multilocation performance events. . The goals are to support the creation of new works that provide meaningful experiences, provoke thought, facilitate dialogue and offer interactive and/or participatory experiences to audiences; and to encourage the dissolution of boundaries between artistic disciplines, artists and non-artists, artists and audiences, and art and science.

DANCE THEATER WORKSHOP, New York City, received $36,000 in support of the Bessie Schnberg/First Light Commissioning Program. Dance Theater Workshop identifies, presents and supports independent contemporary artists and companies to advance dance and live performance in New York and worldwide. Through residencies, commissions and community interaction, Dance Theater Workshop builds the context for work to be created, noted and discussed. Central to its mission is a dedication to providing independent artists with production programs and resources designed to nurture their creativity and growth over time, directly addressing the needs of performing artists at different stages in their careers. The First Light Commissioning Program seeds the creation of new works that are subsequently presented in one of DTW's several series. The commissions range in size from $2,500 to $5,000. Jerome Foundation has supported this commissioning program since 1980.

The NEW YORK MILLS ARTS RETREAT AND REGIONAL CULTURAL CENTER, New York Mills, Minnesota, received a two-year grant of $32,000 in support of the participation of emerging artists from Minnesota and New York City in the Arts Retreat Program. The Arts Retreat at New York Mills, founded in 1987, provides a space for artists of all disciplines to work and share their creativity with the surrounding community. An open call draws applicants who request two or four-week retreat residencies. An independent jury reviews applications and selects the Retreat artists. They're housed in a one-bedroom home near the Center and have access to work space. In exchange for the residency, artists are required to devote eight to 15 hours of community service, sharing their knowledge and expertise with the community. The primary purpose of the Retreat is to provide focused time for artists to create new work and revise existing work.

Photographer JUSTIN NEWHALL, Minnesota, will travel to Churchill, Manitoba, reflecting on his craft while exploring the possibilities for a new body of work in, and on his way to, this area, the northernmost terminus of the Canadian Railway. Aesthetically, he is investigating light-the lack of it and its seemingly unended presence. Newhall will also explore imagery about the subject of North in a way that goes beyond simple documentation and becomes a meditation on the idea of place. He also seeks to reflect and grow in a place where stillness and solitude are still possible.

JILA NIKPAY received support for In Waiting, a short eight-minute 16mm experimental film exploring, from an intimate perspective, issues of dislocation. This autobiographical project follows Nikpay's desire to understand and discover the language of nomadic existence, the phenomena of moving between cultures. For inspiration, Nikpay draws upon fairy tales, poetry, political tract, and her own personal history living in self-imposed exile. In Waiting will be formally arranged, celebrating the female body and enticing the viewer to take pleasure in its sensuality. The presence of a female voice will contribute a subconscious counterpoint, portraying a deep desire for belonging, rooted in memory.

Support was awarded to RAMON ALBERTO NUEZ for Concrete Jungles: The True Story of Street Kids in America, a feature-length documentary that looks at the unsettling story of street kids (homeless, runaway, at-risk and outcast) in America. It will examine the invisibility in a largely apathetic society. It will also look at youth outreach programs, what they do, their importance to kids in need, and their struggles to remain operational in a sharply reduced funding environment. Nuez will employ stylistically unusual production elements to make his film both appealing and relevant to the very youth it examines.

INTERMEDIA ARTS, Minneapolis, Minnesota, as fiscal sponsor for choreographer MARGO ABDO O'DELL, received $10,000 in support of the creation and production of the new work Collateral Damage. Intermedia Arts is a multidisciplinary art center whose mission is to build understanding among people through art. It selectively acts as fiscal sponsor for individual artists and their ensembles/companies. Collateral Damage is a three-woman, one-hour, multimedia theatrical presentation that highlights the plight of real women who, because of war or civil strife, face challenges that test their physical, emotional, psychological and spiritual well-being.

Opera singer, performer and composer SUSAN OETGEN, New York City, will travel to Parris Island, South Carolina (USMC Recruit Depot), to observe and investigate the general history, character and culture of life on Parris Island; the command voice as demonstrated by USMC Drill Instructors; and Marine Corps cadence-its use as a physical training tool and its role in forging group identity. The experience will inform the creation of a chamber opera in which she will employ music, dialogue and dance to examine and explore the seeming impossibility of reconciling the social identities of artist and warrior.

Support was awarded to IAN OLDS for Watch it Burn, an hour-long documentary that follows Christian Parenti of The Nation magazine as he pursues a story on the state of Afghanistan five years after September 11th. What emerges is an intimate how the sausage gets made look at journalism in a war zone and, more importantly, a portrait of everyday Afghans trying to cope with the aftermath of America's forgotten war.

The ORCHESTRA OF ST. LUKE'S, New York City, received $8,000 to support commissions for new works by two emerging composers. These new works will be presented during the 2007 Notable Women festival and the 2007-08 Second Helpings series. The Second Helpings series presents repeat performances of recently written works and premieres of new works, many of those commissioned by St. Luke's. St. Luke's functions both as an orchestra and as a chamber ensemble, presenting a wide range of repertoire. It has premiered and recorded more than 100 new works by contemporary composers.

P.S. 1 CONTEMPORARY ART CENTER, Long Island City, New York, received a grant of $10,000 in support of the Special Projects program. P.S. 1 promotes and exhibits contemporary art in an environment of constant learning and experimentation. Its programs foster uninhibited artistic exploration and stimulate discourse on the complex and dynamic art of our time. The Special Projects program offers a place for emerging artists to work for extended periods of time on projects that develop and flourish within particular spaces. A Special Project may be an installation, a film or video project, or a presentation of paintings or drawings. Anything is possible, and the results usually defy categorization.

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.