Past
Grantees

Jerome Foundation Directors authorized a grant of $19,575.48 to THE PLAYWRIGHTS' CENTER, Minneapolis, Minnesota, in support of the further development of Quick and its presentation in the Prague International Fringe. 3-Legged Race originally developed this work. When that organization closed, it entrusted funds committed to this project to the Jerome Foundation as a donor advised fund. A number of factors came together late in 2005 that allowed the artists involved with Quick to return to its active development and ready it for production in Prague.

SCULPTURECENTER, Long Island City, New York, received $14,000 in support of the 2006-07 In Practice program. SculptureCenter, dedicated to experimental and innovative developments in contemporary sculpture, commissions new work and presents exhibits by emerging and established, national and international artists. Founded in 2003, the In Practice program provides emerging artists at pivotal points early in their careers with opportunities to make and exhibit new work and gain exposure that is vital to career advancement. The program primarily serves artists living in New York City, selected from submissions in response to an open call. In Practice artists receive honoraria and production stipends to support the creation and presentation of new work at the Center. In the 2006-07 season, In Practice artists will participate in two exhibition slots, the first this past fall as part of the thematic exhibition Denial is a River. The second installment of works by six to eight artists and artist teams will be mounted January through April of 2007.

JAMES SEWELL BALLET, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received $12,000 in support of the participation of two emerging choreographers in the Ballet Works Project. The mission of James Sewell Ballet is to create and perform works that connect artists with audiences and to advance contemporary ballet. The Ballet Works Project promotes the development of new works by choreographers from inside and outside of the company. It provides 30 hours of subsidized workshop time to each of two emerging choreographers to develop new works utilizing the Sewell company. This culminates in open showings of the works-in-progress.

SUZAN SHERMAN, a writer residing in New York City, will travel to Kansas, Nebraska, New Jersey, South Carolina, Oklahoma, Arkansas and California to conduct research for a novel, Pearl O'Shea, which traces an elderly woman's recollection of being an Orphan Train Rider from New York City to Nebraska in 1873. Prior to the establishment of foster care and adoption, the Orphan Train was a social program for unwanted and orphaned children, founded by the Children's Aid Society in New York City. From 1854 to 1929, hundreds of thousands of urban children were sent on trains to rural areas in the United States to be raised by farm families.

SMACK MELLON, New York City, received a two-year grant of $28,000 in support of the participation of emerging artists in the exhibition program. Its mission is to nurture and support emerging, under-recognized mid-career and women artists in the creation and exhibition of new work. Smack Mellon provides exhibition opportunities, studio workspace, and access to equipment and technical assistance toward the realization of ambitious projects. Smack Mellon mounts five exhibitions a year, featuring a majority of emerging artists. The 2006 exhibition program began with Site 92, a group exhibition of 27 artists who created site-specific installations responding to Smack Mellon's new home at 92 Plymouth Street. This summer, Smack Mellon is presenting an emerging artists exhibition designed to build relationships between artists and emerging curators.

THE SOAP FACTORY, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received $22,000 in support of the participation of emerging artists from Minnesota and New York City in the 2006 Exhibition Program. The Soap Factory, a nonprofit alternative space, is dedicated to the production, presentation and promotion of emerging contemporary practice across the visual arts, media installation and performance. Dedicated to experimentation and risk taking, The Soap Factory is committed to a curatorial process that engages a variety of viewpoints and an open application procedure.

SOCRATES SCULPTURE PARK, Long Island City, New York, received a two-year grant of $40,000 in support of the Emerging Artist Fellowship Program. Sited on what was once an abandoned riverside landfill and illegal dumpsite, Socrates Sculpture Park provides artists with opportunities to create and exhibit large-scale sculpture and multimedia installations in an outdoor environment that encourages interaction among the artists, the art works and the public. Occupying four and a half acres on the East River waterfront overlooking the Manhattan skyline, the Park is open free of charge year-round and makes both the creative process and finished art work accessible to broad and diverse audiences. The Emerging Artist Fellowship Program provides to competitively selected artists financial support and access to materials, equipment and technical assistance as they create new public works that are sited at the Park. The program encourages young artists to experiment and take risks with their work, in order to realize innovative and ambitious projects.

THE SOUTHERN THEATER, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received a two-year grant of $60,000 in support of artists' commissions for ELECTRIC EYES: NEW MUSIC & MEDIA FESTIVAL. The Southern Theater's mission is to build and sustain a vibrant artistic community by supporting creative independent performing artists and presenting them to an audience in an intimate environment that encourages artistic exploration. The Southern will launch a two-year pilot encompassing ten commissions and productions of original works performed by their creators. The focus is collaborative work that pairs new music with multimedia. Artists will receive commissioning fees, performance fees, subsidy for equipment rental, and creative consulting. The Southern will provide a range of services designed to add value to each artist's work including lighting design, technical consultation, marketing and front-of-house services and a facilitated feedback/peer review process.

THE FIELD, New York City, acting as fiscal sponsor for ROSEANNE SPRADLIN DANCE, received $10,000 in support of the development and production of new work. RoseAnne Spradlin Dance was founded in 1995. Jerome funding will be directed to the creation and production of Survive Cycle, an evening-length dance work investigating destructive processes, natural and unnatural, as a means to explore dancing with the blows of life. The theme will be followed through several levels of meaning, exploring the personal, cultural and global reverberations of cycles of excess and decline, accumulation and decay.

SPRINGBOARD FOR THE ARTS, St. Paul, Minnesota, received a two-year grant of $62,000 in support of services to artists and its new Diversity and Accessibility Initiative. Serving numerous artists and nonprofit arts organizations each year through a range of services and programs, Springboard is skilled at offering consultations and professional development opportunities to individual artists. It maintains a loan fund for artistic and business development, an Emergency Relief Fund, and computer workspace and meeting spaces for artists. A new translation and training program will expand the ways Springboard serves immigrant artists.

THE STUDIO MUSEUM IN HARLEM, New York City, received $11,000 in support of the Artists-in-Residence Program. The Studio Museum, a collecting and exhibiting institution, is a nexus for Black artists locally, nationally and internationally and for work that is inspired and influenced by Black culture. The Artists-in-Residence Program offers studio spaces in the Museum, stipends, materials, professional mentoring and a culminating exhibition in the Museum's gallery, with a catalog, to three competitively selected emerging artists each year. Studio spaces are generous in size and accessible to the artists 24-hours a day, seven days a week. The Program provides opportunities for emerging artists of African descent to create new work and benefit from a number of professional development initiatives. It has fostered the careers of over 100 artists.

THE STUDIO MUSEUM IN HARLEM, New York City, is a collecting and exhibiting institution that is a nexus for black artists locally, nationally and internationally, and for work that is inspired and influenced by black culture. In addition to exhibitions, the Museum offers an educational program for young people, literary readings and performing arts events, and an active critical dialogues program focusing on the intersection of black art and contemporary culture. The Artists-in-Residence program supports the creation of new works by emerging artists of African descent, competitively selected from applications for year-long residencies at the Museum. Artists are given studios at the Museum, financial assistance and professional development. The artists are coupled with Critical Dialogues partners, usually curators or critics, enabling them to cultivate ongoing relationships with arts professionals in New York. The program concludes with an exhibition that introduces the work of three emerging artists to the broader public. Jerome Foundation provided a grant of $11,000.

A grant was awarded to MARK TANG and LU LIPPOLD for Open Season, a one-hour documentary about a still festering multiple shooting incident for which a Hmong immigrant hunter is convicted of killing six white hunters in northern Wisconsin. Part courtroom drama, part intimate portrait, this documentary brings into high relief the simmering tensions-racial, cultural, economic-that lurk in America's heartland.

Rochester, Minnesota poet YUKO TANIGUCHI, will travel to Hiroshima City, Japan, to study the landscape of the city, visit the peace memorial park, visit museums and libraries, and conduct interviews with Hibakusha (victims of the atom bomb) in order to enhance and complete a poetry manuscript, Story of Rivers. Many Hibakusha have died or are dying. Saving their memories is a real concern. This trip will make it possible for Taniguchi to discover her own voice to tell the stories that need to be told.

AMANDA TAYLOR, St. Paul, Minnesota, will spend time at the University of Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada, investigating Professor Paul Vasey's research on homosexual behavior among female Japanese macaque monkeys. The research will inform Taylor's documentary, Freak of Nature, which explores the state of science on animal homosexuality, exposes the suppression of this research from the general public, and considers how American culture influences how we think about sex.

The TEXTILE CENTER OF MINNESOTA, Minneapolis, Minnesota, is a national center for fiber art. Its mission is to honor textile traditions and promote excellence and innovation in fiber art. It represents and supports fiber artists working in all forms including weaving, quilting, knitting, sewing, needlework, lace making, basketry and beading. A critical part of its mission is to bring validation and visibility to the textile arts, which arise from all cultures. A Jerome grant of $16,000 will support programs and services for emerging fiber artists in the 2006-07 program year. Primary among those activities supported are the exhibition program, seminars, workshops designed to develop skill levels, the dye lab and a Mentor Program.

Minneapolis-based choreographer DEBORAH JINZA THAYER will spend three weeks at The Atlantic Center for the Arts, New Smyrna Beach, Florida, in a working residency. Thayer, along with other choreographers, will investigate current pieces they are developing. Interactions will center around critical response to the works and shared investigations.

THEATRE COMMUNICATIONS GROUP (TCG), New York City, received a two-year grant of $38,000 in support of the National Theatre Criticism/Affiliated Writers Program for American Theatre magazine. TCG's mission is to strengthen, nurture and promote the professional nonprofit American theater. This vital network for professionals pursuing theater as an art form has a membership of more than 430 nonprofit theaters and over 17,000 individuals. American Theatre, published ten times a year with a readership of more than 75,000, serves the field as a critical source of news, information and analysis. The Affiliated Writers Program is a means to expand coverage of the national theater scene while simultaneously encouraging a new generation of cultural reporters and critics. Emerging critics from New York City and Minnesota apply for Affiliated Writers fellowships. Three are selected. They receive stipends in exchange for the submission of three to four articles; attend meetings, roundtables and symposia; and receive travel support that enables them to cover national stories.

THIRTEEN/WNET, New York City, a PBS station dedicated to providing a public forum for the many and varied voices in its community, received a two-year grant of $50,000 in support of Reel New York, a film and video series for television. It features a curated selection of independent work by emerging media artists based in New York City over an eight-week prime time schedule between June and August. The series features new and experimental films and videos made by a diverse selection of New York City artists. The series has broadcast over 239 independent productions. There is a companion web site that provides interviews and taped introductions to the works by the film and video artists as well as a festival calendar, photos and list of resources for artists.

MATTHEW FRANK THOMAS was awarded a grant for The Kindness of Strangers, a 30-minute narrative about Lenny Barnes, a young stubborn locksmith who copes with feelings of depression, loneliness and love by stalking an older ex-lover named Brenda. After paying her an unannounced visit, Lenny must face the terrible consequences of his obsession when he discovers just how little he knows about his femme fatale. Lenny finds himself entangled in a web of deceit, murder, and a serious case of wrong place, wrong time. This work explores the emotional complexity and internal experiences of African-American men through a modern day film noir.